I have a autumn blaze maple in my front yard for the last 3 years. Every year it is slow to produce leaves and it turns directly red/orange without being green for too long. This year, all the neighbors trees are already leafing but mine is not and is bare. There is a different branch coming from the base of the tree that is leafing though. Is this tree gone? Can i do something to help it grow? Edit: im in minnesota. We had a drought last year, but i was pretty good at watering it twice a week.
Good evening and welcome to the maples forum, I'm afraid looking at your photo 4 that it has been girdled and so everything above that is now dead. But the good news is that you have growth below which will grow into something in a few years and is starting on its way now. It will mean IMO that you need to remove everything above that new growth. Quite drastic I know, but its that or a new tree. Others may have different opinions, but that's my thoughts.
Yeah as soon as I saw that girdling all the way round the base I came to the same conclusion! Looks like rabbit or deer or squirrels or something has gnawed through the bark all the way around! Definitely looks like a goner above that unfortunately.
The only good news is that many 'Autumn Blaze' are produced by tissue culture, so there's a chance that what's coming up from the root is the same cultivar. It will grow rapidly since it's the only thing the root is feeding; as others have noted, the original top from ground up is dead. From your description it may have been dead for a year or 2 already, and the leaves just surviving off of the energy left in the main stem: a zombie, in other words. Because the root is established you won't necessarily gain time replacing with a (unestablished) new tree. That's the only option though.
