Hi JJ! Welcome. Sorry we had to meet over your trees' dead bodies!
jjmmcc727 said:We just out them in the car aND brought them home . I belive the place got them from has a no return is there to help save them ?
A "no returns" policy suggests that they might not be surprised that they are selling trees they expect to be DOA (Dead On Arrival). It might have been too late before you paid the clerk.
But some places with a "no returns" policy might have a policy to GIVE a partial refund if you show up on a busy day (like during sales of spring seedlings or bushes) and
complain loudly in front of other customers about how they sold you an obviously root-bound tree with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. Stress that it was in the ground and watered within hours of being sold.
(Can you tell that I lived in NJ for many years, and lost every trace of civilized behavior?)
If the root ball was "all-white" and had roots densely circling the pot or filling the bottom few inches, they sold you a "pot-bound" plant, or "root-bound" plant, that they had to expect would die or never thrive. They should have sold it at a deep discount and warned you to root-prune it severely and then nurse it back to health, or at least back to life. (If root-pruning works on trees - I don't know.)
If it is not canker, the only thing I can suggest is that you give whatever roots are still alive the best possible chance to keep living.
If they are in dry soil, water infrequently but long enough for water to sink down to the roots. You might have to build a little circular wall around the planting hole to hold water there long enough for it to perk down to where it can do some good.
If they are in poorly-draining clay soil, added water might not ever drain down far enough to reach the roots. The plant would die of thirst if its roots can't reach down to the natural water table.
Or, it might already have wet, saturated soil near the roots so much that no air is reaching the roots. That works on plant roots the same way it works on people: no air causes drowning pretty quickly. Drowned or rotted roots mean no water can be taken up, and the above-ground plant will die of thirst while the roots finish drowning and rotting. Like college freshmen in a phone booth filled with beer: if their mouths are taped shut, they can't drink no matter HOW much beer is all around them.
If they are in very poorly-draining soil, you
have to improve the drainage. If they are "all dead", that won't help. If they are only "mostly dead", maybe there is SOME chance.
If you have drowned roots, AND have a slope to work with, you can cut a slit trench from the planting hole down-slope. If water can perk from the hole into your trench, enough water MAY drain out of the root zone to let some air back in. Any living roots can then start to grow back, if it isn't too late.
If the impervious layer of the soil is only 2-3 feet deep, you might be able to dig or drill down past the clay layer into some sub-soil that DOES allow drainage. If you back-fill that hole with drainage gravel and rocks, I think that makes it a "French Drain".
Then you only need a trench from your planting holes to the French Drain. BTW, that new drain will help all the soil around it and around any trench draining into it (if the trench if 18-30 inches deep). It will tend to lower the water table for several feet in all directions. As the water drains out, air will enter. That will allow aerobic bacteria and fungi and worms to re-enter the soil. Eventually they will help it drain better.
I don't see much point to excavating the planting holes and trying again. If the surrounding soil doesn't drain (such as heavy clay), it won't help the plant to dig a big hole and back-fill with the best soil ever seen. The water will fill the hole like a mud wallow, and STILL not drain out the bottom.
Good luck! Please let us know how it comes out, whether good or ill. That way we can learn from your misfortune!
