Hi all, I am not having problems with my Acers yet this year, but my dad sent a photo of one of his Acer Palmatum Atropurpureum in pots showing some leaf damage. My first thought was to advise him not to bother with the slug pellets any more just to eliminate that possibility (slugs/snails don't attack Acers do they?). I am wondering whether it could be over/under watering? Does anyone recognise the problem? Thanks
Could be frost damage from the late spring frosts we had in the UK just over a week ago. If the timing fits, that is the most likely cause. Doesn't look like any major damage was done, some leaves may drop but new ones will replace them. If you are interested there are links to a couple of BBC articles about this year's May frosts in this thread: Ice Saints
Cheers Maf - I was just looking at a thread that showed some possible frost damage and started to wonder... my dad is up north in Lancashire - we didn't get much of a late frost down here in the Cotswolds (although we did have to light the fire - it was chilly), but he may have had it worse up there. I'll ask him if there was ground frost up there.
Hi Nommo, my first thought is frost too. Under the circumstances! Slugs and snails certainly attack Acer of all kinds, more's the pity... -E
Thanks emery. My dad just replied to my text and said he had to bring his bedding plants in recently due to a late frost - so that fits! Oh no! Not more slug fodder... I will have to keep my eyes peeled - hopefully they will be too busy devouring my vegetables ;)
The majority of my collection of maples are maintained in pots numbering somewhere around 400. By the end of summer, the majority will show similiar leaf burning. I also have around 35 larger plants in my landscape and some of them will also show the same leaf burn. Regardless, potted japanese maples are much more sensitive to everything in their environment and the causes of leaf burn are many in my opinion. Too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry and overfertilization can all create this sign of stress in the plant. Also, I have noticed I have much less leaf burn on plants that I do not water on the leafs directly (drip irrigation) and feel that this is yet another cause. Regardless, aside from an asthetic issue, their is no real threat to the trees health and vigor and just part of growing maples in pots. I also have noticed that when my potted maples become root bound, they show less leaf burn. I also try to provide around 70% shade for my potted maples. With this much shade, their is much less signs of stress but their is also much less color on those maples that require sun for best coloration. Just my observations. Justin By the way, I ivein zone 7 and can have some pretty hot days in summer at and above 100 and have already had near record temperatures for may very often in low 90's already.
One of the trees of my own which have suffered from this problem this year was A P 'Taylor' which was bought just last year and had appeared to be doing well I have to admit that at first I never even considered a lack of water as being the problem, as we have had an abundance of rain over the past year and the water table is higher than I can ever remember. Nevertheless, this past month has seen rather less rain than usual I thought the tree had gone to the great maple hunting ground in the sky, so I decided to 'pull it up' (I wanted to see whether or not the roots had taken or if it was still in its original rootball), which I did. The roots had most definitely spread out into the surrounding ground, but the number of competing roots from neighbouring trees (one a large Birch) had most definitely resulted in soil which was less than moist. I decided the poor thing had had just too much competition for moisture. I stuck it into a large plastic pot on top of some leaf mold and topped it up with more of the same, and placed it in a quiet corner This is a tactic I had used before when miraculously another 'dead' JM had sprung back into life last year It seems to have worked again, and tiny new buds are beginning to appear The leaf mold holds onto the moisture and seems to provide everything required in such an emergency You can see the reason for my little burst of excitement in the attached pic :)
