Drawf Japanese Maple, or scientific name Aratama Japanese Maple

I have recently purchased my home that already had an established Dwarf Japanese Maple. When I moved in it was in full bloom over last summer, we didn't have a hard winter and now this spring it is only budding on 1/4 of the tree. The leaves are a beautiful burgandy and healthy looking but the other side is alive but not producing. The side that is not blooming is bendable but not greening and showing new life to produce new buds. I have killed the grass and weeds underneath so when cutting the grass it wouldn't damage the tree. This morning I pulled the weeds hand tilled the dirt and added a mixture of top soil, pet moss, permiculite, and manure. I then added cypress mulch and let me sprinkler run on lower for about an hour. What else can I do to help it regain life. The base looks healthy and the I see no signs of bugs. Please help, I would love to kepp this beautiful tree. My house is 17 years old and I from what my neighbors have remembered is that it was planted by the original owner the year the house was built back in '88. Please let me know what I can do to help this little guy! Thanks! Jollyajolly@carolina.rr.com

 

looking at it, i'd say most of it is dead (however, the picture doesnt give good detail) the whole plant should leaf evenly........unlikely the winter killed it, probably one of the many pathogens that attack maples is responsible.
i hope i am wrong, give it a bit more time to see if the rest leafs.

 

The problem is, it is not dead. The branches are very alive they are just not budding. We didn't have a winter, we even rairly needed a coat. It was very werid but maybe that had something to do with it. I hope not. Thank you for replying Oscar! Please if anyone else knows anything or has any suggestions to help please let me know! Thanks!

 

Hi, just a thought, what did you kill the grass with? and was it before the tree leafed out? this spring.

Ashizuru.

 

Just a note: I assume that the soil is still at the same level at the trunk after all of those amendments. Japanese maples do not need wet or moist soil, so there is no need to increase the amount of water that you have given it since you moved in last year. One hour of soaking sounds like a lot to me. Do you have a closer photograph of the left side of the tree, which is the area of concern? We may not know what happened to the buds, but someone will take a look and give it a shot.

 

Jolly,
I see there are 2 possibilities here.
Scenario 1: I had a dwarf maple, the full moon variety. It was about 10 inches tall and 9 years old, at which stage her siblings have already reached heights ranging from 6 to 10 feet. In 2004, I brought it indoors under artificial lights, the leaves stayed on until mid-December, then dropped off. When Spring came, it had fever buds than normal and showed signs of severe stress, looking rather pathetic. However it survived on in 2005 and this year it recovered and look healthy again. A deciduous plants needs the dormancy much like you need your sleep to maintain vigor. You can't turn it into an evergreen within a year without it suffering adverse effects. Now during the warm winter last year, did the tree shed its leaves by late Oct or early Nov. If not then you may have a similar case as the one described here.
Scenario 2. Maples are attacked by various forms of fungi which invariably causes die-back in twigs. In most cases the lower portion of the branch recovers and buds normally. If the infestation is heavy, then the whole branch fails to bud and dries up within 1 to 3 years. If this is its problem, then wait till spring 2007 when you get: no buds, its going or a goner; budding then your worries are over. At this stage you need to remove the affected branch right at the lowest point, otherwise the infection would in time spread to the healthy branches.

 

I would cut the dead branches off, and maybe treat with some sort of spray fungiside or somthing. I have a koto no ito that has done that same thing twice, both times i had to remove more than half of it, but what was still alive started to grow pretty darn fast. my tree has now been growing for three years without any problems. take a blade and scrape some bark off the branches, if it is green under there it is still trying to grow or not all the way dead. If the color under the bark is brown then those branches are dead, try this by the trunk also.

 

Hi, Jolly. I know it is stressful when a tree you love appears in jeopardy but I would do nothing further. Your good intentions might stress the tree more by changing its growth
environment at the exact time it is trying to handle what it has. Also, maples are fibrous surface rooters & hand tilling can hurt the surface roots. I doubt you have injured the tree but take a deep breath. Your tree knows how to grow and handle itself.
Is that picture a current picture because when a highlight it it says April 29, 2006. We need a current picture of the possibly troubled left side.
On the possibly troubled left side, are any of the branches showing new shoot growth lower down as a sign of life?
As ashizuru wisely asked, how did you "kill the grass and weeds" - did u use any chemical?
Did u have a dry winter? because I had a big Bloodgood with lawn around it and in a dry winter the grass which is a water sponge absorbed all the rain moisture & left my tree
very stressed.Also, 'Aratama' is a witches broom and witches brooms can have sudden death & dieback especially when older possibly because of their unusual genetics.
Witches brooms have a signature shortened center lobe on the leaves - do your tree's leaves have this stubby center lobe?
Give me feedback on these questions and we can take it from there.

 

Good advice, both Del's and katsura, but this is a very old thread and Jolly hasn't been active on the forum since 2006. Any further advice would likely be redundant.

 

thanks for the heads up, maf. no wonder the pic said April 29, 2006!
I did NOT look at the date of the original posts assuming it was a current question & post.
and we know what the word 'assume' can be broken down in to.

 

Not your fault, you would not usually expect such a zombie thread to be resurrected.

I may as well close the thread now, (I was tempted to do so earlier today - it would have saved confusion if I had), if Jolly ever comes back we can re-open it.