Unhealthy looking Red Robins

newmslandscapes

Hi everyone. These red robins were planted last year and a couple of them are not looking too good. Should we look at feeding them or is this perfectly normal.

the customer is a bit concerned.

Any advises as always would be much appreciated 

thanks Craig 

Fairygirl

Hi - even in a normal year, a tree that size would have needed copious watering and care to get it properly established. The abnormal dry weather last summer is probably the issue.
Whether it'll be established enough to recover, I'm not sure. 

Dovefromabove

Do you know how they were cared for since they were planted? Last year was a very difficult season for newly planted trees ... especially ones in full leaf and as large as those pictured. I would’ve been giving each of those at least 5/6 gallons of water every other day from spring until late autumn ... we’ve also had quite a dry winter in many areas and beneath the surface the soil is very dry, and they’re planted very close to the fence in a possible rain shadow. 

I don’t recommend giving general fertiliser to sick plants (other than to correct evidence of a specific mineral imbalance).

im wondering whether because of the drought the roots were not able to develop well enough to support such a large head of foliage ... I think I would ensure that they are well watered throughout this spring and summer to give them a chance to recover ... but I wouldn’t be surprised if they need replacing next autumn. 

Dovefromabove

Snap @Fairygirl. 

AnniD

I agree, last year's exceptional weather must have played a part, and as Dove & Fairygirl say, they would have needed gallons (or should that be litres) of water. I don't know if you can try the bark scratch test, as l would do on a shrub? 

Dovefromabove

Teehee @AnniD 😉 

My trees always had their water in gallons as I had access to builders’ buckets ... each one containing approx 3 gallons ... as a consequence my trees grew in feet and inches rather than metres 😂 

AnniD

I still work in imperial measurements most of the time, drives my OH mad. I'm forever looking at plant labels and asking him "What's 40cm in proper measures ?" 

Fairygirl

Dove 
3 gallon buckets for me too. I'm only just getting my head round 'volume'. I'm not bad at converting feet and inches to metres and cms, and miles to kilometres, and getting there with pounds and ounces to kilos and grams,  but pints and litres is always slower unless I look at a measuring jug 

Dovefromabove

Back in the 70s we were ordering say, 50 metres of 1”x4” timber ... I’ve a feeling there are still some builders working like that.
i certainly still buy my meat and fish in Imperial amounts ... the young butchers/fishmongers are very good at translating my requests 😆 

Sorry Craig ... we’ve gone off topic ... apologies

JennyJ

It's not normal - the leaves should be glossy green with new red growth starting.  I agree with everyone else - it looks as if the roots may not have got properly established due to not enough water last summer, and if that's the case feeding won't do any good. 

If they do start to put on new growth, make sure they're kept well-watered, and a hard prune to reduce the amount of growth they're trying to support might help them to survive (but won't make your clients happy - I assume they paid £££ for plants that size).

newmslandscapes

Thanks guys. They were planted last November so have no idea how long they were sitting at the garden centre for and going by the feedback the lack of watering is the popular answer.