Last Thursday, July 18th we bought 6 Dawyck
purple beech 60 mm . Unfortunately 4 of them appear to be drying up. Some of the branches have already dried up and the leaves are falling. Please help me to solve this problem
All newly planted trees undergo some degree of transplant shock and yours have been very hard hit. Hot mid-summer is not a great time to plant in any case, but the conditions in which you are growing these trees matters significantly.
They prefer rich, moist well-drained soil. This may well be the problem. Both under watering and overwatering can kill a tree. On July 16, Toronto was hit by the heaviest rain storm in history, prompting massive flooding. If you planted the trees on July 18, the soil still may have been completely drenched.
If your soil was dry at the time of planting, your new trees needed a long, deep watering, repeated at least weekly in the current extreme heat wave. But, your soil must be well-drained. The tree must not sit in water-logged soil.
Did you mulch around the tree? Not touching the bark but in a circle around it?
Did you dig a hole that was large enough for the roots to spread out? Usually, a hole 2-3 times the root ball is recommended.
Finally, the photo doesn’t show the bottom of the trunk. Is it possible you that you planted the tree too deeply? The root flare must be exposed; in other words, the tree should not look as though a 1st-grader drew it, a straight stick in the ground. Dig down around one of the dried out trees to see if the root flare has been buried. Also make sure that there are no girdling roots (roots that wrap around and around) or packaging, such as burlap or twine.
Note that the position of the tree shown would present a problem eventually, in any case. Your photo suggests that it is far too close to the house. Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Purple’ has a mature height of 25’ – 50’ and a mature spread of 6’ – 15’. At 10 years it is approximately 25’ in height and 6’ in width.
Also, they do best in full sun (6 hours direct sun or 4-6 hours of partial sun/shade). Do your trees receive that much sun?
Scratch the bark on several places on the trees to see if there is live (green) wood. You can prune off any branches that are completely dry, with no green showing. It is possible that if all the issues above are remedied, any live trees may recover, but it could take a couple of years.
If the trees were planted by the vendor, you should take this issue up with them, since they will be under guarantee.
Meanwhile, here is our Gardening Guide on growing trees, which is full of helpful advice.