In early March of this year, I bought a Japanese Red Maple Bloodgood and planted it in our small garden. It was growing nicely for several months from having no leaves to being full of beautiful red leaves. Then a little over a month ago when the weather started to get warmer, the leaves started to burn from the outer edge inwards. Now I thought it was just scorch and the tree needed more water. The calla lillies and other flowers around the tree are growing just fine and flowering nicely. The tree gets about 6 hours of full sunlight. I am located in Brooklyn, New York. I know it takes a new tree about a year to fully adapt to it's new surroundings. I clipped off the burned leaves 2 weeks ago and but the other leaves on the tree continued to burn. The tree is only about 3 and half feet tall at this point and the fast draining soil is covered with mulch. I water the plants and tree two times a week. Could anyone looking at the photos tell if this is just scorch from the sun or Verticillium? These photos were taken before watering yesterday.
No reason to suspect verticillium IMHO. I think you need to keep the soil moister during this first year, perhaps next year too. Looks like standard getting established blues to me. Also if the sun is during the afternoon it might be a lot, and we're not even in the dog days yet... ;) Good luck, -E
I have a AP 'Tamukeyama' that was damaged due to a late frost - it looks exactly like your photo right now. Cheers, CSL
no verticillum problem!is normal for young maples in first season of life a, little leaves damage in october(in Italy) a new leaves sprout !
A few quick notes on this tree. The Maple may have been sold to you as being a Bloodgood but it is not a Bloodgood Maple. Common for many atropurpureum group reds this time of year in warm direct sun is to see some leaf tip scorch on the terminal branch tips and tops of the trees usually due to lack of water in some fashion. It is true that wind burn scorch and salt burn scorch can be guesstimated in some areas but most of the time the leaf tip burn is more so due to direct sun and heat related injury due lack of water flowing efficiently to the terminal tips of the trees. Another cause of leaf tip burn is due to external Tight Bark and in some areas leaf tip burn can be directly associated with internal Pseudomonas syringae. Your tree near the base does show bacterial infection in the tree as denoted by the dark to black colored blotch areas in the lower portions of the trunk. There is little you can do about this other than try to keep your tree growing vigorously. As in time the bacterial infection, along with Verticillium branch wilt already in the tree can eventually kill it relatively soon after the tree loses vigor and stagnates in its top growth and subsequent reduction in root shoot development. The bacterial caused leaf tip scorching has been a real problem this year with several juvenile aged container trees I've run across recently, regardless as to whether they were nursery grown grafted individuals, came about from rooted cuttings or were seedlings. Considering the signs of a bacterium I see present in your tree, you were wise to have this tree planted in the ground. As a container tree with the same sun exposure, your situation could be much worse for you and this tree. I have a similar event going on with a containerized juvenile aged seedling tree of mine in which I expect some leaf tip burn during this time of year from this atropurpureum group red but I also expect this tree to yield new buds, after the damaged leaves fall off the tree, along the twig or branch near where the terminal tip leaves had been badly scorched and have since fallen. Tight Bark will prevent the new buds from forming near the scorched areas and if this happens then a pruning back to unaffected growth (branches showing no leaf tip scorch) may be necessary to help suppress further limb dieback. Last evening I pruned several juvenile aged to adult Maples just for this reason. Limit the spread of the tip and branch dieback and force the tree to send out new vegetative growth buds near where I pruned the trees back to. I may have lost the shapes of some trees but at the same time I helped prevent further damage to them. Yes, your tree also shows some incidence of Tight Bark as well, is not widespread in the tree yet which is a great sign that you may have your tree longer than some of us have had ours with the same condition. This is one area whereby growing the tree in ground in a cooler climate than ours helps perpetuate longer viability to the tree. Tight Bark and Pseudomonas syringae infection do not become nearly so expansive throughout the tree as fast as they can do here, as we have to endure more direct sun, heat, hot wind and soil pH related stress issues than a cooler climate does. Jim
Hi @Skip Tyson. 'Manyo No Sato' has total diff characteristics than the tree pictured above. Leaf shape, colors, and growth habit are not the same.
Here is my Manyo No Sato. I can see where you are coming from @Skip Tyson, but @LoverOfMaples is right.
Have a small photo I took after a downpour in late October 2019 looking a bit sorry for itself, but still lovely reds. Hope you like it D.
Thanks D, better photos this Autumn ( Fall) hopefully. I'm sure the other thread will be 'very' busy with masses of colour then!!?
Silica additives helped my maples from scorching in the hot sun / dry winds. It also thicken the trunk of the trees pretty quick! I use dyna gro protekt.
Good morning @vbx, this is an interesting post, not heard of doing this for maples in the UK. Orchids yes but not maples. Do you have any photos of before and after ?
Hey Acerholic, Sorry no photos but my bloodgood out in the front yard had survived the summer last year (2019). Before the Silica treatment, the previous 2 years, the maple would all have dead leaves by July/Aug. Tree would look dead. And no new flush of growth since I was too lazy to pluck out all the dead leaves. in 2019, the bloodgood made it all the way through the fall / early winter w/o scorching / dropping all it leaves.
Hi vbx, that is impressive, please do update or create a new thread on the use of Silica. A lot of people will want to know the benefits.
