Did the landscaper take the twine off the trunk? Or pull back the soil to see where the root flare was? Watering on a schedule is not advised, it is best to give the plants a good soaking (ensuring the rootball is soaked) and then not watering again until the soil is dry 3-4 inches below ground. Dig down with a small hand trowel if need be.

tj

and can start by going out there.. with your camera.. and crawling under one or two.. and get us some pix.. with some real info ...

pull back the mulch and lets see

ken

Yes, we're going to need just a bit more "evidence" on this one. For starters, a complete rundown of what was and what was not done at planting. We'll already detect a false note or two-things like amending the soil, etc. which has proven to not be helpful. But.......I strongly doubt any of these factors would account for this early set of problems. Most of those things-not removing twine, amending soil, etc. take years to manifest.

I see one speck of brown(cut it and others out). It also appears the soil forms a bowl where water can gather at the base which is not good ( although I think this is a minor/non issue in this case, that looks like it will erode/blend in/disappear in little time).

Here is one thing I have learned. A lot of trees generally look crappy for 2-3+ years. Then they start kicking azz. Be patient, the individual brown spots are branches that probably just got broken during handling/planting. No big deal. A picture showing a representative tree (the whole tree) might be nice to confirm this.

Thanks for the pic. I dont think that is anything to worry about. Lets see what others have to say. If it was mine, Id probably wait before cutting out those individual brownish pieces, they may green up(if "branches" are broken, they wont, you can cut those out) Looks like you have room for more conifers. :)

Agree with Pete. Hey, it's cool that you are so very concerned about your plants. Bravo! But really, this is just nothing.

last pic above.. that branch was damaged in transport.. snip it back to a green part ...

see link for watering....

drip irrigation .. is a good tool .. IF USED PROPERLY ...

you need to keep the root mass moist.. but let it nearly dry in between waterings ... and to find out how it is dripping in your soil.. you have to dig some holes with a hand trowel ..

when i went to an engineered product ... i had to dig about 100 holes.. before i figured out how many hours it took to get water to 6 inches deep .. in my sand ... i would run it for 3 hours ... then dig a hole BETWEEN TWO emitters ... and keep extending the hours until the weeping covered the emitter distance.. and then i dug a hole to find out how deep it got ... AND THEN I HAD INFO TO START TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO TIME IT ALL OUT ...

and once properly mulched ... and with that info in hand.. i might only have had to water that many hours.. once a month ... in my sand ... except in the worst droughts.. soil rarely dries 6 inches down... where the roots are ....

how it all works in your soil.. is up to you and your trowel ...

and for sure.. its not some 30 mins every other day thing .. as it will never get down into the root mass planted .. and that is the key .. keeping those roots moist.. but not sodden ... and its also not a timer thing ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub