Hoping you inspected each and every rootball and opened up those that were compacted or had circling roots. If you did not do that it's not too late- this forum is full of threads about arborvitae failing to establish and this is often why. This is a crucial step in panting anything, especially mass produced varieties that are often potted in virtually water repellent peat mixes.

You need to water deeply to establish them Generally a hose on a slow trickle moved a time or two per plant works better than standing there as heavy spray often merely causes heavy runoff. You want the water to penetrate. Depending on your zone/location (please state this in every post or put it next to your username) and soil and rain I would do this probably every other day for the first couple of weeks then taper off slowly until your soil freezes. If you are unaware of how your soil drains and behaves it won't hurt you to dig down six or eight inches to see how well the water is penetrating.

Mulch with whatever you have available locally- shredded bark, wood chips, shredded leaves, pine needles etc.

Your close initial spacing means you will soon get a solid lower half at least but there may be crowding effects seen later.

What climate area? If you are in snow country you may seen some splaying open at some point. A well built fence wouldn't of course be affected by snow.

Thanks for the replies. I am in central NJ. Zone 7a.

At what point during the fall/winter do I stop watering?

Believe me I hear you on the fence, but as you can tell even a 6 foot fence wouldn’t do much for privacy for me. The idea is the trees will surpass what a fence would give.

I debated for weeks over EGs, GG, the American pillar, etc.

Even as the EGs are planted I am still second guessing myself. Time will tell.

edit: Youll notice there’s one tree I havent planted yet. It’s got two leaders with a pretty big ’splaying’ issue. I snipped one of the leaders a bit. Should I tie the secondary leader to the main leader for support to prevent it from splitting open further?

water .. dig small holes.. AND FIND OUT HOW WATER MOVES THRU YOUR SOIL .... small hand trowel ... 3 to 6 inched deep ... in surrounding soil.. and into the balls planted.. if you can..

absolutely no one can tell you how it all works ... in your area.. in your soil ... and you will drive yourself insane ... until you dig the holes.. and generate some info ...

they will be going dormant.. or close to it soon ... they will not need a lot of water in winter ... especially if you water deeply now ... there simply isnt enough ambient heat to draw deep water out of the soil .....

they will probably need water next july/august .... thats the important time ...

mulch is a ground covering to reduce soil heat in summer.. as well as reduce water evaporation ... it can basically be anything you want ... personally.. i think colored mulch is stupid when applied in nature ... [it also keep dark soil cool during warm spells in winter]

the larger the chunks.. the longer it lasts .... its applied so the final depth is 2 or 3 inches .... with some stuff you have to put it on 4 or 5 inches deep.. so it settles where you want.. or you add more.. next spring ...

i wouldnt bother tying that spare ... they splay when they are over 10 feet tall ...

if i planted that many.. i would expect to lose a couple .. so expect it ... and do a happy dance if you beat the odds ...

its the absolute perfect planting time.. and that is the key... you have already perfected your odds as best you can.. now just get some water deep down.. and try to quit worrying about them ....

ken

Thanks for all the good info. Here’s a pic of the one with the bad splaying.

I trimmed the top of the smaller one after this pic. Pointless to tie the two leaders with twine? I am afraid if I plant it as is the winter will destroy it.

I would take that pic to a local nursery or two/the place you bought them from and ask them what they would do. They will have experience with emerald greens and snow damage in your area. I used to live in New Providence and New Brunswick and remember good sized dumps of wet snow and the snow forts/caves we used to build.

agree with embo , cut out a lot while young

and I'd be carefull about the every other day watering,,,,you can drown them

ron

Any tips for keeping them in line? Today I went out and a couple had leaned a bit after planting.

Lean them upright as needed. After a few rains they will settle in. Sometimes I lightly/moderately pat down the soil at the base with my hand or lightly with my foot. Generally speaking though I let the rain/watering/gravity trio do its thing and just push then upright (or slightly past upright anticipating they will probably try to lean in that same direction again). Usually one lean does it, sometimes .2 or 3. Easy and takes very little.

