Dogwood tree with wilting, dry leaves

[jacobtia]

I planted 2 dogwood trees last spring (2016). One of them is now looking sad. The leaves are wilting and dry on the edges. I know it's not due to drought because the area is mulched and I've pulled back the mulch to see if the ground is moist. Could this be fungal or due to the ground being to wet?

[Lindsaylew82]

Hi Jacobtia!

Your location would be so helpful!

Can you tell us a little more about the conditions in which your trees were planted?

Do you perhaps have clay soil? We have that here and I've lost trees because the hole basically acts like pot with clay. I had to physically crack the soil in and around the planting hole with a pitchfork.

[jacobtia]

I'm in central Illinois. Since I posted, the tree has bounced back a little bit. This was after we had some rain. Which surprised me. The area it is planted in is mulched and I did check the soil around the tree prior to the rain and it did seem moist. This tree is not planted in clay. It's actually in a newly created berm made from soil that I took from a patio I laid in my back yard.

[rainbowgardener]

It helps to stick a stick down in the soil 6" or so, see if it is moist down there. The roots of a tree are far down. It doesn't matter if the surface of the soil is moist if the ground isn't.