Hello all, I purchased a Sango Kaku last week and I thought I'd share my excitement with all you JM enthusiasts! I just love the foliage against the coral bark! I'm telling you, it's really hard not to baby it! I'm trying to resist myself from watering and pruning it. I have a few issues I want to bring up though: 1) some of the branches are a bit droopy/weepy (see pic #4 and 5) and exhibit a "lion's tail" effect where the leaves are only at the tips and bare all the way to the trunk. I'm concerned that these may not be healthy branches and have to be pruned out. Any insight on that? 2) I'm already seeing ants climbing up the tree. Should I be concerned? I have a feeling that it's ok but I would like to know the reason why they're doing that. 3) When is the earliest time I can prune it? There are some congested areas I want to thin out as well as criss-crossing branches. Can I start to prune as early as the following winter? 4) In pic #9, there are a few black spots on the trunk. Can anyone enlighten me on what that is and if I should be concerned? Any insight to any of the above would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks and enjoy! --------- Edit------------ I will be updating this thread with pics ever so often on the progress of my Sango Kaku.
Well I'll answer the ant question.Ants are opportunists,people think they're climbing trees to eat greenfly/blackfly etc. but they are 'farming' them in a way.They feed on the stuff excreted by the aphids etc. so check if you've got them present.I find ants alert me to beginnings of infestation which I may not have noticed until later,so they're my friends.
It looks to be a beautiful little tree, although I would have some concerns about the black spots in the last pic, as they might be indicative of something nasty. Hopefully someone else can reassure you on that.
Now I'm quite concerned and worried. Please if anyone can provide any further insight I would greatly appreciate it! I've attached a close up view of the pic.
I think you're OK. This damage looks maybe mechanical to me. (At first I thought it was perhaps a lichen, but clearly the bark has been damaged.) Sango kaku is very delicate, this might have happened during a move, or if something scraped up against it. The important thing is it doesn't look black around the edges, rather is seems to be healing or healed. I would however watch it carefully, and if the spots showed any signs of increasing in size or the bark around them appeared to be blackening, I'd contact the person who sold it immediately. In the mean time hopefully you'll see more signs of healing rapidly. -E
Thanks emery! I'll definitely be watching it. Is it normal/expected that mechanical damage on the bark is black? Also when you mentioned that I should be concerned about black around the edges and the spots increasing in size, is this a reference to verticillium wilt?
No sign at all of verticillium. I'm referring to a bacterial attack that happens around the edge of wounded bark, but as I said currently no sign of that either. To my eye (and from a photo which is never definitive) it looks like it's healed up. I do find that damage on red barked maples tends to go dark when healed. -E
There are a lot of those black marks on the bark, which is what concerned me. Hopefully Emery is right. You can be assured that he certainly 'knows his stuff' as we say here in Ireland :) Good luck
Indeed there were quite a few of those black spots and the fact that they were perfectly circular was a bit intriguing as well. I'll keep my hopes up that they are indeed mechanical damage but I'll still be on the lookout for any suspicious changes. Anyways I still have a two issues that haven't been addressed yet (please see the first post where I've "redden the font"). I'm most concerned about the droopy/limpy branches where the foliage is only at the tips.
This is where Sam and I start bobbing towards each other. Because he certainly "knows his stuff!" Maybe better than I. Anyway, for pruning I'd really be minimalist, you'll get some die back anyway. For SK I'd be tempted to cut in early fall, to give the cuts some time to dry out. Personally I don't recommend pruning this tree unless there's damage to cut off, but YMMV. On the other subject sometimes palmatum branches do get like this, I'd guess they'll be fine, but if you don't like the look you could cut them off. I don't think new leaves are likely to sprout along the bare areas. HTH.
I would agree with Emery on these other points although I am not too sure what YMMV and HTH mean??? Personally I usually only ever prune out dead wood or on occasions a particular branch that is upsetting me for one reason or another ......
Heh, a Luddite! ;) YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary; HTH: Hope That Helps. Check out www.netlingo.com, there's a search box. cheers, -E
Probably just a result of the way they were grown at the nursery, not unhealthy as such. Could have been grown crowded together in a protected environment (eg polytunnel) sheltered from the wind and pumped full of fertilizer - a perfect recipe for soft, floppy, overlong branches. They may well get less floppy as they harden off and adjust to their new environment. I agree with Emery and Sam on the pruning, wait till early autumn and make a decision and do the cutting then. Minimal pruning is undoubtedly the way to go, but obviously best to get rid of anything that is badly crossing. Keeping or getting rid of the floppy branches is an aesthetic choice, but I would certainly lose any branches that are still hanging down below horizontal at pruning time.
Thanks guys for the great responses! Regarding to pruning, I heard it's better to prune during late winter in it's dormant stage. And that fall should be avoided as fungal spores are active at that time. Any insight?
Hi guys, Before I begin, please don't be hesitant to provide any helpful comments or suggestions as you read along. I'm still a newbie at JM's so I appreciate them all even as insignicant as they may seem. :) As an update it's been 2.5 months since I planted my Sango Kaku back in early May and so far it's been doing fine (or I hope it is). I was on vacation for three weeks and came back in mid-June and I noticed the foliage to be yellower instead of the lime green back in May. It looks to have suffered a bit of sun scorched as the leaves of the outer foliage are yellower with a pinkish tinge at the edges; the leaves of the inner foliage are still retained it's lime green colour. I'm still concerned about the thin leggy branches with foliage only at the tips/ends. It doesn't look healthy. I'm really tempted to prune of the ends of those branches in the winter in hopes of encouraging side growth. However I understand it's not wise to prune until it's 3rd season. Any insight there? You will also notice that I've updated the garden bed underneath the Sango Kaku since my first post. As of late, I have to confess that I've been more interested in the garden bed than the Sango Kaku (but then again, the Sango Kaku is the anchor and part of the garden bed). The bed consists of heuchera, heucherella, osteospermum, milium effusum aureum, lavender, salvia and, of course, sango kaku. I hope those bedding plants won't be detrimental to the sango kaku. I figured that I'd plant them now before the roots of the sango kaku reach that area. Anyways, looking forward to the comments or suggestions and enjoy!
Very pretty! It's doing just fine, I think the slight scorching of the outer leaves is normal given that it hasn't really had a chance to get its roots under it yet. The fact that the inner leaves look good suggests that it's getting the right amount of water, so I wouldn't change anything at all. Typically these trees take a couple of years to get established in the landscape. IMHO the wispy branches will just die back if you clip the ends. They may do that anyway, which is the normal way that Japanese Maples "self prune." Otherwise I would wait to take them out until the plant is better established. Everything seems to be going swimmingly for now, though. cheers, -E
Thanks, though I somewhat feel that I may be watering it a bit too often. It's hard not to baby it! Regarding those wispy branches, are you saying that if I shorten the branch by clipping the ends the whole branch will die back? In other words, if I cut it, it will die? Thanks
Ack! No, I just meant the wispy bits, dying back to a major branch. :) Seriously though SK is notorious for dieback and other bark problems, and yours looks great for a tree in its first year in the ground. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Watering is very dependent on what kind of soil you've got. If yours is ultra free-draining, you don't need to worry. But my experience is that watering too much is worse than too little; JMs including SK actually withstand dry conditions pretty well. The most important is that the watering regime be regular. So you might want to lighten up a little, e.g. add an extra day in between watering. But all in all, it seems like you're doing it right for now. :) -E
