I have always loved this tree, but never would spend the money so in the summer i bought 2 about 3 feet tall. I planted them in pots with miracle grow potting soil. and ive watched them get worse all summer the leaves wilted i put them in filtered light first and it seems they were not doing good and then i put one in direct sun no difference, i just recently planted one in the ground and it has not done any better, now its turned cold and i dont know what to do with them. I really need some help i dont want them to die
Grafted Japanese maples are prone to dying back of the top, if you look around a bit you can probably find multiple threads where people are wondering why theirs is blighting off - and being offered suggestions. One previously active contributor has stated that there is a problem with some production operations sending stock out pre-infected, so that dieback manifests after the unhappy specimen has been purchased and planted out in its final resting place for a time. Japanese maples are also prune to rotting of the roots unless drainage is excellent, if yours have gotten too hot and wet in your hot and wet summer climate this could be what is happening also. As the roots go, so goes the top. The south side of a small pot left with the sun beating on it can reach 150 degrees F. in a short time.
Any more it requires us to know the grower of Crimson Queen. Branch dieback with some leaf wilt to the top of the trees is becoming more and more prevalent with several of the red dissectums in recent years. The better known wholesale nurseries that carry Crimson Queen are still producing some fine plants but other growers are having some growing issues with their red dissectums. If we see branch dieback at the tops of the trees before we buy them, we are taking a big risk with these plants. Some Maples like three of our Red Select from a mass merchandiser looked great when we bought them and within two years later started to have some severe top dieback issues until we gave them a hard prune and helped restore some vigor back into those trees. We still see some dieback during the Summer months here on those trees but not like we used to see allover the plant. Number one issue in Oregon and has been for several years is water mold fungi from too wet a potting soil. Too much applied water or too much of water holding capacity in soils that are not allowed to have some drying out can cause the tips to wilt and shrivel. Affected Maples can take upwards of three years to snap out of it and annually yield adequate new growth from then on. Another thing to keep in mind is that nutrient fortified potting mediums are not always considered good for young Maples grown in containers. We can get a stunting of the growth before and after we see some wilting of the tips and subsequent leaf loss. If we also get some wood loss we surely do not help the tree by fortifying the soil with nutrients and minerals that are not yet made available to the plant yet. For juvenile trees that have some root shoot development then a fortified soil is not nearly the growing issue it can be with a young plant with less than adequate and established root growth instead. You are in an area that will almost surely cause your weakened tree some time to adapt to your climate and growing conditions. Sometimes it is better to buy the plant from a retail nursery, even one gallon sized Maples and go ahead and plant them into the ground, rather than hold them over for a period of time in a container and then plant them. I go both ways in that it is advised in some areas not to plant the trees in the ground too young and in some areas it is advised to plant them when young. Here it is better to buy a Maple that is five to seven years old and then plant it as too many two to four year old trees just do not adapt well for people when planted in the ground at young ages. I am not saying that people should refrain from planting a one to three year old Maple but I am hesitant to recommend others do it in our area unless they have some background knowledge of Maples and how well and not so well they tend to grow in our area. I'll give you an example of what we all fear that have been around these plants. Let's say a mass merchandiser gets in 200 five gallon Crimson Queen and sells them for $24.95 each and they all sell. One year later how many of those 200 five gallon trees are still alive for people? Less than half of them are at best around here and again less than half of those will live long enough to see a second full year in the ground. So in effect at best 50 trees remain that will start their third year in the ground around these parts. This is why we may have to pay the higher price for a better quality five gallon plant from a retail nursery and watch that Maple outlast in years the bargain plants. Any more that $24.95 retail Maple is considered a throwaway plant to a bona fide nurseryman or to an experienced plantsman. This does not mean that the cheaper plant cannot live for 20 years and more for some people but it is not expected to get that far along in years for most people. Whereas the $59.95 - $99.99 five gallon Maple from the retail nursery should get up to 20 years for us unless we mess it up. Buy the Monrovia plant as an example from a retail nursery rather than buy the same named Maple from a mass merchandiser is what we would recommend to others first and foremost. Although some select people do garner some success growing the lesser priced named plant but so many more others buying those same plants are not nearly so fortunate. Jim
Thanks for the reply all! The tree was a 3 gallon tree i think it came from Lowes or Home Depot for maybe 70.00. Now its hard to tell how its doing it had some new grouth on it until it got snowed on last week. It will be interesting to see what happens in the spring
Some photos of what the trees have done and are doing could help us better pinpoint the problem issue or issues you are having. One thing to always consider is that when a palmatum type Maple is having some leaf shrivel issues along with or having just twig and branch dieback issues, it is better to have the tree in the ground as opposed to keeping the tree in a container. I've always yielded to advise people to plant the tree relatively soon if it continues to show symptoms of disease or disorders and/or nutrient imbalances in a container. I do not always follow my own advice as sometimes I want to try my hand at correcting the issues on my own. Sometimes I have had success and other times I can kick myself for not going ahead and planting the tree. A case in point to a degree of us not messing around are the three Red Selects we bought as landscape plants that were planted soon after the hard pruning we did on them. All three were good sized short fifteen gallon container plants when we bought them from two, different cities, Home Depots from the same grower in Oregon five years ago. I am sorry to say that the quality, size and labeling of the Maples I've seen the last three to four years at several mass merchandiser retail outlets around here and elsewhere are not up to nursery standard for these plants. Jim
