I have an Acer Palmatum Osakazuki, which I got for my birthday 6 weeks ago. It is about 6ft high. When I got it the leaves were a bit sun scorched, but nothing seemed terribly wrong. The person who gave it to me said that it had been moved a couple of times and would need time to settle in. He did say that the leaves would fall off. Suddenly in the last week 2/3rds of the leaves have shrivelled up and look like they might fall off. Is this normal? Even though I was warned, it doesn't look right. The tree is in a pot and gets about 3 hours fullish sun (the top gets it but the base never gets it). The rest of the time its in shade. We have been having a hot summer in England. Please help. Thanks
I water it once a day, but only water it for about 10 seconds. It has been really really hot here, but in the last 2 weeks not so bad and it started to rain. Do you think I need to water it more?
Ten seconds? Does the surface even get wet that way? A newly planted tree (even a maple) needs half an hour daily, though not if it's raining, of course.
Oops, shows why I'm a seedling. Thanks ever so much. Will get the sprinkler on the case. Is this what it needs all the time throughout the year (obviously not when its raining, but during the summer)? So will it recover ok?
It's a bit difficult to generalize - what could be right in one climate is not suitable for another. I water every 4 or 5 days maples planted in the ground, may be every 3 in case of a heat wave - but it's probably best to test the soil. This goes for maples planted last fall, as well. I have not had a problem. In pots, it depends on your mix, as well. You can overwater - which will stress the tree as well. No need to water a pot where the soil is still uniformly moist in my opinion. Check moisture levels not just on top, try to find out how your mix reacts to water.
Thanks schusch It sounds like your climate in Luxembourg would be similar to mine. My maple is in a pot and I would have thought got enough water every 3/4 days with the rain etc. Possibly it could do with more - are they that sensitive to watering. I will try watering, but do you think that dehydration is the problem? None of the leaves are actually falling off, they are just quite shrivelled and dry round the edges.
I think when Rima says half an hour a day, she means with a slow drip system, and when you say 10 seconds, you mean with a hose, or a steady stream of water? The advantage of a slow drip system is uniform distribution of water, less shock to the roots (they are not so easily drowned), better aeration/moisture ratio, etc. If you hit the pot with a stream, it could be that some of it goes right through, and parts will not get water - try for uniform moisture, use your hand to find out how your potting mix behaves. They don't like to be wet, but constant moisture is a must. It must not dry out. So check. You can't generalize since someone might use a lot of grit, another person lava rocks, another some type of compost, etc - all behave differently. If I had to venture a guess, I'd agree with Carol Ja and Rima, that you need to water better. BTW, not sure what you mean by 'sprinkler' but,as far as I understand, it's best to water the roots only, not the whole tree.
To prevent fungal disease, I advocate for watering the tree from below the leaves. I do not have the luxury of a drip system, so I water hundreds of pots, many of which are maples, by hand. If you have a wand on the end, you can then choose how gently you are administering the water. Like Schusch says, you can get to know the soil, and can gently dig down to see if you are getting water uniformly distributed, then check again in three to four days in your climate to see if the upper inch or so is dry. 'Osakazuki' is a fabulous gift. If you are not familiar with this cultivar, it turns a lovely red in the fall, and several comments have been made in the forum that it will do so in the shade as well. It is interesting that your friend predicted that the leaves would fall off. Do you know if they transplanted this tree from ground to pot some weeks before it arrived for your birthday? Typically this would not happen to a containerized cultivar just from being moved from one location to another. Feel free to post a photograph. If the leaves are badly shrivelled, you can gently remove them. If two-thirds of the leaves are shrivelled, you might remove the worst half first and wait for comment from another member, who has removed two-thirds of the leaves at once. I have done it with rose bushes, but would look to experience before doing this with a precious tree. There should be buds where the leaves are removed, and as several members have noted, you should see new leaves in about three weeks. Of course, the water needs may decrease a bit during this period, so monitor the soil carefully.
Just as a point of interest.... I was speaking with a local nursery today in regard to another tree when I decided to pick their brains on my Japanese Maple's leaf-loss problem. I asked him if he knew a lot about JMs and before I could get anything else out of my mouth he said, "Let me guess, all your leaves dried, and curled up and your tree looks dead." He said they have rec'd up to 85 calls this summer with this problem and have no idea what exactly is going on. I'm still wondering if it's a weather related issue here so I did a little scouting of established JMs in my area. Many of them look thin, dead interior branches, orange colored leaves and TONS of spinners. I believe the spinners is a sign of stress... is that correct? I've also noticed some trees have been cut down, and some look all dried up (like mine). I don't see signs of tight bark on any of these trees, although lichen is common around here. I've only found one healthy looking one which is quite large, I'd say about 20 years established in it's location. Also, the native sugar maples look thinned out now (have curled and dropping leaves). According to one of the articles Laurie posted a link to (last week, I think) it said this can happen to trees that receive a lot of rain in the spring followed by a dry hot summer.
[FONT="]Shelli, pardon my ignorance, but I know ‘spinners’ as a term of baseball, fishing, and arachnology, but is this a term for ‘samaras’ as well? (As a child living in various places where maples are not native, we called those ‘helicopters’!) You are talking about unusually prolific fruiting and early seed drop, right? [/FONT]
Exactly. I don't know where the term "spinners" came from or how localized it is. It's just what we all ('round my neck of the woods) call them.. probably cos they spin thru the air as the fall. :-) Yes, the trees are covered with huge clumps... so much so that the JM trees (from a distance) appear to be turning autumn red already, but upon closer inspection it's just massive clumps of spinners. I read somewhere that maples produce more when under stress. In the last 4 years my 50-year-old maple lived it spun itself silly!!! That's probably why I have all these lovely little seedlings growing in my flower beds...which...incidentally, don't seem to be suffering any from the hot summer.... hmmmm, I'm not sure what that means... unless JM trees have a secret, so far undisclosed favor for impatiens and snap dragons!!! Just kidding. :-) More likely because my flowers are planted in mostly mounds of potting soil which has much better drainage than my clay-based yard.
Climber, I have exactly the same problem here in Buenos Aires with my new Acer, except after a few weeks all the leaves have shrivelled up and fallen off apart from a few new shoots at the base of the tree. I noticed the other day though that there are tiny new buds coming out all over it so although it looks rather dead (even though Fall hasnt started here yet) I think it is going to be ok. I did some research and it seems that this is very common for Acers once they are moved. I have been reading that the first season after moving or transplanting the leaves are super sun sensitive and burn easily but that the new leaves the following spring should be much more hardy. I guess we will find out. I just joined the site after seeing your thread when I did a google search so thanks for helping me to stumble upon the community. Hope your Acer comes good again.
Sadly my Acer did die. I determined it died from root rot. After it failed to bud in the spring, I dug up the root ball and it was mush. After I had planted it that year we had an unusal amount of rain, 16 inches in 2 months in a clay-based soil, and then the weather turned hot. The leaves started to wilt and I thought (mistakenly) it needed more water. Oh, well. Lesson learned. But good news, I found a sad little unwanted red maple at K-mart of all places (end of season sale) and planted it in the fall and it has been thriving ever since, almost 4 years now!!! Learned my lesson about overwatering. Good luck with your tree. If it has new buds that sounds much more promising than my situation was.
