We purchased a 6' Bloodgood in May and planted it in a slightly raised bed which gets about 6-8 hours of sun. We planted at the soil line from the nursery (which was too deep we discovered later. The bed was new with top soil over clay but we dug the hole larger and filled with the topsoil and then backfilled with the tree in. We had a very wet summer and so very hot heat. The tree did alright for about a month and a half and then we went for a long weekend and came home to ALL of the leaves being dried up but still on the tree. I started some research on my own and first discovered the tree was to deep. In digging to find the "flare", which was about 4 inches down, I found that the soil smelled rotten and was soaking. I dug out about 2 1/2 feet on each side of the tree to let it dry out. This didn't work well so we moverd the tree to a place in the yard where it wouldn't receive downspout run off from the neighbors. I seldom watered the tree because I did notice the ground staying very muddy. This time due to planting in all clay and not wanting to catch the run off anywhere I elevated the tree out of the ground about 4" down from the top and mounded up clay on the sides of the root ball. All of the leaves are staying on the tree. That is the part confusing me from other post. Alot of the small twigs are still bendable. What else can I do to see if it still alive? What can I do to keep it alive? What went wrong? Why are the leaves still on? When should I see new buds...if it's going to live? Dumby me......NO money back on this tree-that's why I am calling mysef- DimWitt
It got much too wet is what happened, and clay is not the best thing for a tree that likes coarse gritty dryish soil. It really doesn't sound very promising, but at this point you can't do anything but wait til spring and see if anything pops. The fact the leaves are still there doesn't mean a lot one way or the other.
My tree did the exact same thing. Planted it in late April. Had a ton of rain. About the 2nd week in July all the leaves curled up, dried out and stayed on the branches. When they got completely dry I removed them, but have seen no budswell since... at this point in the season I don't want to see any. I am waiting till next spring to see if it is alive. I think my tree got too much water (clay soil also mixed with peat) and the roots rotted. Then it got very hot and the tree stressed. An arborist told me that mixing in peat moss is NOT a great idea, that it can get waterlogged and sit on the roots worse than clay. As I said I don't know if the tree is still alive, but I will post next spring the results when I know for sure.
I also had an arborist come out and he flatly said "it's dead". But I have my doubts about the guy since he also asked me "what is a Forest Pansy?" that I wanted him to look at also but was in the back yard doing the exact same thing. I then tried a greenhouse and she told me to take a clean razor blade and barely nick the bark down by the flare to see if there was any green and that it would tell me if there was any life left in it. I also called a tree place and he said I should have small buds in the FALL if it is still alive because that is when the maples start to bud even though the don't come out until spring.
