Wide shallow planting holes and removal of clay-like field soil from roots at planting best. Of course, many are wary of bare-rooting trees and shrubs at planting. Otherwise I am not seeing anything real dramatic in these shots. 'Smaragd' is unusually drainage sensitive for the species and many people have problems with entire specimens browning out after planting. Sometimes years after planting. Also since these are frequently planted with intact field soil balls there can be the opposite problem, with the field soil becoming and remaining dry inside - despite the surrounding soil being kept moist - due to textural differences between the two soils.

But it sounds like you have been monitoring for this.

Mulch needs to be at least an inch deep to do anything. Deeper is preferable, as long as it is kept away from the stems. New root growth after planting is concentrated at the edge of the root-balls so there is no need to mulch closer to the trunk than where this zone is.

The brown things are pollen cones.

I think they will be fine and fill out. They actually look good to me as Ive had this type of thing happen and they end up being fine. Some of that might also be handling damage from when they were planted I would say dont water them at least until next year, and even then probably not unless there is a drought. As far as needing good drainage, here is what I did to get good drainage with some of mine. There is standing water next to the mound in winter/spring. Also all were at least half off so if they arent perfect, thats why. :)

Planting first asked about does look like it needs to be fertilized. Click on Establishment of Container Grown Plants in right hand column for more information about watering and fertilization of recently planted stock - both container and field grown.

https://rootmaker.com/knowledge-center

Pete,

Yours look much greener than mine.

I knew before planting these trees that root rot could be a problem, especially in heavy clay soil. But many have said that these trees do very good in clay soil. I did a soil drainage test and it was slow to drain. But all clay soil would be slow to drain water away but yet so many have success with these trees in this type of soil. The area I did berm up does get a little wet at times but dries out within a day and no standing water at all.

I was told it is not a good idea to fertilize the first year or two and to make sure they are watered up until the ground freezes to prevent winter dry out.

So I hope they survive and I will be sure to post back here either way.

I was told it is not a good idea to fertilize the first year or two

Please read the page linked to on the page I linked to, written by a former university professor with 50 years of continuing experience in researching production, establishment and maintenance of landscape plants.

Well that was a lot to digest, but good information there as well.

Looks like I need to do a soil test, hopefully not too late.

I did notice the root balls to be drier than surrounding soil and this information explains about the different soil textures and moisture movement.

My clay soil might be too wet with little oxygen preventing good root growth.

My comment on perhaps being too wet was mostly based on 1) your irrigation system, 2) Im kind of assuming where you live in Pa gets similar rainfall to Columbus, Ohio which isnt that far away, and 3- I think the "foliage drop" on the bottom of a few is probably due to being too wet. I believe browning from the bottom up is a sign of too much water(thats what people on here told me a while back). My land happens to be fairly wet as I have leaches living in my soil and the water table is usually pretty high. I have a cistern so it is easy to measure how far down to reach water. In addition, overwatering is the number one way people hurt/kill their plants/trees/etc. I am just 4.5 years into this hobby and Ive learned that not much happens in the first year, sometimes 2 years, and even 3-3.5 years. Usually (always in my case, my Horstmanns Siblerlocke Korean Fir, my last holdout, finally TOOK OFF after 3 years of not doing much at all) by year 4 the trees are settled, fill out nicely, and their growth rate is what it is supposed to be.

While I generally dont fertilize, I do on occasion. Ive had good luck with Hollytone (and millorganite) and you can use it any time of the year. I bet it would help green those up if that is what you want to happen in the near term. My guess is they will green up naturally in time. This particular "linear mound" has been fertilized on occasion since I dont know how far into the "orginal ground surface" the roots go. I also added a bunch of cow manure when I got rid of my Subaru (see bare spot toward back of mound) about a month or two ago. Let me find a pic of an emerald green that has never been fertilized to see how its color is (from left to right weeping white pine, baby blue eyes, emerald green arborvitae, techney arborvitae (possibly dark green arborvitae, not sure), columnar Norway spruce). These pics were taken on the same day about 2 weeks ago and it does appear the ones that were fertilized are a darker green. As you can see, deer have been snacking on the emerald green.

I've only had to use my irrigation sparingly due to the wet summer in scpa. When I did irrigate, it was just for the root ball as the surrounding clay soil was always moist and didn't move moisture into the tree root ball. I'm going to check soil conditions and treat if necessary. Hopefully the lower part of the trees will grow back in.