I have question for you more experienced maple growers. I purchase a maple on ebay about 2 months ago and it was shipped express mail. When the maple arrived it looked a bit stunned. I potted it right away, but all the leaves eventually died off. It now looks like a grafted twig and I wonder if it will recover and leaf out again? Any suggestions on how I could help it recover from the shock? Should I keep in in the shade or partial sun? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank You, Johnna
Johnna, As long as the grafted twig or scion still looks alive and is not brown and brittle, then things look good. If it was going to die, good chance that would have happened by now. Keep it it partial shade, but some morning sun would be ok. The leaves will not be using moisture so monitor the soil to make sure it isn't too wet and keep it from drying out. Make sure it is a fast draining mix so the roots stay healthy. If you remember it to have a decent looking root system, you can use a little dilute 0-10-10 to see if you can stimulate bud development or get things moving. There are also root stimulartors with hormones and usually something like 3-10-4 NPK. Both of these are usually 15-30ml per gallon and I would use the lesser. Do this every few weeks. No granular or nitrogen fertilizers. When I lost leaves from a batch of plants as you have, it seems that 4-6 weeks was the wait time, but the summer heat and the progression of the summer will move things along. Good Luck. Michael
Hi, In addition to Michael's advice I would add: BE PATIENT. I have a red seedling that I underwatered. The leaves eventually dried up and fell. Despite my care no new leaves sprouted out. It has been this way for almost a year! Only now is it showing signs of small, bright red buds sprouting on either side where buds had died and a few live buds are starting to swell. I *was* going to toss it during a recent move, but a maple friend convince me to take it along. I'm glad I did. I'm very anxiously awaiting the leaves to come out! I'm looking at it every day...like watching water boil.... Good luck, Layne PS, when something like this happens contact the seller right away and email some pictures to show them the condition the tree arrived in. They'll usually make things right.
