It will releader itself, but on its own time, which is slower than you would wish! You're going to have to wait till next spring. You can certainly cut that off; it's dead. When this kind of thing happens to me, I wait to see what the next round of growth looks like. If none of the next branches look like it is going to head skyward, I gently tape a small bamboo stick to the likeliest to help it get the idea. Then once it hardens in a vertical direction, I take the stick off.

Also, newly planted trees raise all kinds of protests; this is not atypical. The fact that the rest of the plant looks good is encouraging.

Yes, I would say that your new tree got too dry at some point.

you gotta water whether it rains or not

water needs to get down thru the root ball

ron

Skylands seems real sun sensitive this far south. Do you all recommend shading it or in general is cam06's foliage looking good enough through early August that is not an issue?

Yellow orientalis newly planted during the long days of summer like a lot of water. Not so much from a watering can or sprinkler but from a hose on trickle placed at the trunk of the tree allowing the root ball and surrounding area to get good and saturated. Optimum time would be early am while the roots have cooled down throughout the night. I'd pay attention to the trees water needs until Thanksgiving, by then the days are short enough evaporation isn't an issue. Also your tree looks like the green tape has possibly got it constricted to the bamboo. That hasn't helped your leader stay hydrated. Snip them all off from the bottom up and if you feel you need some replace by hand tying your own , only looser, double knot your new tape so you can pull your knot tight without strangling your tree. Everyone sells the tape. I think I'd wait until well into the fall before running for the prunners and see what I got, examining buds etc.Also importantly, Its gonna take 2,3, years before this tree is really established and can start to perform to potential. Slow slow going...a little extra care but worth the wait. Zero fertilizer. Also what's your sun / shade ratio? Eastern exposure? Late day full sun? Keep us posted...

Al

Thank you to all, especially Sara Malone, Embothrium, and Alley
Cat. We’ve been more vigilant about
watering deeply with a hose at the base and will continue to do that until Thanksgiving
and for the next 2-3 years. Our soil tends to clay which may have a finer
texture than what was in the original potting soil. The tree was planted in the Spring and gets
7-8 hours of sun mostly from the east. Some
of the roots were cut to promote growth before placing the tree in the planting
hole.

So will hope for the best and be patient. My concern had been that cutting off the
leader – even a dead one – would lessen the chance for a new leader to
grow. Other than being unsightly, would
leaving the dead leader on for a while longer be a detriment? A source for insects?

You are over-thinking this; it happens in nature all the time. It's dead. Cut it off. It would make me crazy to look at it, so I would have snipped it off already! I think it will be fine as long as you get the watering regimen down.

When you cut the leader off cut it up into 3 for 4 inch pieces and examine the pith for tip borers. This is very common in our area and causes the type of damage shown. I see no other burn on the lower foliage to make me believe this is sun or damage from under watering. As other posters have said you can train a new leader or the tree will do it for you. This can happen over and over on the same tree in subsequent years. The important thing is to ultimately retain a single leader. Here is a photo of the Skylands at our nursery which has been attacked by tip borers in four different years.

Wow Katsura, you may have nailed it. I did some research on this after reading
your post and found this http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/assistance/backyard/treecare/forest_health/whitesprucediagnosis.pdf

See the page on the white pine weevil on spruce. The white stuff that I mentioned in my
original post looks like the “chip cocoons” and some dried pitch. Also the leader is now showing exit holes
where the adults emerged from under the bark.
We'll cut the leader and post results of what we find.
Here is closeup of the leader today.

Yes, a hole is definitely visible - surely a boring insect infestation has occurred. Otherwise Cypress Family conifers at least may often compartmentalize during drought conditions, wherein the tip of the tree dies but the rest remains green. So I don't know that only part of the spruce top dying automatically ruled out an inadequate water supply.

You can see the borer hole just below the last branchlet. There are likely more holes like this. Cut until there is no more visible damage in the stem and everything is solid. Once all the infested wood is removed then prune to the best shoot to train or leave as the leader. For what it's worth I always cut to the best shoot then leave the thing alone. Nature knows what to do. In the event of multiple leaders, prune to one.

This has happened quite a bit on my Serbian Spruces.

We cut the leader down to the first shoot. There was a borer hole straight down the middle. Would have liked to have stopped there since it looked like it was clear after that. However, I had noticed some droplets of resin below the first shoot and had read that this could be a sign of penetration. So we cut a bit more below the first shoot. The pith was clear at that point.

There were 3 exit holes in total on the leader. Unfortunately, it seems that the best time to cut the leader off was BEFORE the adults emerged. Sort of like closing the barn door after the cows get out.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and help and we will keep up the watering.

I planted a picea orientalis Fire Fly two weeks ago and the needles are starting to turn brown. I have been watering twice a week. The tree is getting roughly 4-5 hours of sunlight. Is there hope or should I quickly find a new spot before it dies over time

carmel1041,

It's best if you start your own thread and add your location and some pictures from various angles. A lot of people here won't even look at an old thread like this.

Bill