New to this site and have a question about my Trident Maple in Sacramento, ca. that is about 5 years old. No problems until the past few weeks when it started wilting, every single leaf is wilted on this tree and it's not getting better. No bugs, pests, or discoloring --under 10 leaves have just a few tiny brown spots towards the end of the leaves, but all leaves feel on the dry side and appear to be on their way to browning. No leaf loss yet. The weather has been normal, except late last month we had very hot weather 106-111 for a week. I think it's getting enough water, 20 minutes nightly via sprinkler system and last year it got less than that and was fine. Not sure this matters but I had major landscaping done in mid-June 2013, grass was dug up for planting areas on the perimeter of yard, about 3 ft. out. Last month I sat a small birdbath near the tree and I dump the dirty water on the soil, could that cause a fungus? If not what could it be?
If nothing has changed to effect the grade around the tree and you are diligent with regular deep watering, you should be fine. The tree can use up the energy reserve in some leaves, and then shut them down and discard them through early abscission when there are drought conditions.
Trident maple is heat tolerant, so your heat wave is not a factor beyond stressing the tree further; it may have been the trigger to cause the wilting. The dirty water is fine. My concern is that the landscaping has destroyed the feeder roots of the tree, so it can't take up water and nourishment. Now with the leaf loss there is no food getting back to the roots either. Really all you can do is water as David suggests, and wait. At this time of year it's possible that you may not see much before next spring, but that doesn't mean all is dormant underneath the surface. So long as the cambium stays green (a scratch -- although not that easy on this species! -- reveals green cambium underneath) it should recover, hopefully. It is a pretty tough species.
