Green Giant Arborvitae Trees Tops Brown

[Matthewbradley]

Hi there

I purchased a few of these shrubs recently and noticed the very top of the plant are browning. They have not been planted yet. It has been raining alot where I am zone 6.
The rest of the shrubs is green and looks extremely healthy.
Could this just be from shipment? I noticed green fertilizers balls in the pots so I just wonder what to do once I plant these.
Green Giant Arborvitae
Thuja Standishii x plicata

 

[Matthewbradley]

 

[Matthewbradley]

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

How long have your Giant Green Arborvitae (Thuja x 'Green Giant') been in their current location?
The garage may get some light but not as much as these trees or large shrubs would want.

Needless to say, plant them outside in a well-drained, full sun location as soon as possible.

In the meantime, give them full sun in the containers and irrigate them when the root ball begins to becomes partly dry.

Giant Green Arborvitae (Thuja x 'Green Giant') is a columnar cultivar selection of a hybrid of the Western Red-cedar (Thuja plicata) from western North America and Thuja standishii from Japan.

 

[Matthewbradley]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

How long have your Giant Green Arborvitae (Thuja x 'Green Giant') been in their current location?
The garage may get some light but not as much as these trees or large shrubs would want.

Needless to say, plant them outside in a well-drained, full sun location as soon as possible.

In the meantime, give them full sun in the containers and irrigate them when the root ball begins to becomes partly dry.

I bought them 2 days ago
It's been heavily raining so they have only been in the garage 48 hours or so

 

[Marck]

Did the brown tops happen in the last 48 hours?

Judging from the way the tops are stretching. These plants may have been receiving insufficient light at the nursery.
They should likely recover but begin giving them more light to encourage healthy new growth.
You may want to prune of those etiolated, browning stems.

 

[Matthewbradley]

Did the brown tops happen in the last 48 hours?

Judging from the way the tops are stretching. These plants may have been receiving insufficient light at the nursery.
They should likely recover but begin giving them more light to encourage healthy new growth.
You may want to prune of those etiolated, browning stems.

They were brown when I got them and the person said they would be ok but wanted to post online to ask others to make sure I shouldn't return them. I have a spot to plant them and they will receive full sun, also it will be a good spot where my hose can easily be so I can water often with no difficulty. Do I do any fertilizer at all or just leave be since there seems to be green ball fertilizer in the containers? I did read to mulch top of them when planting but leave the root area at the base clear. I just want to protect my investment if that makes sense. Thank you for your help so far

 

[Marck]

For most common soil conditions, there is no need to immediately fertilize the trees. Though some people do choose to amend with an compost or another organic soil amendment of some type. An annual or seasonal application of compost mulch should provide sufficient nutrients for good growth.

I did read to mulch top of them when planting but leave the root area at the base clear.

The above sentence is odd. To be clear, mulch is any material applied on the soil surface, or sometimes over another layer of mulch.
Mulch is best applied more thinly around the base of a trunk.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

I would be inclined to return them. They weren't healthy, so they should not have sold them to you. You can be sure they won't refund your money next year if they don't recover. Never buy sick looking plants - unless they are rock bottom price and admittedly on clearance, in which case you just take the gamble. That being said, we have mostly had success doing that occasioanally.

 

[Matthewbradley]

I would be inclined to return them. They weren't healthy, so they should not have sold them to you. You can be sure they won't refund your money next year if they don't recover. Never buy sick looking plants - unless they are rock bottom price and admittedly on clearance, in which case you just take the gamble. That being said, we have mostly had success doing that occasioanally.

They were 30 dollars a piece. Other sites are more than 100 dollars for one

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

Yes, but were they selling them as seconds? Price vary wildly in that business.

 

[Matthewbradley]

Yes, but were they selling them as seconds? Price vary wildly in that business.

I'm not here to argue with people on the internet. Lol.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

No, not arguing with you. My point was if someone claims their product is in good condition it doesn't matter what price they charge. Just because their price is lower than their competitors, doesn't mean they should get away with selling seconds unless they admit their product is not perfect or not as high quality.

Arborvitae can be tricky. They can get infected by spider mites that brown them and kill them. And it starts off looking a lot like what you have. So regardless whether you replace them or they recover you should spray them every year, especially if you see any dying ones nearby. It spreads rapidly. So dead ones need to be removed and destroyed, preferably burned.

 

[Marck]

No need to return them, The plants are healthy except for those top branches. Thuja x 'Green Giant' is very amenable to pruning and will quickly grow new branches.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

That's true, but it looked like the tips of all branches were looking a bit brownish in one of the photos.