It happens i have a new issue with this tree, which i've been growing on my deck for about 12-13 years. There is a lighter center area where each seems to be lacking green. There is the usual crisping up top, but more than in previous years. We are having a dry hot summer but no more so than the previous 3 years. I'm wondering if anybody can talk about this, especially the center of leaves lightening up? Thanks.
Hello, Sometimes chlorosis-like symptoms are caused, especially in pots, in from a simple lack of nutrients. Have you changed the earth and root pruned the maple any time over the last 4 years or so? Do you fertilize? It's generally not a great plan to start throwing chemicals into the soil, but a dose of epsom salts (magnesium) or Sequestrene (iron) would be low risk. If you fertilize, which is required in pots to some extent, what are you using? Does it have the necessary trace elements? HTH, -E
Root pruning and new pot: check, 3 years ago. Good organic soil then. I also prune the tree to keep it at about 7 feet. However, I need to water a lot to keep it going in summer, so add compost mulch each spring, and complete fertilizer granules this spring. I think it was jobe's, don't have the pkg any longer! But will add some new fert now, lightly, with iron in it, and find some epsom salts as well. Mineral deficiency makes sense. Thank you!
Bought this Oridono (pic1) last August from a local garden centre (just looked promising with a nice structure to work with) came in a 8.5ltr pot which it was removed from straight away and all the old medium was removed washed back then root pruned strongly, then re potted into a 20 ltr pot the roots were well dusted with mychrohizal powder then well covered with new growing medium . Pic 2 is in October the red lines are where i cut the main leaders back more when the leaves dropped later, was then moved to a more sheltered spot for 2018 Pic 3 Oridono today, the rest of the pics are of the new side shoots which have grown since been cut back last October good strong growth all round with very nice colours, will not touch this now until the leaves fall again then i will just trim back lightly to acheieve a more desired uniform shape. All this from a good prune a bigger pot new medium a sheltered spot and kept well hydrated through out the year.
This is from early spring. The tree is 10 years old, and you can see the half-barrel it's sitting in. i have been pruning to encourage lateral growth as I don't want it to just be the vase shape, or any taller (just maybe a little taller). In fact, early on I weighted some of the branches. It's completely filled in now and the growth has been robust till these pale centers showed up on the green leaves. I plan to add the iron and epsom salts, and am puzzled since i've been keeping up with compost mulch and fertilizer. Yours looks very robust and full and you can see the benefit from your fall trimming. Do you plan to put it in the ground? At some point, it gets rather heavy to transfer to larger pots, but maybe in spring I should wrestle it out for root trimming...........sitting in the pot, it's maybe 8 feet tall altogether, so pretty heavy. My avatar photo is how it was last fall. They are such a fun tree.
