Yesterday I noticed that several of the leaves on this Japanese Maple had started to die. The tree is about 3' tall, and is still stuck in its' 1 gallon pot. I hope to have it in the ground in the next day or two, still getting the ground ready today. For the last two days we have had some terrible winds here, and I am aware that these guys don't much like wind. I am wondering if it is possible that the ends of the leaves got excessively dried out by the wind and this is causing the problem. There are about 25 other maples here, also still in pots which are OK. BUT they were in a different, far more protected area. Your comments will be extremely welcome, as I definitely do not want to lose this tree!
Thanks for your replies. Now if I could just learn how to upload pictures, I would be happy to post some. The damage does not appear to be very extensive, about a couple of dozen leaves are affected. I think what I will do is to remove the damaged leaves, and see if anything further develops. And then I must learn how to post pics.
Thank you for the help. It worked! You can see that the damage starts at the end of the leaves. Since moving the tree, I have not noticed any more damage either on this tree or any of the others.
Now you wait to see how it develops. Just make sure that it is kept adequately watered but NOT wet .... MOIST soil is what is required, and I assume it is well drained as it is still in a pot It would be better in the ground though, and if you are planting it out I have found that these trees succeed better planted in a shallow hole and with the soil then mounded up around the root ball (like a 'berm')
Thank you for that. Do you know if this particular variety prefers more or less sun? I have areas in the garden which go from filtered sun all day, to as much as 7 hours full sun. If it makes any difference, the large bulk of the garden is on a varying slope.
I have one a small one in deep shade and this is the colour it gave me last year I think they would prefer some sun though
Wow! What gorgeous colour. I went through the Vertrees/Gregory book on maples this morning, and could not find any mention of their preference as to light. It does say that the Osakazuki, not "suki" as I incorrectly spelled it, reliably produces this lovely fall colour. I have just cleared out a suitable area for my little one and it will be in the ground later today. A northwest wind will come through the garden as it is right now, but I will be building a series of windbreaks before I get too much in the ground. Thank you again for all your valuable help.
