Can anyone help me. I recently bought a Acer Palmatum Fireglow and planted it about 3 months ago. The tree is is 2 meters high and quite mature. I carefully pulled it out of the pot after several waterings and planted in good qualkity compost. We have had lots of hot weather (over 80f) recently and the leaves have gone green and many of them have gone brown and fallen off. All teh tips are also brown on almost every leaf - is this due to the unusual hot weather we have had. Is there any way to stop this or help the tree settle in?
Just keep them adequately watered, and out of direct sun, as that can fry the leaves on some maples pretty quickly, and wait for next year when they will start all over again. I intentionally keep some maples that get toasted in rather full sun, because they look spectacular in the early spring before they start to suffer. A. shirasawanum is one of these.
Burned up in the UK uk midlands, due to the recent planting of your tree I think that it is simply transplant shock. 'Fireglow' will take a lot of sun and heat, more than many other Japanese Maples. It sometimes takes years for certain cultivars to acclimate to a site and your cultivar once established should do well in full sun. Make sure it is not planted too deeply and water deeply but infrequently. I would not have planted in compost. Japanese maples although a delight for the senses are not vegetables. I plant mine in indigenous soil. fireglow22, is yours planted close to a wall? The climate in Sacramento is not like Pacifica you know. It's sometimes hot. If planted adjacent to a wall, the reflective heat may be posing a problem for yours. You might change the surface of the wall so that it absorbs heat rather than reflects heat. A color change perhaps. Better still, plant a vine on the wall to soften the effect. You could move the trees away from the wall and they may do better. Good luck and be patient yet diligent.
