I planted 4 trees over the weekend - 2 heritage birch, 1 ginko, and 1 silver maple. All #15 pots all planted the same basically - dug out twice the size added good black dirt/peat moss/tree fertilizer filled hole up to top of root mass leaving ring about 1 foot from trees to help retain water then covered with mulch and water.
One of the birch trees is turning yellow and losing it's leaves. The other 3 trees look fine so far.
Could this tree be suffering greater shock and hopefully recover or should I star looking to return it for a new one in the near future? Any suggestions to help salvage the tree?
I'm in SE Minn.

 

I just had the same thing happen with a Hong Kong Orchid tree that I planted in late April (24" box.) The leaves all turned yellow and every single one dropped, but it kept blooming. I have a suspicion that with mine I watered it too heavily for the first week and sent it into shock. I followed all the approved tree planting instructions just like you did.

I was terrified that it would never recover but just this past week it started shooting out new leaves and branches and seems like it's going to be fine. I just stopped watering it for a few weeks so that it could dry out and then gave it only a mild soaking once a week. I'm going to give it a dose of Super Thrive with the next watering to help it along.

 

I did some more research on the net last night and found it to be a common problem with birch trees in soils with high PH levels >7, the birch prefer a PH of 5-6. So tonight I'm going to take a soil sample to confirm this.
If that is the case the most common cure is to add iron sulfate to the soil - or spray the leaves for a quick short term fix.

 

Lack of moisture or too much could be an issue. Birches are shallow rooted trees and require anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of water per week depending on soil types (more on sandy, less on clay) and temperatures (more during hot weather, less in cool periods).

Birches do require a slightly acidic soil. Since the other birch is doing well, it is doubtful that the issue is pH so soon after planting.

Untangling the roots of root bound container grown plants is important to plants getting established. Typically, container grown plants suffer little transplant shock, but they still go through an adjustment period.