How many have you tried?
When did you plant them?
Where they b&b or potted?
Did you keep the soil consistently moist but NOT wet?
Do you have any pics?

Not enough info to diagnose the problem.

If anything hopefully you have better luck with The T. heterophylla. But a two week decline points to either a dead/dying plant to begin with or improper install or aftercare.

Do other hemlock grow successfully in your area?

Is anybody growing Tsuga heterophylla in your area. Not being from there with no knowledge of your micro climate do your home work before you purchase.

What I do know...

If you are going to use the coast range of Tsuga heterophylla your chances of survival are slim.

A better success rate if using the inner mountain variety. Either in under stock for grafting or straight species.

What you have ordered and who from will depend upon its chances of survival. Contact them ahead and find out.

Western hemlock occurs in the Coast Ranges from Sonoma County California
to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. Inland it occurs along the western
and upper eastern slopes of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington
and west of the Continental Divide in the northern Rocky Mountains of
Montana and Idaho, north to Prince George, British Columbia.

Dave

link to original post in the tree forum with more facts

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I have since planted 2 western hemlocks. One died outright, I don't know why, I watered both the same when rain was scarce. The remaining one has kept it's needles so far but is very light green. I need to take pics. I think it looks like there is something lacking nutritionally.

I can't sleep tonight so I may as well go on gardenweb. I have tried our native eastern hemlock. There are several healthy trees up in our mountains about 7-8 miles from me. I have bought a couple trees from a nursery not far away. I never saw the wooly adelgid, that is said to be the bane of these trees. They just became pale and croaked. I read that the western hemlock does not die from the wooly edelgid, that is why I am trying the western hemlock. There are a few of the eastern hemlock a few miles away from me. What the heck am I doing wrong? Do they need lots of shade? I always assumed that they were fine in sun or shade. I will have lots of shade within about 5 years +. My soil PH is 6.7 in one of the areas where eastern hemlock failed. There were no soil defeciencies when I had my soil tested.

There is nothing in your site condition to suggest an answer. Everything sounds right on. As far as sun or shade, the thickest thickets of young hemlock I've seen tend to be in gaps in the canopy, like an area along a waterway or some such. Quite a bit of direct sun in other words.

+oM

I haven't had too many problems with Eastern hemlock - We don't have HWA around here (yet). I've planted them on heavier clay loams as well as neutral floodplain silt loam, and all have done well. Mind you, I'm working with 3 year old transplants. From what I've seen, hemlock does fine in a variety of conditions. Western hemlock will grow in the Northeast, but it won't thrive, according to Cullina's "Native Trees, Shrubs and Vines".

Agree with Jimbob-I would not consider eastern hemlock a fussy tree. A severely dry site would probably not suit it, but other than that, pretty adaptable.

+oM

I have a pic of my tree, which I will try to post soon. The site it is in now is full sun, at the bottom of my property at the bottom of a slope. The general area is fertile. Wooly adelgid was never seen on any Hemlock I have ever tried. Drought was never an issue, with any eastern or western hemlock. When I get the pic uploaded and posted it will be easier than posting about it. I need my brother to do that, I am not technical at all.

I have a pic now, unfortunately it is blurry. I didn't know that until I posted it on the trees forum, but the color is yellow not green, that is easy to see anyway. Whas, I planted 2 of them this spring. They were wrapped with the rootball in plastic, it was moist still when I received it. The first died but, I think my yard is where Hemlocks die. I got them from Forest farm. I have had near perfect luck with everything I've ordered from them, which has been several shrubs and vines, some grasses. I have tried potted localbig box store Eastern Hemlock in the past, they died. They don't offer them now, probably from the Adegid problems. I mulch all my trees, and not on the trunk. I have a picture herte. The blue pot with no bottom is for bunny damage control for the trunk because the tree is near the bottom of the yard and far from the house, sort of where the wild part of the property is. I will mention again that the farthest eastern Hemlock in someones yard is about 2 miles from me, so you would figure I could grow the Eastern form. But this is the Western Hemlock, it was green when I planted it this spring. {{gwi:460580}}

Poaky, did you check for mites? If not, take a sheet of white paper, hold under plant and shake the tree. See if anything shows up on that piece o paper. Might be late in the year for this test though. Something about that appearance says mites to me.

+oM

You can get Western hemlock from the University of Idaho's Pitkin Nursery - $2.25 is VERY reasonable for the size plants they send. I like the root systems on their plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Center for Forest Nursery and Seedling Research

I would be curious about your mulch choice as being one possible issue to consider. It looks to be a very fresh unaged mulch with possibly wood chips instead of being a well aged bark based mulch, but it is hard to tell based on the fuzzy picture. Even well aged bark based mulches can harbor pathogens that some plants are sensitive too. You could forgo the mulch or try something else to rule out that possibility.

I would recommend you grow your trees out for a while in a container, or purchase larger plants, and keep them in a spot with some afternoon shade until you feel like they are pushing a strong root system. Older root systems can sometimes have better resistance to having a new home.

Carl the mulch is new. It is fall leaves covered with wood chips. I put it down a couple days before the picture was taken. This is the 2nd Hemlock I've tried. The first was an Eastern Hemlock and it was planted on the oposite end of my property. Both are well drained sites. The mulch that was down before I added this new leaf/ wood chip coat was cypress bagged mulch from Lowes. It was used under most of my trees, mostly oaks. Jimbobfeeny, these (forest farm ) trees looked good when they arrived so it isn't the plant sources fault. I see no mites, I will look again and shake the branches over a white sheet of paper. I am going to take a soil sample from my yard and a soil sample from under one of the wild grown trees up near Jumonsville, Pa. This is about 7-8 miles from me. And buy 2 soil test kits from the university, where they get tested by the pros. Maybe if I see what is different I can make a change in an area of soil, unless it is extremely different. My soil should have lots of fungi and mycorrhizae. I don't remove fall leaves, I bring them in and mulch my trees/ beds, and use bunny poo etc. This will only be solved by testing the soil. If it were a bug problem, there is a row of eastern hemlocks a few miles away, and they are gorgeaus(misspelled).

