Hi all, I just discovered this forum three weeks just before buying my first JM. I'd firstly like to thank everyone for contributing to such an informative and fascinating forum. I've already learned so much from all your posts, though I'm still very much a maple newbie. My maple, an Osakazuki, was planted two weeks ago and seemed to be doing just fine until yesterday when I came home to find 80-90% of it's leaves dried up and shrivelled. The leaves were fine when I checked in on the tree yesterday morning so this has happened in one day. It's just coming into Autumn here, it was overcast most of the day and probably about 20C/68F. The tree is in semi-shade and receives about 3-4 hours of direct sun a day. I've attached photographs, the first two were taken a week ago when the tree looked normal to me. The rest show it's current state. My green-thumbed friend suggested it was shock from being transplanted and that it will recover. I've read several other threads on the forum with similar problems attributed to verticillium, underwatering, tight bark etc but I am unsure what may apply in my case. The topsoil does dry out quite quickly but about 15cm down the soil becomes clay-ey so retains a bit more moisture for longer. I have been watering the tree regularly but trying not to drown it. Can anyone see a clear indication of what has caused this? Is my tree going to survive? Is there anything I should do now to help it? Thanks, Dan
I've had trees do this - they just got a little dried out - and fully recovered, and I've had them do it and never recover. I think you won't know for sure til next spring...
I honestly think it will be fine. Dying maples wilt, not crisp up. ( well I mean they can crisp up and wilt but this crisping looks normal )
It happen to me before, due to transplant stress. What I did to help to speed up the process to recover, was to cut the curled/damaged leaves letting only the petioles (they will fall by themselves in a week or so) and hope the best. Sometimes, depending of the season, after two/three weeks the tree will start again to produce new leaves -if there is enough time before temperatures drop too much- and goes dormant. I also suggest to put at least 2" of mulch around the root area. Nelran Nelran
My maple dried up in early summer but grew back by early fall just to give me some fall colors, then they fell off naturally :D
May I suggest that you dig this maple out of its planting hole and check whether the roots are too dry or too wet (it has only just been planted and this will do no harm) This will tell you whether or not it is under or over watered ... both situations can cause your problem THEN ... replant but NOT so deep .... plant even on top of the soil and mound up around the roots, if you know what I mean These trees need good drainage more than anything else I would do this as a matter of urgency or you may lose your tree I hope this helps
Thanks for all of your replies, they've given me some hope! The surviving leaves on the tree have all turned bright red now, like normal autumn colours. Not sure if it's normal for maples to change colour in one day? It is the right time of year but I'm assuming the quick change is related to the stress as there were still a lot of green leaves before the shrivelling happened. On the plus side, there hasn't been any further shrivelling. whis4ey, I gave the tree a water as soon as I noticed the shrivelled leaves as my immediate reaction was 'dry leaves - must water!'. So I won't have a true picture of what the soil was like the day it happened. I haven't dug the tree up and replanted but I did dig down one side of the plant earlier today to check the soil there. It's moist but not soggy at all and seemed about right for having been watered the night before. It was a bit dry on top though so I have a feeling that if anything this spot has a tendency to dry out. I'll keep being attentive and hopefully the tree will bounce back.
I hope you are right, but I have a funny feeling that your tree is planted too deeply and that it is being overwatered and is not draining properly If I am right, and you don't correct the problem. then your tree will die The suggestion of planting 'stress' doesn't sit well with me.... it all happened too quickly However ... here's hoping that you aren't being too attentive ... that doesn't help either Good luck and hopefully you will find that my observations (which are being offered from a long way away :)) are unfounded
Whis4ey, has a good point. I planted my JMs in a mounded bed due my hard clay soil. My recommendation is no more water and put 5 cms (2") of mulch. With mulch, you will realize that almost you don't need to water the tree. It keeps soil moist (even when you see that the mulch is dry). If you lift a little bit of much you will realize that the soil is moist. Also the mulch protects the roots from excessive temperature in summer, and keep warm during winter. When I started to grow maples here, my main problem was due too much water and poor drain. After a year with poor results, I had to dig up and replant some of the trees. They're doing very well now -once the roots stablished-. Good luck!
