Hi. This is my first thread that I have entered on this forum. Which is a great forum BTW! I recently purchased a pacific fire jm this spring. It was immediately planted and it isn't doing well. It has been like this from the start. I'm thinking the nursery it came from had some disease? I live in SW Missouri. Just so you know my general location. Thanks
Can you be more specific? "Isn't doing well" could be a lot of things with many potential causes, solutions, etc. How big/old is the tree? Where is it planted? How did you plant it (ie, dig a hole and drop it into the ground, amend the native soil, raise it up, leave it level, etc, etc)? What sort of sun, water does it receive? More detail is needed, and pictures are a great help if you can. :)
Sorry. I tried uploading pics from my phone but this forum isn't working well with my phone. I dug a hole twice the size as the pot it was in and used tree and shrub dirt from Lowe's to fill in the extra that was needed. Ground is level. I water it about every 3 days or so. We have had a pretty nice spring and summer so far. Nice rains. I have not fertilized it as the original potting soil already had some ozmokote still in it. I talked to a guy today and showed him pictures of the tree and he said it was some sort of wilt and to destroy the tree! The edges of the leaves are brown, very blotchy. And the bark is the same way.
Can you upload the pics to your computer, then to the forum? Never done it by phone, so I can't comment on that... Hole size sounds good, but even though you used the tree and shrub soil, it's probably still too water-retentive - some extra grit, etc, probably needs to be added (if you can find it, turface is awesome for this, aged pine bark mulch works well too, as does coco coir - these are items I've used). Also, did you plant it level with the ground, or raise it up? If level, you need to raise it up at least a few inches most likely, or is it planted on a slope? Drainage is key; when you water, how long does it take for the water to soak in? What about when it rains, is there standing water? For how long? My initial guess is it's too wet, and then yes, it could be a form of wilt; also, the coral bark maples are prone to pseudomonas, die-back, etc - some moreso than others. If the trunk is blotchy to, that's really not good. Where/when did you buy it?
I bought it on eBay. From some nursery in TN. I got it this spring early right when it was leafing out. The tree is planted on a pretty good slope. Water soaks in pretty easy. Doesn't just run off. No water standing ever there. I will try to upload pics. This tree has looked like this from the start. Even the leaves that it did have were like this. I thought maybe it was from shipping. However the shipment took 2 days.
Doesn't look so good... Hopefully others will chime in, but it definitely looks like it has something. Even if shipping only took two days, something may have happened in transit, ie, left in the delivery truck in the hot sun for hours on end, etc. It's happened to me before, even this spring - a shipment from OR that only took a few days, one of the trees is doing fine, the other cooked and was obviously dead within the month, and they came in the same box. But that splotching likely isn't from some sort of shipping stress, definitely looks diseased to me. If it looked like this upon opening the box, did you contact the seller right away? The good ones will offer to replace, often without charging extra shipping, etc, or at the very least refund, minus the shipping cost. While I still think there may be issues with the soil mix it's planted in, it sounds like the surrounding area has good drainage, and from the picture I can visibly see the slope.
I think it is diseased also.... Most sellers warranty the trees for a yr after purchase or make good on them. I contacted the seller today. Hopefully he returns my message. I hate giving bad feedback on them. But I gave around $80 for this tree! The other tree is a Beni kawa. It is beautiful and doing very well. Came from same place.
I have a Pacific Fire and it looks like this every year. Its the climate you're in. Acer circinatum is a mountain tree, and specifically a Pacific North West mountain tree. It does not adjust well to the climate in the Midwest and South. Even when I spray my trees religiously, give them perfect water and protection from hot sun, the leaves crisp up and the tree is completely defoliated by the end of August. There are other coral-bark maples that are much better suited to a Missouri climate. My Fjellheim is particularly outstanding. P.S. ALL Acer circinatum cultivars have been big disappointments for me here in the South, with the exception of Pacific Sprite. It seems to do well in the shady spot I found for it. It is painfully slow growing, but seems to tolerate the hot, humid climate. Little Gem limps along, but requires a lot of spraying.
Thanks for the info kaitain! This tree is in full sun. So dig it up and put in full shade? That will be tough to do here.
This is a yellow-foliaged variant and like many other yellow cultivars of various kinds of plants often cannot take full summer sun even here in comparatively dull and cool western WA. Amending of planting hole backfill when planting long-term (perennial) plants is undesirable, due primarily to how it usually affects the movement of water into and out of the amended hole. Rig up some kind of shade for your tree now, and then some time when it is leafless due to winter dormancy dig it up and re-plant in a shade position in a hole filled with the same soil that came out of the hole, without modification (other than loosening of the soil, which is quite desirable). Mulch with wood chips or other effective material after planting - on top of the ground is where organic litter belongs, not in the hole among the roots.
The nursery I bought it from responded. He said he would replace it with whatever tree I wanted. And toburn or destroy this one. I'm glad this wasn't planted amongst the rest of my JM!
