A friend of mine planted about 100 Green Giants about three years ago. They were about 18-24" tall when he planted them. Green Giants are pretty deer resistant, but where my friend and I live there are just too many deer in a small area (island) for that to mean much. The first year he planted these 100 Green Giants, the deer destroyed about 25 of them. After he replaced them, I recommended that he start using Milorganite fertilizer around the trees to keep the deer away. (It's an unadvertized fact that Milorganite acts as a deer repellent.) He started dumping Milorganite around the base of the trees on the perimeter of his property and the following year those were nearly 2ft. taller than the other trees (same growing conditions). Needless to say he started using it around all the Green Giants and this year some of the ones that he started using it on first are taller than me (6ft.). I started using Milorganite on my lawn a few years ago to keep the deer away that were eating my plants and it did wonders for my lawn. I started dumping it around all my perennials, mixing it in with the potting soil for my annuals, and tilling it into my vegetable garden. Everything improved! The stuff is like the Frank's Red Hot commercial... I put that s*#& on everything! I'm not sure it's the "best" fertilizer for your Green Giants, but it's definitely good. In the past I was always afraid to fertilize because I'd overdone it too many times and killed/burned too many plants and lawn. Milorganite is organic, so you can't really use too muich... it will just sit there on/in the soil until the soil microorganisms can consume it. Good luck!

never heard of any issues like blight on GG ... where did you come up with that??? .. what is blight anyway/???? where are you .. .maybe its a location thing ... anyway .. you already treated it ... whats more to do .. treat again?? your treatment is not going to change the looks of what is there ... it seems you are not thinking about result in tree time ... how about some more info.. location.. size at transplant .. size now.. pic of a couple plants overall.. last year of weather.. e.g. drought??? .. and any other info that might help us... ken

when the goal is sight block.. you plant them to achieve your goal ... when you are planting individual specimens ... then you plant them further apart ... if the former.. you want them to grow together asap ... in the latter ... you plant them so they maintain.. to some extent .. their individuality ... 8 foot on center.. means that each tree need only grow 4 feet toward the other ... and that isnt much.. for these... GIANTS ... and frankly.. imo.. there is little difference between 5 or 8 feet .... 2.5 feet each vs 4 feet ... and with these GIANTS ... once established.. that might be not much more than a year or 3 ... depending where you are ... the length of growing season ... frankly ... you are over engineering the concept ... rather than gardening the concept ... when it all boils down ... lol .. you might be better going off with what wifey said .... this probably isnt where you should draw some line in the sand ... and keep in mind.. with trees.. we think in tree time .. which is counted in decades ... it will take them a year or 2 to settle in from transplant shock ... and then a few years to start putting on the height you want ... which is the norm .. just dont go all instant gratification on them.. and it should all work out ... ken

No 71 is not a typo. I have 5 more that we still need to plant. Ken, I will post pictures shortly. I'm in the eastern panhandle of WV, Charles Town to be specific. The soil does have some clay. The trees came from NC, 4 hour drive. An elderly man grew them as a hobby, he passed and his estate got rid of them. I have no reason to believe they were ever out of the pots, when I received them they were in 7 gallon pots. The roots were well formed around the shape of the planter. With so many trees we used a bobcat with an 18' auger to dig the holes. The trees were placed on top of loose soil and backfilled. We ensured the top of the original dirt was slightly, 1" or less above the new soil. I water them with an electric water pump attached to a 15 gallon tank that I pull around the 1 acre lot to water them. I normally go through 2 tanks, 30 gallons, per watering cycle. I watered them daily for 4 days and pretty much every 2 days after. the 5 that are still in the original 7 gallon planters are showing the same signs of browning. I'm not 100% the soil is the problem. Any advice you can give would greatly be appreciated.