What’s wrong with my Hemlocks?

[BlanchCA]

Hi all, brand new to the site and forum and really appreciate any insight you have.

i currently live in Albany, NY and we had a local garden center plant 12 - 4’ Western Hemlocks
2 years ago.

Any idea what is wrong and if there is a way to correct or salvage these trees? I have attached two photos of the branches who have lost needles along with a greenish/gray substance I find all year long. The third photograph is an overall image of the tree. Mind you, we have 11 others and this one is one of the “healthier” ones. The others are green at the top and have nothing but branches on the bottom.

Since they were delivered and installed, we watered them with a hose 5 min per day each for two weeks then every other day after that unless it rained. We provided plant food and have also sprayed for insects. They are all planted in our backyard that receive equal parts sun and shade throughout the day.

We feel extremely guilty we are exacerbating their condition and would love to do whatever we can.

Thank you in advance.

Chris

 

[The Satch]

Just a guess, as I am not an arborist, but that sounds like an awful lot of water

Edit: A quick google shows watering hemlocks is suggested to be done once a week for 15-20 minutes. Average gallons per minute of a house is 6-12, I know mine is 7, so I will use that number. At 7 GPM 4 days a week for 5 minutes, you are supplying each tree with 140 gallons of water. If you watered once a week for 15 minutes, you would be supply 105 gallons, and for 20 minutes would be 140 gallons. But that 6 days in between allows the water to drain into the soil, the tree to absorb what it needs, and the excess to run off, and in the meantime the space in the soil that the water occupied is occupied partially by air. By watering every day, my guess is you are drowning your trees. If your soil is not well-draining, that makes it even more likely.

Hopefully someone will correct the water needs if those numbers are incorrect. You can measure your GPM simply by timing how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket, divide that number by 5 to get time per gallon, and dividing 60 seconds by the time per gallon. If your house is up around 12 GPM, the water you are supplying is almost double.