Our Liquid Amber, planted probably 5 years ago and now about 10 feet tall, has a history of drooping and bending excessively when the leaves are wet or snow laden. Once, about 3 years ago, it drooped so much the trunk broke. Since then it has recovered, but in the wet weather of the last few days it is once again drooping and threatening to break the trunk. Is this typical behaviour? Could it be some kind of deficiency that we could correct with fertilizer spikes?
Maybe climatic, rather than any nutrient deficiency. It needs very hot summers to mature the wood well. Even if a soil test does demonstrate a nutrient deficiency, those fertiliser spikes are unlikely to help - they are (as well as being the most expensive way of adding fertiliser, made by a manufacturer whose other main product is snake oil) not very good at getting the fertiliser to the roots. Better to add only any nutrient advised by the soil test report, and to add it as a broadcast granular form.
Our summers are usually fairly hot - last year was anyway. This year is cool so far. Other liquid ambers in our neighbourhood seem to be OK.
Our liquid amber tree is over 80 years old. It is dropping branches, it never did before. It is also drooping. Does yours have sticky balls? You might call it something else. Could watering too much, cause the branches to fall off?
Fast-growing quite short-lived species prone to breakage. Snow damage common in this climate region - which is far from hot. Worst problem is with southernmost origin seedlings that keep leaves into December, causing more snow to be collected than with those that turn color and defoliate earlier in fall. Worst storms of the year occur during November in this area, trees not shutting down before/during then are not in sequence with the climate. Occasional years when an Arctic front comes that early may see losses of long-established specimens of kinds of trees not maturing their wood before then.
