Hello, Our neighbor allowed us to dig up a Japanese Maple over a month ago that was growing too close to their house and replant it in our yard (about 50 feet from its original location). It is about 9 foot tall. I did the best I could to get as much root-ball as possible but it was difficult with how close it was to the foundation and sidewalk. Within the first week of replanting all the leaves on two of the lower limbs withered and fell off. We thought it was stress from the move, then last week 1/2 of the tree withered and a couple days after that all the leaves on the tree have withered. I have read the posts on Verticillium Wilt, and have cut two limbs off to investigate, but have found no discoloration. Could anything else have caused this to deteriorate so quickly? We ensured it had enough water and that we did not plant it too shallow etc. Of course the bottom line question is if a tree goes through this, is there any chance it will recover? With it now going into July and the tree having no leaves. Are we wasting time and money continuing to water and buy fertalizer etc. trying to save it? A million thanks in advance, Rob
Probably not much need for continued fertilization. I'd continue to water it though. It is near the house so every three days w/o rain shouldn't be that much trouble. Does it have any buds? Whenever I transplant anything around the yard it has a rough time. A sorta shock. I just don't get enough of the root mass myself.
It is a bad time of the year to transplant a tree It should not be fertilised Remove the damaged branches and cut back as much as possible to give the root system as little to do as possible You just might be lucky and the tree will produce new leaves, but I think the size of the tree and the time of year have left you with very little chance of success Sorry
