Hi all! I'm new here, my name is Ryan and I have a few medium sized japanese gardens that I'm constantly expanding. I ordered a few plants from an online nursery and the autumn moon JM was wilted upon arrival. It is a young graft that is probably only a couple years old. it was mostly leafed out upon arrival. It had been grown in fine bark and had a tight ball of the bark (which was moist) packed around the roots and the ball was wrapped in plastic. I took most of the bark off and potted in my native soil that had been extensively composted and never treated. rocks were placed at bottom of pot to improve drainage. The photos show early wilt (first 2 pics) and now 2 weeks later (last 2 pics) the wilting seems to be progressing throughout the tree. There was a Beni Maiko in the same order that looked a little wimpy at first but is doing great since. the beni was still mostly budded upon arrival.
Your tree has serious root problems, specifically not enough that are alive and working. My guess is that the soil is far too wet and not getting the oxygen the root cells need in order to live. I would put it in shade. It might be helpful to sprinkle the foliage, but when you do, cover the top of the pot so that the soil in it does not get wet. Don't water the pot until the soil dries --> stick your finger into the soil near the pot wall, wiggle it down into the soil and then extract your finger; water only when dirt doesn't stick to your finger. IMO.
Hi ryanskarma, one of the first things people do when they receive a maple in the post is to water it too much as we think that it needs it. This is often a cause for wilting. Secondly potting up a new graft that quickly and especially when it has produced very new leaves causes it to go into stress. My advice is to leave it and allow the compost to dry out thus allowing the roots to breath. Do not feed it either that adds more stress. It is probably 50/50 with this Autumn Moon, but in future wait to repot young grafts until you see the roots coming from the bottom of the pot and do not repot in Spring if at all possible. I repot from July onwards and mainly when dormant in Autumn and only in the next size pot up. Hope that's of help. Good luck
Thank you both so much. My initial instinct was that it was too wet and that's why I removed alot of the bark from the roots. I havent watered it much since it arrived just mostly let it get rain but I will definitely keep it out of the rain and sun until it rebounds. I figured its likely a goner but cant let a plant die before reaching out to the experts. Glad I found such a great botanical community!
Have you tried to remove the tree from the pot to inspect the roots and the kind of soil it has been cultivated in ? Like Acerho, I would : When I have a tree that looks rootbound or seems to have some root-rot problem, I let it dry, then slip-pot it in a wider container with non-organic soil (very coarse sand, lava rock, etc.) to "allow the roots to breathe).
thanks for your contribution! yes it was grown in fine sequoyah mulch. I was nervous to pull too much of the mulch away for fear that I would damage the root system. the plants were very wet and the root balls were wrapped in plastic wrap. I removed the plastic and pulled a majority of the mulch away. I located the crown of the roots and took back about a half inch of mulch before potting it in my native soil with some of the original mulch on place. I will definitely take your advice bc its slowly just getting worse everyday. on the bright side the beni I got in the same shipment as well as all 3 evergreens are all beautiful and healthy . thanks again for your time
Hi ryanskarma, it does seem that the roots were starved of oxygen as it was so wet. It may have been over watered to cater for being in a delivery box for longer. Letting it dry out goes against all our nurturing principles but Maples do need to dry out in inbetween watering. Hope all goes well, this forum has so much information and I am learning all the time from it. Stay in touch with the UBC Maples section.