We planted 15 EGs 3 years ago, all have survived thus far. We bought a soaker house and ran it for about 2 hours once per week in the warm months, unless it rained a lot. And obviously we have mulch around them also, just a regular black mulch.

As for snow a couple opened up a little last year in heavy snows but nothing too major, sprung back. I'm going to buy a roll of chainlocks at some point and put them around the top. Easier than twine and reusable.

How about watering in the fall?

" How about watering in the fall? "

Keep the root zone moist but not drowning. Periodic checking the soil is still the best way to tell when they need more water. If it rains enough, they probably won't need much supplemental water.

Inspect the roots frequently until establishment seems to have occurred (roots can be seen to have grown out some distance into the new planting site). If installed with intact potting soil root shapes this typically quite coarse material will tend to shed water to surrounding native soil, which is usually finer textured. If instead your trees were field grown - as is often the case with 'Smaragd' (correct cultivar name) in my area - any drying of the usually clay-like soil balls that was allowed to occur between the field and your site may result in lingering resistance to re-wetting.

When mulching, do I want the mulch over the root ball up around the main 'trunk' ?

When mulching, keep the mulch 3 to 4" away from the trunk, a clear zone of just native soil. And don't pile the mulch too deep, 3" inches should be enough for winter coverage, even less during the summer.

Properly mulching a tree:

Im starting to see some browning in some of the trees.

Could this be from the stress of planting or more likely a water issue?

Hoping I don't lose them. They've been in the ground 3 weeks.

all conifers shed needles in 1 to 3 years .... and they are always interior needles... as the canopy extends .... its normal.. and increased by any stressors .... like drought.. transplant.. etc ...

ALWAYS look to the growth points.. and if they are fine.. the rest doesnt really matter ... you only have a problem.. when the tips start looking funky ....

yours does not have significant interior yellowing ... and the random pattern of whatever yours has.. looks to me.. like shipping damage ... between the growing field.. thru the store.. to your place.. its EXTREMELY minimal.. and nothing to fixate on.. imo ...

water IF THEY NEED WATER ... what i said above about digging holes ...

in fall,,.. there usually simply isnt the heat to pull water out of the ground ... so very little water is needed .... [of course the further south you go.. the more likely] ....especially if mulched .... but you need to at least check them once every few weeks.. a few inches down .. to see if there is moisture in the soil ... we really dont care if the surface dries due to wind.. that isnt where the roots are ... they just need moisture .. when in dormancy.. not a lot of active water .. like they might need during the growing season ....

ken

Great thanks Ken

Update. Is this guy done for?

None of the others have this issue but this one has been yellowing progressively for weeks.

might be ....

probably field dug.. and sometimes they just dont get a good root mass ... and you dont know until about now ...

it sat in slo motion or suspended animation during winter ... maybe trying to grow some roots ...

and now that the heat is growing ... it cant pump enough water... to stay green ...

and trust me on this ... its NEVER one of those on the end .. lol .. its always a middle one ...

in fall... move one of the end ones into the middle.. and if you insist.. replace the end one ...

when you think about it... success on 19 out of 20.. is pretty good odds of success... so continue your happy dance ...

insure.. check.. soil moisture.. and insure they are properly..and deeply watered in july and august.. and into sept.. if its really hot... or drought ...

the bad one is stressed.. or dead.. fert is not a response ...

if you can delete that other post.. may as well ... if not.. so be it ... i will link this one..

ken

ps: isnt it odd.. it is the tallest one .. weird ...

My other post wouldn’t work with the pic for some reason on mobile.

Does it look dead? I can always replace it for a reasonable cost, but probly wait until fall?

Should I wait a while before bailing on this one? The soil always seems moist so I dont think it’s lack of water.

i would NOT plant.. this close to the heat of summer... you missed that window by a month of so .... and its a very common timing issue ..... because the ones that are struggling.. dont start looking bad.. until the heat starts building.. a vicious circle ...

ofcourse.. youu can leave this one here.. all summer.. and just see what happens.. just to learn something .. presuming you are into watching as an experience.. and not a type A where this one will drive you insane looking at it all summer.. lol ...

you can buy now.. and hold it potted until fall planting time.. or just buy in fall ... your choice ... perhaps depending on what you know about stock available locally in fall ...

ken

Well the one in question is definitely done.

