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I planted 6 5ft green giants from fastgrowingtrees.com back in May.

They took well until recent. The farthest right is clearly not coming back. But the 3rd from left is starting to look like it's dying as well. What can I do? I water 3x a week.. it's been pretty dry in, I am in Illinois close to Chicago.

I purchased a soaker hose yesterday and put it on a 5am timer for one hour now daily until we get more rain.

How can i control anymore from dying, and is it too late for the other one dying? I took my finger and scraped a branch with brown leaves and it was still green.

These are on sloped ground too.

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eaglei22
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  • The mulch around the base of these trees can be problematic. Mice and other small animals will sometimes live in there and can chew bark or roots and kill trees like this. Also, and this is a long shot, it looks like you could have the potential for a wind-tunnel effect between the house and the fence. If the air is dry or hot enough (or maybe there's some kind of vent) it could lead to desiccation in the first plant in the row. That doesn't really help explain the second. – That Idiot Aug 20 '19 at 12:08
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    @ThatIdiot do you think it's because it's on a slope? Maybe the water just doesn't get deep enough before running down. Idk why it's just those. The middle of those two has some browning but not all over like the others. The new buds are all brown, but seems to be hanging on better with the soaker hose. – eaglei22 Aug 22 '19 at 23:48
  • judging by the green grass all around the trees - even up slope of the trees- I would guess that there is enough water there. I notice that the drip irrigation seems to be very close to the trunk which could mean that the outer portions of the root ball aren't getting water, but as I said, the grass is green. If water IS the issue then it could be because of a few things - a void under the root ball or short irrigation times that don't soak deep enough to wet the root balls. – That Idiot Aug 23 '19 at 11:17
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    @ThatIdiot okay thank you. Right now I've been running for an hour a day, and then hand watering every few days for 30 seconds as well. Maybe i need to up the hours on the soaker untill we start getting more rain. – eaglei22 Aug 23 '19 at 13:55
  • Unless there is some extreme drough/heat situation, I'd tend toward less frequent watering. Even during long periods without rain on the east end of Long Island, NY - established plants would only get watered 2-3 times weekly. Letting things dry out a bit not only reduces the chances of root rot and anaerobic conditions, but it also encourages the tree to build larger root systems as it "searches" for water. This greater root area will be much more effective in drawing in nutrients and water to promote healthy growth. – That Idiot Aug 23 '19 at 15:05
  • That said, newly installed plants (trees planted this year, for instance) might need more frequent watering. But I personally feel you've got more wiggle room on the dry side - you'll notice and be able to respond to dry plants more easily than plants that are suffering form the effects of being too wet. – That Idiot Aug 23 '19 at 15:07
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    @ThatIdiot thanks for the advice. Yea, even though we've lacked rain for most of August, that first one went a month prior. I figured it was just that one didn't take. The rest looked great. Until the other one started dying. I started using the soaker hose the same day I made this post. I think I'm going to start cutting back on the soaker hose now that I've ran it for an hour every morning for a week. Plus we've hit some cooler weather now. On a positive note, I opted for the the warranty when I purchased the 6 green giants. No questions asked for 1 yr refund. $75 well spent. – eaglei22 Aug 24 '19 at 13:15
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    I will ultimately update what happens. I will be replacing the two dead ones mid September. Hopefully the middle of the two problem trees doesn't fall by the wayside as well. Seems to be hanging on once I started saturating the soil more. – eaglei22 Aug 24 '19 at 13:19

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