Hello! I have a two maples that was hit by the late spring frost this year.One acer japonicum and one acer shirasawanum "aureum". They were fully leafed out when the frost hit. The leafs looked a little bit autum coloured on the japonicum and it has not grown anything during the summer,but it is alive and the leafs has not dryed. The shirasawanum top leafs is a little bit autum coloured, but it is green and not the usually yellow/lime colour.No new growt ,but fully leafed out. The question..Will they live? I´m a little bit confused because there is no new leafs and the old ones still hanging on. Half dead or half alive due to frost light...whats the verdict? weard anecdote Acer palmatums (atropurpureum)(green dissektum)not affected?
The typical pattern of growth for Japanese maples is top growth in spring, followed by a period of root growth, then a second flush of top growth in late summer, and finally a second spell of root growth in autumn to build up the storage roots for the winter. Hopefully your trees have been growing with great vigour, but all the growth was underground, and soon will put out some top growth.
These being organisms they are integrated systems. Damage to the top will affect the roots. More root growth than usual seems most unlikely. Since pseudomonas enters during cold and damp conditions, I wonder if these picked up some of that when the stems were damaged by frost. If there has been no blighting off since, perhaps not. Or, it may still be developing... A big Campbell magnolia in the Seattle arboretum died after the ends of the branches were frosted during an autumnal Arctic front and a pathogen (likely pseudomonas) got in and finished the whole tree off rather quickly. I've been told a former director used to have the crew go out each year and spray the deciduous magnolias with lime-sulfur during the dormant season to prevent this kind of thing.
Ron, what's the composition of the lime-sulfur spray, and is there real evidence that it protects against pseudomonas? Is this spray suitable for maples? TIA ZB, if your leaves have stayed alive though stressed looking, IMHO there's a good chance they will recover next year. Nothing to do but wait. -E
I hope so! I´m thinking of renaming all my acers to "waiting trees".waiting for growt,waiting for new leafs,waiting for mature leafs,waiting for autum coulers,waiting for them to survive,waiting palmatum atropurpureum or waiting pseudoplatanus,LOL! So folks, dont forget to enjoy yourselfs during the waiting,i do!
