I purchased a 12 ft maple and planted it last spring. It came back nice this spring but now 90% of its leaves have browned and appear dead. The bark looks nice and green when wet and the nursery where I bought it from says its probably due to frost and to do nothing as there are no visible signs of the cause. Any suggestions?
I will have to get my wife to get a photo but just picture dead leaves that crumble in your hand, this is how 90% of the tree looks.
Well that doesn't sound very good. If the branches are still green there may still be hope. Still a picture of the tree may help. Planting conditions? Watering schedule? Fertilizer? Did you get a bad frost as the nursery suggested?
Trying to figure out how to add a picture, as far as planting conditions go I have planted may things in 40 yrs and have always followed the planting suggestions with proper soil mix and have had great success. I was told by the nursery to water for the first year (last) then it will get it's own. The frost issue seems to be key here, as the nursery mentioned we did have the warm weather then the frost and they report a lot of calls for the same problem. The 90% of dead leaves will fall off soon, the other 10% look fine along with the rest of the tree. Do you folks agree with the nursery and think I should do nothing?
to add a photo you need to go to "go advanced" post and click on the paperclip and you can load your photos from there. I am no expert on frost damage but I can say on most of the trees I have had that have suffered frost damage browning on the edges has not been the impact I have seen. I have seen burnt and brown leaves on my dwarfs after snow has fallen on their leaves but I concider snow on the leaves to be different than frost damage. Most of the trees I have seen with frost or freezing damage open up and then just stop developing. For me, I see the greatiest amont of brown leaves from lack of water and wind burn. I have suffered this a lot this year on some of my freshly dug trees since I am having a bit of a drought in my yard and my irrigation system is in a temporary repair status.
How to Attach Photos and other files Cosmo, the frost theory is possible if you have had a late and hard spring frost. If the leaves are dead but the shoots are still firm and healthy looking the maple should be fine and will re-leaf from the reserve buds. If this year's shoots look droopy or wilted that indicates a far more serious problem, likely originating at the roots and not connected to the frost.
Thanks, I'm still wonfering if I should do nothing like the nursery suggested, if I do and it's not a frost issue I may lose the tree. Water was not a problem, I have 3 flowering bushes and one of them looks simmilar, just a few green leaves.
The dead leaves come off easily now when pulled, there are about 9 healthy leaves left. The rest of the tree looks great other than the normal (assuming) dead tips of some branches.