Thanks again for all your advice. Over the weekend I decided I would follow Whis4ey's suggestion and dig up the tree. Whatever the problem, improved drainage isn't going to hurt in the long run and better to do it now than realise it needs to be done further down the track. So I dug it up and also dug the hole about 50% deeper and dug out another foot or so all around the sides of the hole. So probably had almost a 1 cubic metre hole. I got rid of a bunch of the clay soil from the bottom. I mixed up the rest of heavy soil I'd removed with a bit of compost and gravel and filled the bottom of the hole back in, then put in a layer of gravel with a little soil soil just under where the tree would sit. Replaced the tree and filled in the sides with more of the remixed soil which should drain a lot better. It doesn't show up too well in the photo but the tree has been raised up about 20-25cm so sits on a little mound. Then I've put a layer of mulch around the mound. The spot should be a lot more free draining now. What I did notice when I pulled the tree up was that the top and bottom of the root ball were moist but the middle was very dry. Confusing! I'm now glad I did this, we had a lot of rain last night (first big downpour in ages) and I can be a bit more confident that it won't hurt the tree. The dried leaves have all rehydrated (though still brown and dead of course), very odd looking. I really hope the tree pulls through now, the surviving leaves are such a beautiful intense red that I can't truly capture in photos. At dusk it seems like it's glowing red. Exactly what I was hoping for when I picked Osakazuki. Cheers, Dan
I think mounding it up the way you did was a smart way to go. I do the same with mine. I figure, at worst I'm creating room to put mulch around them without crowding the crown. With the caveat that there are much more educated gardeners on this forum than I, I would like to try and explain something that was once explained to me by someone I respect very much. According to them, it's possible for a maple to die from dehydration after being over-watered. At first that seemed bizarre, but let me explain the reasoning. Maple roots, especially the valuable little ones, are sensitive to being over-watered and can die from it. Following that initial drowning the tree will have a reduced root mass to send up water, oxygen, and nutrients to the leaves. In that type of situation a maple will need more frequent less intense watering. I had a few trees do the shriveled leaf dance last year during a long dry summer. I suspect I over-watered and then they really had trouble with the conditions. I held my breath every time I watered wondering if I was giving them too much or too little. I finally hit upon the method of watering close to the trunk (not too close) and watching the rate of water disappearance. I would give them a quick burst and if the water sunk in rapidly I would give the tree more (in bursts) until that was no longer the case. If after the first burst the water didn't penetrate quickly I would move on. Oftentimes there were days where I would have sworn they should be thirsty that they were not and there were other days that they sucked down the water even when they'd had water recently. I read once that watering is an art form. Well, after last summer I believe it. Another thing I did that really seemed to help was to give them doses of soil soup from the local nursery. I imagine that the symbiotic bacteria acted like oxygen masks for the traumatized roots. It's my understanding that often maples will suffocate and I hoped the mycorrhiza could help them to breathe. I know in some soils they won't live long, but I theorized they could help until they died or if they lived so much the better. Keep in mind this is all anecdotal and could all be coincidental. Maybe my trees survived because they just did. Whatever the reason(s), I hope your tree survives too.
Winter, I don't remember well, but I think it was a thread here, -I'm not 100% sure- that explained the problem of overwater JMs. I got first hand experience some time ago, because the problem is worst overwatering with clay soils: is the most expedite way to kill a beatiful and healty specimen. There is a very good advice about this topic in this website: http://japanesemapleguide.com/leaf-scorch-on-a-japanese-maple/ Nelran
Yes. I learned about the concept of dehydration following drenching from someone on this forum. I couldn't remember if it was sent to me privately or in a public post and I couldn't find it when I looked for it. I didn't want to misquote or appear to be name dropping, so I just put out my remembered understanding with the mention that I'm not the originator of the idea. Great link! I also liked this one from the same site http://japanesemapleguide.com/suitable-garden-soils-for-a-japanese-maple/
