Hello, my Japanese maple (that has been established for at least 4 years) has a few bare branches, and now I have noticed leaves turning brown and completely drying up. We have had a lot of rain recently, but did do some weeding and clearing around the base of the tree. This was confined to the top 3-4 inches of soil, but I am wondering if this has caused some real damage? I have attached some photos. Any help is appreciated!
Hi @Dexter2016, I'm afraid your tree has suffered like a lot of others over this very wet Winter and Spring, loosening the soil around the tree base will do it no harm at all. What your maple needs to survive is oxygen to the roots. Looking at your photos the ground is very compacted indeed. On the Maples forum I have just posted a thread on compaction of soil. IMO it is 50/50 whether it will survive, but if you can loosen the soil a bit more it will raise its chances of survival. When you know that certain branches are dead these should be pruned off. Do not feed or add water as the water table is still probably high causing root rot causing the tree stress. Hope that's of some help.
I agree with @Acerholic. That soil pretty much looks like mud. The tree look like it is small enough to dig up easily. Fix the soil around it with pine bark mulch, small amount of orangic compost, and perlite.
@LoverOfMaples good morning, I think due to how the weather is changing we are going to see more questions like this on the maple forum. 'Good advice by you'.
