The following was received via email: My beautiful friend, a Japanese Maple I have known since I moved here for ten years, appears to be dying this summer. Some branches are evidently dead and many leaves have curled into brown embers. Research so far suggests a case of verticillium although this is not confirmed, Is there anything I can do? Thank you for any direction you can give me. I am very uninformed about gardening, but struggling to know more. Note -- here in this case means the Lower Mainland of British Columbia --
Verticillium We have many customers who report sucess using Phyton 27, a copper/sufate hydrate. It is available in the US from Source Botanical Biologicals, 1-(800) ELM TREE. You should first cut off the dead wood, flush with the trunk, and cover with a wound paste(available at a bonsai store) or with Phytech 50, a bees wax and lanolin paste available from Source Tech or in our catalog. Please let us know if this works or not. It helps us all. nancy
pruning to remove dead wood, fertilizing and ample water have also shown signs of recovery in maples affected by verticillium wilt. It is a vascular disease and sometimes is overcome by the plant replacing subsequent growth rings with uninfected cambium.
Hello, We live in Kitsilano, Vancouver, British Columbia and have an Acer Palmatum, a beautiful tree. About 15 feet high. Has been doing well, but last fall developed dead leaves on some branches, it may have suffered from poor watering. The leaves did not drop. This early spring I have pruned out the dead branches, and I suppose will now go back and prune out the branches with similarly marked bark, but which are not dead. This will remove perhaps 50% of the tree. The bark looks yellowy-greyish along the length of the branches. Sounds like Verticullum Wilt based on what I have read. So sad. There was a red maple only a block and a half from here which gradually died back, though was never pruned. It is now dead, and still standing. I will try the solutions listed in this forum, and let you know what happens, though I don't hold out much hope.
