Health of recently purchased trees

[Dudrew]

A reputable nursury delivered and planted several trees on our property late last week. Upon inspection, we noticed that many of the deciduous trees' leaves were very dry and looked like they had been eaten by some type of bug. In addition, an 18 ft European Beech tree has a trunk that bends at a 90 degree right angle (a couple of inches) at about 5ft, then straightens out.

We were initially told by the foreman of the work crew that "the trees tend to get dry at the nursury but will do much better once they are in the ground". But considering we have paid approx $5,000 for all of the trees, we are more than a little concerned about the trees' immediate health and long term performance, given their condition at this time.

Is this normal or should we be concerned? We are especially worried about the Beech, as the leaves are extremely dry, bug eaten, and the trunk has the aforementioned bend in the trunk.

Any and all advise would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

[active]

First, allways go to the nursery and pick out the plants yourself.

I have never heard of plants " drying out " at a reputable nursery. They are usually set in mulch and drip irrigated untill they are sold.

The " bend " does not sound right, but without actually seeing it I cannot be certain. Do you see any swelling arround the base of the tree or at the point of the bend? If you have pics please post them.

Jim

 

[Treeman14]

If I spent 5 grand on trees, I'd want them to be perfect. Call the nursery immediately and tell them you're concerned about the trees. If they are as reputable as you say, they will send someone out right away to investigate. Ask for specific instructions on watering and any other recommended care. Ask about any guarantees. But you must act quickly, the longer you wait, the lower your chances of getting the nursery to help you.

 

[Dudrew]

Thank you both for your comments. The nursury is a pretty big oufit and widely used in my area. The trees do come with a "lifetime and replant warranty". We have already contacted the company and they are sending an inspector out by week's end to investigate.

The trees that have the dry leaves problem are specifically the Beech tree and a Japanese Maple (bloodgood), which, we were told by the work crew foreman, were container grown, as opposed to B&Bs. When I say "dry" I mean you could crunch them into little pieces in your hand. The Beech is quite spindly as well, with very little foliage, in my opinion, for a tree of its size (18 ft.), as well as the severe "bend" in the trunk. We also planted some white pines, a pin oak, kwanzan cherries (these leaves are a little dry too but not nearly as much as the two I mentioned), and a dwarf magnolia, all of which look ok.

Just to provide some additional info, we live in Virginia, which is consistently in the 90s in July and August. There wasn't much rain this summer, particularly in the last 30 days.

It sounds from your responses that these trees should have been pest free (something ate some of the leaves of both of these trees), should have had no dry leaves, or any other abnormalities, and a reputable nursery would not have delivered a tree in this condition to the purchaser in the first place - yes?

Hopefully, the inspector will decide that replacements are necessary, as it sounds like any other alternative is unacceptable.
Will keep you posted. Thanks again for the advise.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Nothing is ever pest free, especialy in a nursery where there are so many pressures on the plants. They can be smoprgasboards for pests.

Container grown plants tend to have problems because the may be grown in soiless media, and the tend to get pot bound.

Size of a vendor does not make it a good one. They sell a product to the uninformed public and ....

I do like the lifetime warrenty though that is something I have never heard of. With this I would recomend that you monitor the aesthetics of the plants and keep in touch with the vendor. Get a contact number for this inspector "I want to deal with one person!" wanter to thier specifications.

Now to give the installer the benefit of the doubt, it was hot and dry so this does make things difficult.