how big was the rootball planted ...

and how was it watered.. on that hillside ...

did you dampen the entire rootmass planted.. for the two years ..

wind and sun damage can be a by product of improper watering ...

ken

are there any viable bids on the brown parts??? ... cant really tell much of anything on your small .. long distance pix ...

i missed the fact that there are 21 ... so the prior needs a bit of interpretation .... but we still need to know how you watered ...

ken

The rootballs were about 3' around.

Watering - the first year we used 5 gal pails set on all sides of the tree with pin holes in the bottom (4 pails/20 gals per tree) weekly. The 2nd year we didn't use the pails and strung a garden hose out to water each tree for 5 minutes once to twice per week. We had above average rainfall (mowing grass 2-3x per week during Aug & Sept) both summers.

The nursery did replace a couple of the heavily damaged trees last spring, and there was moisture in the dirt within the hole when the trees were removed.

Nothing has started to bud yet this year, but most bottom branches on south sides of these trees didn't bud last year. However, all the trees have grown about 2 to 3 feet (or more) in height since they were planted.

Here's some more pics:

None of the trees themselves are on a steep slope or hillside, but there's a large hill to the right of the grain bin off to the south where the wind comes whipping up into the yard.

The rest of these trees are directly in front of what's left of our shelter belt (after 2011 tornado wiped most of it out) and are open to the south.

Here's a pic of the North Side (right side) vs South Side (left side). Some of the other trees look a lot rougher than this one on the south side.

That same tree with zoom on the South side:

Same tree, even closer zoom:

Here's a different tree - the one with the worst looking South side. The nursery was going to replace this tree last year, but wanted to see how it looked this year. It looks worse this year, but has grown about 2 feet taller from last year:

its a combination of wind/sun/water as Ken said. I've planted 40 or so of these myself and am familiar with what it takes to keep them healthy.... in the first year they need regular watering even when it rains. a half inch of rain is not enough to keep them sufficiently moist, esp in what appears to be dry ground baked by the sun. Most of mine get part shade, and I watered them heavily 3x per week by hand. with spigot turned on high use your thumb to splay the water over the foliage for 2-3 minutes, and then get down and soak the ground directly for another 3-4 minutes. every tree. 3 times a week. for the whole year until hard frost. all mine are thriving. only one shows thinning on the south side, and it is the most exposed to sun/wind and is on a hill where the water drains away.

its also possible when they were sitting at the nursery they were not well watered. or when they were planted they did not get a good soaking right away.

I don't think the thin areas of your trees will fully recover, but these things are vigorous growers once established and you probably won't notice it too much in 4 or 5 years.

Look for information about foliar blighting of spruces in your region, I think that is likely to be it.

Thanks skyjumper - what size were your NS when planted?

7-8ft, a couple 9 footers. all about the same as yours. one other thing to look out for is the white pine weevil. they love norway spruce leaders. if your leaders start to shrivel up late summer it's almost certainly WPW (many tiny holes in the leader are a sure sign). cut em back to live wood. a new leader will emerge the following growing season, or you can tie up the top-most lateral and it will take over. you can treat the tree with a soil drench of imidacloprid if you want to kill off the bug next year...

Are you in a windy location too? We're on the south side of the Buffalo Ridge in MN and have some pretty ferocious spring/summer winds (like 50+mph, hence we're surrounded by wind turbines). Wondering if your NS are surviving excessive winds too with proper watering or if we should've selected a different type of tree (Black Hills Spruce maybe?)

Do you mind me asking how much you payed for all 21 of those?

They were $300/tree installed :( The nursery has replaced about 4 of them, and extended the warranty into this spring to see if some of the other worst looking ones will be replaced. We debated BH vs NS with the nursery and they recommended the NS as a faster growing, hardier tree. I had concerns about a 6'-7' being too big, but they assured us it wouldn't be a problem. The nursery OK'd our watering plan, but it looks like wind/sun/lack of water may be the cause of the ugly.

Oh my! Those were very expensive! I personally think its best to start out with a smaller size of tree. They get settled in and get growing faster. Although i dont have any advice for you since i dont grow any of these trees i hope they manage to do ok especially with that much money invested.

musicgalnd - just to clarify -- you probably don't want to water the 3yr transplants as heavily as I described above. by now they have mostly established and should not need that much water. a good soaking during dry spells is all. the replacements should get plenty of water this year. also, I don't trust the bucket with holes method. I just don't think it gets the water deep down into the rootball. it gets soaked up and dried off before it gets past the mulch/top soil. soak it good by hand, or poke a bunch of holes in a garden hose, rope it around the base of the trees, and let it run for 10-15 minutes.

one other thing to check - I can't tell from the pics how deep they are planted. you want the root flare to be just visible at grade. if the trunk goes straight into the soil like a telephone pole it is planted too deep, and this will also hurt the tree. although that probably doesn't explain what you're seeing here.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback! The nursery rep is coming out next week to look at the trees and determine if any will be replaced. They've been good about letting us keep the damaged trees and relocate them to another part of our yard, though I really wish this project had just been once and done! If any trees are replaced this spring, we'll be even more diligent with the watering plan on the new ones. Appreciate all the info!

stop mowing in such a way that you brush the branches.

possibly water issue...a hose stretched out for a few minutes once or twice a week, even in the second year is hardly going to be enough for...well, anything, given the size you started with.

possibly thin from growing too close in the nursery. possibly thin from weed competition...there seems to be plant detritus on some of the plants...if it blown in, disregard. If it was from a plant that died in place...

what's up with the thin foliage on one side only, and what's the orientation? is that the windward side? does it face north?

In order, the questions I'd answer are plant detritus, orientation, wind and cardinal direction relative, and physical contact.

Mower deck on JD318 typically clears the bottoms of trees and mower body itself doesn't make contact with trees. Will make an effort to keep mower deck away from trees going forward, but not sure it's the cause of the problem as one tree that gets mowed around looks perfect yet.

The plant matter is husks/stalk debris blown in from surrounding corn field.

Here's a pic we took of the trees at the nursery before they dug them:

Thin foliage is only on the south-facing side of every new tree (except for 1 tree by the driveway that still looks great on all sides, circled in red below). We have no protection from south winds in our yard: