Hi, I am new here, but have been reading through the posts. I bought a young tree, from an online nursery, and it's been rather a disaster. It arrived in a very sorry condition, and I got a refund. I have attached two images, the first being the day it arrived. The second is today's, its producing new leaves at the base. Is any one able to advise me what I should do now. If I have lost the Autumn Moon above the graft, what's growing now. I would appreciate any advice please. Sorry, unable to upload images, not a tec head. Thankyou.
Hi and welcome..I am new too.. I’d just look after it as you would do if it was ok and see what happens in the spring..if it has buds on the branches it might come out but there are some dark patches that don’t look good. Hope that helps Rich
Hi ladybird, The bottom new growth looks to be a basic green leaf acer palmatum which is use for rootstock. If the top part of the graft is dead the basic green leaf will take over.
Hi, thanks for the helpful responses. I will nip the growth off below the graft, as I have been advised, and see what happens in the Spring. At least the root stock is still alive. You never know, I might get lucky. Thanks
Just thought i would hang on a couple of weeks before i replied to your opening thread , have the same problem with one of my trees "diss tamukeyama" had to remove nearly all the branches off last year leaving one viable healthy branch plus signs of new back budding where the old branches had come off. Pictures today where you can see the new growth on both the under stock and the top graft which is the tree i am more interested in saving, thought i would leave the under stock to see how much branch growth would be put on over the weeks and as you can see from the other pics it's nearly three feet in length plus you can see the other small leaf stems just starting to sprout , well those small ones you just rub off with your thumb and the large one i just cut off but leaving a small 3/4" growth so no water gets in. Will take off any other new growth now under the graft union and hopefully over the next few years the tamukeyama will get most of its shape back (well on it's way) done very well so far with some branches in excess of three feet plus. So now the tree will have no competion from the under stock which was only taking much needed energy from the main part of the grafted top area. You can wait till the spring to see if your top half recovers , or you can remove all the dead wood and let the under stock take hold in which case you will still have an acer but not the one you started off with originally. Always try and buy your plants in the flesh if possible then you can see, touch and look at the structure of the tree, and then try to think what it will look like in years to come.
To test whether the wood above the graft is still alive, you could use your fingernail or a small knife to scratch off a short length of bark and see if the cambium layer, just under the bark, is still green. If so, it is alive at least up to that point.
That's so helpful, thankyou so much. I will keep you posted on any progress. It's great to see pictures too, so I know what I am looking for. Some of the thin top branches have black on them, so that doesn't bode well. I will have a closer look to see what is alive and what isn't.
