The following was received via email: I have a tricolor japanese maple that got scorched-2/3"s of it! Do I cut back the branches or just leave it alone? By the way-I think British Colombia is one of the prettiest places I have ever been! Thanks for your help.
Leave the branches alone. Chances are the leaves will drop off and new leaf buds will form and in a short time you will have new leaves all over again. Only cut the twigs if there is evidence of them burning also which is not all that common. Leaf scorch early in the year helps initiate a new flush of growth for us superceding the Maples normal growth cycle. One thing to be careful of is do not let the new growth scorch again real soon or you may indeed lose some of the twigs as result, then you will have to prune the dead or dying wood out. By the way, the tops of my Karasugawa have all been scorched and I will leave that plant alone knowing I will be getting a new growth spurt from the scorched areas soon. Jim
After 2 days of big sun on Paris with 28° C (80 ° F), I have a few leaves that looks scorched but is it the sun or can it be a disease ?
Andre, I could be wrong, but your leaves look to me as though you are having a problem with slugs/snails or some type of sucking/chewing insect. While mollusks are not interested in mature maple leaves, they find young, tender emerging leaves to be very tasty. Sometimes you don't notice till several weeks later when a hot day stresses the leaves a little and the injured parts start to dry up. Susan
Thank you Susan I think you're right as I have los of slugs and snails in my garden and the concerned leaves are emerging leaves. Do you think I have to add some anti-slug product (metaldehyde) around my trees or it's not a problem to let them do ?
I'll leave it up to you whether you want to use poisons in your yard or not. I have never seen Brown Garden Snails here in Oregon. I suppose they may have been imported from warmer areas, but commercial nurseries must be certified free of them in order to ship plants. We do, however, have several types of slugs, and I have a continuing problem with them coming into the greenhouse in stock that I have purchased. It seems as though there are always eggs and tiny young ones in the 2-3/8" pots of rootstock. I think they survive because they squeeze down between the pots in the flats, and it is moist and cool. Because my grandchild and my dogs often accompany me into my greenhouse, I use a slug remedy that is not toxic to mammals. It doesn't work as quickly as metaldehyde, but it does hold down the population without endangering my family. As an alternative in landscape situations, you can put a band of copper sheeting around the base of each tree trunk, and snails/slugs will not cross it. There are so many ways that the beauty of Japanese Maples can be compromised! Notice how terribly many pictures of leaves, even in Vertrees, have notches chewed from the margins by slugs or weevils. I can't imagine purposely allowing something to do damage if you can come up with a workable method of control. Susan
