Hello, found your forum and thought I might be able to get some help here. With all that I have read it seems as though this may be verticillium wilt however would like to know for sure. I purchased this tree at the beginning of the summer from a local plant growers soceity on the square in our town. It seemed to do fine for quite a while but now I am noticing brown spots on the end of the leaves and the small branches are all turning black. I live in Alabama and have had a quite a bit of rain this summer so I have left it alone. Aside from the initial fertilizer at the time of planting this guy I have added none. As you can see from the picture the branches are still green inside. I have not cut a large branch to see if there are rings inside as it is still only 3 ft or so and was hoping to avoid cutting anything substantial. Any help would be appreciated. This was a fairly expensive tree and I would love to keep it.
if send a pics is better ,however if is verticilium you have 10 % that remain in life,several prune is one way ...
LindeLu- I have a small hobby nursery with over 80 cultivars in Auburn (my wife is from Opp by the way) and their are many challenges to growing maples in our warm climate in the south, especially in containers. I routinely lose up to 5-10% of my plants in containers each year and less of my planted cultivars. The most common culprits are fusarium and verticilium but it could be as simple as heat and drought stress on your tree. Please enclose pictures and as many details about hours of sunlight and soil type if planted in ground, etc to help with suggestions to help avoid your problem. jws
From what I can tell from picture, it appears to be normal end of summer leaf burn, which is common in the southern climates, especially in potted maples. As far as the twigs turning black, some of my red disectum cultivars like 'Garnet', 'Crimson Queen' and 'Orangeola' all display some of the same trait (dark terminal twigs)but I have seen no adverse affect on mine and they come back vigorously year after year with little die back (at least over the past 3 years I have been collecting them). If interested, you couuld send a sample in to the link below for the only definitive diagnosis: http://www.aces.edu/dept/plantdiagnosticlab/ Hope this helps. Justin
Wow, you have given me some hope. I will send a sample though. Thank you thank you thank you! Also, should I be pruning it at this time? It is about 4 feet tall and kind of gangly looking. What do I do to help it in the spring?
The most anal answer, which is also safest for your maple as many fungi attack the tree thru fresh cuts, is to prune when the plant is dormant, never cut more than 20% of the tree at any one time and always try to sterilize a sharp pruning shear before and during cuts. I also spray my maples after pruning and periodically through the summer with a broad spectrum systemic fungicide. Maples are great because with patience and time, you can shape them to look like anything you want. Some cultivars are known for growing very aggressively when young, but this will usually slow with age. Another suggestion is to limit the use of high nitrogen fertilizer on your maples as this will encourage stringy growth in most cultivars. Hope this helps.
Tks. Glad to find someone so knowledgeable. And in my area, too! How lucky I am. I will post pics in the spring of my baby and it's progress.