I will post a clear and upclose pic here. I need to mention a current soil test shows a very different result from the last one 3 years ago and downslope several yards of the old soil sample. Soil test shows that the most important thing my soil lacks VS where the healthy Hemlocks grow is Calcium. I misstakenly titled this thread EASTERN HEMLOCK. I meant that I have a WESTERN HEMLOCK. I have tried EASTERN Hemlock in my yard and the anemic needle condition is the same on both WESTERN and EASTERN Hemlock. My soil is more acidic than the native habitat of wild EASTERN Hemlock. My soil has more POTash, PHOS, and MAGN than the native EASTERN Hemlock soil sample, so I need to add Calcium without making the PH too ALKALINE. So I may try GYPSUM but will post on the soil forum to see what they say. Here is the latest close-up photo: {{gwi:487768}}

2 more pics{{gwi:487769}} {{gwi:487771}}

To me it looks like a new found winter yellow cultivar...

I think you may be joking Coniferjoy? If not sorry, I am not really to educated on CONIFERS. I have done a soil test and added GYPSUM today. Calcium was the only defiencient element in my soil VS the soil where the EASTERN HEMLOCK grow. Can't speak for the WESTERN HEMLOCK which I have. I tried the WESTERN HEMLOCK because they don't die from the EDELGID. Although I never have seen the EDELGID on my old EASTERN HEMLOCK, they yellowed and died with no fuzzies on them.

No joking here, till now your plant looks pretty healty to me.
I think it's a quality issue, it's poorely staked.
Would like to see it's roots, I think the cause is there.
However, your soil PH is high...

Looks like it's dying to me. I have some Picea pungens that have been in the ground for four years that were green and now are that same yellow color. The area I planted them is on a slope with poor clay soil and terrible drainage. I believe the cause to be too wet.

Dax

Thanks for the replies. I wasn't clear enough on my yard's conditions. My recent soil test taken from the rootball area was a PH of 6.0. Which I think isn't too high. Drainage is good, the roots aren't smothered. The thread starts out from a while ago when I had an Eastern Hemlock, and the end of the thread I am talking about WESTERN Hemlock. I don't remember if I started a new thread to begin with on the conifer forum or not. From reading about the WESTERN Hemlock I am going to have to add lots of OM (org. matter) to my soil where it is to make it happy. I am sick of talking about the tree. I need a Hemlock Whisperer. If the gypsum application doesn't help it I'm stumped.

Yeah, you can't really go wrong with the addition of some organic matter. But, there's just nothing about your soil, from what you've told us anyway, to suggest an obvious reason for the problem.

+oM

TOM I agree. Maybe years of conditioning my soil with OM in the preffered planting site and eventually a bit of shade from the oaks I've planted will make things more hospitable for EASTERN or WESTERN Hemlock. Eastern may go the way of the AM. Elm. But WESTERN Hemlock is not killed (so far) by Wooly Edelgid.

It's been 8 months since my last post. The WESTERN Hemlock looks as bad as any Eastern Hemlock I've tried. I will try to get pics. I purchased a scoop of forest soil from a neighbor with a pretty old forest around him. The soil was once in these woods. He cleared a dirt road through it so any fungi's etc should be present. It's been in a pile for a while. I will make a mound and try another Eastern Hemlock. I have one for around $20.00 from Ebay 2 ft tall, it has yet to arrive, I ordered it July 9 th I think.. I will try to plant it high but not too high. If it fails, I am stumped. I have read that Whooly adelgid can be controlled with sprays, is that true? If I don't get the one from ebay, I'll be collecting cones from those up the mountains. Musser Forests are sold out.

It's kinda hard to understand. I successfully transplanted half a dozen eastern hemlocks from the nearby forest at my previous location. Only trouble was making sure the new transplants got enough water -- one died almost overnite from forgetting to water promptly -- the roots are very shallow.

But mine were transplanted back into "forest" soil, so maybe that's an issue.

This post was edited by beng on Sun, Jul 21, 13 at 11:22

I have an established island planting of Eastern Hemlocks. I do nothing special for them and they look great (no watering, fertilizing, etc.). The strange thing is that every year one of the hemlocks gets the edelgid on a few of the lowerest branches. I cut them off, hose down maybe two other branches, cut out some dead wood, etc.., but 99% of the foliage is fine in the grove and it never seems to spread. (I do not use any insecticides by general principle.). I did not plant these trees and they have been here for decades--I love them!

This climate is very humid, figure Eastern Hemlock is better adapted to conditions than Western.

I have recently planted a Eastern Hemlock. I have planted it on a mounded area, which I ne ver tried before. It looked pretty good a couple days ago, when I checked on it. I hope it stays healthy.

i am surprised you are planting in august ...

ken

Maybe the oaks can take it better, I've never lost one even when planting in August. No surprise, the Hemlock died. I may try again in fall. It has been raining here from spring til present, quite heavily, enough to not need to water anything, vegetables and trees, also any flowers. I did not mulch the Hemlock, but rainfall is often and well enough. The tree looked nice and green and is today a skeleton. It was planted in full sun, I suppose that doesn't matter. Maybe dormancy is the next way to go. I hear you say it often but I usually have no losses because of how the roots are grown, but again those are oaks.