Now I have two others that are browning from the top...

Any idea what I can do here?

Check for bag worm moths.

No bag worm, but I did find lots of webs, maybe spider mites? I hosed them all off. Either way, They are browning from the top down. Would that indicate under watering?

The trees can show similar symptoms both if too wet or too dry. Too much water and the fine roots can die, showing top browning, because the tree is no longer able to absorb water and send it up the vascular system. If it's to dry there's not enough water to send up the vascular system and browning happens there too so you can't really tell by looking.

If you have heavy clay soil, you can have the problem of water pooling at the bottom of the hole, called the 'bath tub' effect. The undisturbed soil at the bottom of the hole doesn't let water soak away very fast at all but the loosened soil used to fill around the root ball is more porous so it lets water in easily which then pools at the bottom. So if you have have enough rain or if you water enough to keep the top wet, you can actually drown the root system, because it's retaining water at the bottom of the hole.

But water is the easiest thing to check. What the others have said more than once. Just dig down, both around the root ball and inside the root ball, with something narrow like a large spoon of garden trowel. Do this in a few different spots and it will be apparent if the soil is too wet or too dry. You could even did a deeper hole, next to one root ball and see if water is pooling. Again this is if you have heavy clay soil.

I dug around a few with a small trowel about 6 inches deep and the soil seems moist throughout.

What do the people you bought the trees from have to say? Is there any warranty?

Trees this large can take a long time to re-grow roots, that were cut when they dug and balled them at the growers. This can take up to a couple of years after planting. So once the summer heat arrives, things can start to show up, like parts of the tree that don't have enough root system yet to sustain them.

And plantings are never, or hardly ever, 100% successful, you're bound to loose a few, planting that many.

The upside is that you planted last fall, so you should be able to replace the ones that don't make it, with similar sized trees and they won't be that far behind the originals. So you could get replacements, maybe slightly larger so once they start growing, they'll be about the same size as the others.

I'd check where you bought them. Some places have a one year warranty if they fail, the season after planting.

I might have started with smaller trees to begin with, easier to plant and easier to get established. I've seen where a smaller tree will get going faster after planting and actually out grow a larger specimen that was put in about the same time.

Looks like I am going to lose about half of them. Have to get over to the place I got them at some point but its far.

A lot of them have these webs/spiders on them. Could these be mites?

Looks like regular garden 'Spider Webs' to me. But spiders can be drawn to where the insects are living. So if there's an insect problem, could be that's why you're seeing so many spider webs.

You have a problem that really needs to be looked at by someone knowledgeable, first hand and close up. Pretty hard to examine things over the web with only pictures. :-)

Maybe someone else can chime in with some advice or something to try.

Chances are if you have mites your water spray hasn't done much. First stay on the mite possibility. Do a thorough inspection and get rid of them if you do.Possible miticide spraying if you do.
To remove mites with a garden hose on a row of floppy branched trees is hard to do effectively. Much easier on trees that have open rigid branching.
If removing any dead or obvious gonners, cut them out in large chunks and stuff them in black bags cinched off.
My goal would be to find out what is ailing your trees and stop it thoroughly before I would consider any replacements.

Well to update, I lost over half of them. I am trying again this fall with GGs. I know they are big, but I will have them maintained. Just so long as I can keep them alive this time.

Why GGs? A lot of other cultivars that would be better than emeralds that you won't be fighting every year. In any case I don't think them being Emeralds is why some failed. GGs are thujas just the same and likely would have failed at the same rate, all things being equal.

I just realized in the process that the emeralds aren’t going to give me the privacy I need. Nothing to do with their survival.

There's a 'Smaragd' planting in my area that was measured using an instrument and determined to be 17' tall some years ago.

The ones that you are seeing going bad on you, poke around in the original soil balls/masses they came with to see what the moisture situation is. And not just the planting site soil around them.