I have a 3 year old Tri Color Beech. I live in Michigan by a lake and we have underground sprinklers. The problem is, the tree will leaf out and look beautiful for about a month, now the leaves are turning brown. This has happened the last two years. I have looked at other Beeches in the area and they are not turning brown. Last year I did not fertilize, this year I did. What could be wrong?
'Purpurea Tricolor' is the one in general circulation. It is a copper beech and not a purple beech, going bronze in summer is normal. If yours is not burnt and crispy then it is probably just the fading in summer it often shows.
The leaves are purple. It seams to be the purplish pink part of the leaf that is curling and turning brown like they are dying out. They don't fall early, they just look bad.
'Purpurea Tricolor' burns in full sun during hot summers. It's almost to be expected that the pink portion will burn. For that reason, and the fact that they don't make nicely shaped trees compared to the species, that I don't consider that cultivar in my list of favorites for Fagus sylvatica. The massive dome of structure and foliage that can be expected from Fagus sylvatica, doesn't appear with 'Purpurea Tricolor', rather you have a month or so of beautiful foliage, and 11 months of irregular habit and burned leaves. But, it will always be a popular tree for its spring/early summer foliage, as the number of posts regarding this cultivar on this forum will attest. Brian
Brian: Thanks - I have the same Tricolor with similar results - I even considered removing it because I was afraid it could be suffering from some sort of virus which could spread to my other baby beeches (I'm not by any means a sophisticated grower). I live in CT and my tree is located behind two pines to block it from the sun, but it is also on ground where the gneiss bedrock is only a few inches from the surface. Question: I am growing a Fagus sylvaticus from seedling harvested under a mature tree and it is three years old, in a pot so I can bring it into my garage to protect it from heavy snows. However it is very leggy. How should I deal with this little tree? KH