Living in central Indiana the past couple of days hasn't been pleasant. Temperatures well below freezing at night with sustained northwesterly winds have hammered not only my japanese maples but even more hardy perennials. In spite of my efforts to mitigate damage to the emerging foliage and growth stems the leaves look like lettuce that has frozen and then been thawed out. Not pretty. And the worst is yet to come. Today, temperatures didn't get above freezing and are getting down to 20 degrees farenheit tonight and tomorrow night. Question: For my maples which will apparently lose all their foliage and new, tender growth stems what remedial steps can I take(if any) in the coming weeks??? Would dosing the trees with B1 benefit at all? A local nurseryman advised me to administer water soluable fertilizer to a Bloodgood he sold me. However, this runs contrary to what I've learned about fertilizing japanese maples with a high nitrogen based supplement. In lieu of this apparent wholesale damage: *Will these trees(many of them two to three years old) survive at all? *If they survive will they leaf out again this year? BKFisher
Check the link below where the subject is discussed. Gomero http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/maple/msg0419182111735.html?12
Hmmm... I'm not sure how to take your suggestion. I started that thread on the other site using the same user name as I utilize here. I thought possibly some kind maple enthusiasts here would share their insight and offer helpful suggestions to my plight. If I've unwittingly crashed a private party here and you're telling me to take my problem elsewhere, fine. I'll be on my way and delete this bookmarked site. If however, I'm mistaken in your intent and simply being hyper-sensitive I apologize. I thought maybe the lack of responses to my post were due to the Easter weekend. Maybe not..... bkfisher
Bkfisher, There is nothing of that. We are all a small community of maple enthusiasts who participate to several forums. What was said by other maple enthusiasts in the link I gave is the most that could be reasonably said on your question, living in zone 8 I have not been confronted to the problem myself. This is not a private party and eveybody is welcomed but sometimes there are no quick answers to the problems posted. Gomero
For me B1 is a good remedial (when the freeze is finish)cut the brunch dry, after this: chek your maple if have some gem in life again (every trees have reserve gem )no problem survive (°_°)next winter is good if you covered the maple when the temperature is deep freeze.Please reply again!!alex.
Looks like just a little bit of miscommunication to me. Hope you come back and reply! I wish I could help, but I have no particular insight on this matter.
bk and alex, I have the same problem living in Central Illinois. Mine are all looking the same way (except for a few that had not budded out). Alex if I understand you say to cut off the dead and spray with a B1 solution? How do you know if there is life left? Scratch the bark? Prune a branch? Look for an emerging bud? What are the chances if they are just left alone? Thanks for the input. I have not checked the other link mentioned, but will. Kay Dye
Kaydye ... I would leave them alone. Trying to remove leaves etc can damage the new buds and cutting branches at this early stage does not seem sensible to me You guys are experiencing quite unusual and heavy frosts at an unusual time of the year. It appears to me that nobody has experienced such severe conditions at this time of year before, so any advice does not come from experience of those extreme circumstances, rather from general knowledge of the plants themselves Play safe, and learn for next year if the worst comes to the worst
Hi Kayaye ,yes if I see some branch brown I scratch the bark or prune a little branch, use "B1"or liquid fertilize and I hope so that emergency bud they are waked up!(^_^) however philosophy of Whis4ey is interesting!alex
What a difference a week can make. I am feeling "cautiously optomistic" about most of my maples being the tough little trees they supposedly are. We have had warm temps and almost all of my maples, even the little ones I just planted out last fall, are starting to send out another batch of leaves. THere are only a few I am worried about. I ended up doing nothing. I sometimes think we humans feel we know way too much about nature. So I decided to just let nature take care of things and hope for the best. I'll be curious to see what everyone is reporting by June. Kay Dye
That's good news Just remember that if another very heavy cold spell is forecast it would be wise to give the trees some protection at this stage If you were to lose the second set of buds it might not turn out so well next time
Ha! Now you know I didn't need to hear about yet another heavy freeze. THe closer we get to May, the less I'll worry. This next week looks good. Guess it will have to be one week at a time, until the danger passes. I have a bunch of maples that I stored in my garage over the winter. I have moved them to a little poly greenhouse and they are looking great. That will have to keep me going until everything else comes out. I won't plant them until May 1, just to be sure, though. Kay Dye
