We have a saying : "You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family". Ecco. <LOL> At least, it won't do any harm. Bad sign, you were right to repot.
My 2c worth on the grubs: they are in the soil of all of my potted maples, sometimes in surprisingly large numbers. They probably do some "root pruning" during some part of their life cycle, but I have never seen any significant damage that I could attribute to them. In fact when I come across them it is because my potted maples are growing so vigorously they need to be repotted (and/or root pruned!). So my philosophy on these grubs is that they are a natural part of a tree's life and I don't worry about it a bit. On the other hand, birds seem to know they are there and will sometimes dig into the soil to find them, causing an annoying mess! Oh well.
Good morning @kines and welcome to the maples forum, that is a very interesting theory, one that I wouldn't want to try out on my potted trees. I've seen Vine Weavil decimate a maple in the past here in England. The roots almost totally gone after lifting out of the pot. But perhaps your grubs were not Vine Weavil.......
I think there may be different types of grubs because in my area the lawns have been decimated by grubs in the past 3 years. This was not a concern previously but now people are losing their entire lawns such as I did, it has been a serious problem. That particular tree I had was sitting on my lawn that was contaminated with grubs. Anyone who has a lawn affected by grubs here the lawn is destroyed.
Hi Lisa, a bit off topic, but I thought I would mention the big culprit re lawn damage over here are leather jackets. The grubs can decimate a lawn very quickly in the Summer months. The daddy long legs lay their eggs in the Autumn the previous year. Starlings are seen on peoples lawns that are infected by the grubs during the Summer. Natures way of removing them, but they never get them all. The use of Nemetodes is the only real natural way and it does do a good job at ridding a lawn of these problematic grubs.
UPDATE - RISING SUN Well I believe we will be ok.. ugly for the rest of the year but ok in the end. The damaged leaves seemed to have stopped after the 2nd up potting. New growth is after the 2nd up potting and appears to be doing well
UPDATE - ARA KAWA We might be ok? It seems positive. Directly after the 2nd up potting the lower half of the tree continue to fail and has since stopped. There has been a fair bit of new growth since the 2nd up potting and it seems to be doing well with the new growth. It will also remain ugly for the rest of the year. **fingers crossed***
My fingers are crossed for you also Lisa. I think this year is a right off, but let it rest and don't do any feeding etc and next Spring it should get underway again. I just hope there are enough leaves to feed the roots to get it through Winter.
Well here is a bit of an update.. The Ara Kawa seems to have a lot more new growth since it’s up potting (much more than I expected) but the original leaves are done for the year… The Rising sun has a little new growth but I wouldn’t expect too many because the it doesn’t have many leaves in general just large ones… So they are ugly this year but hopefully the emergency repotting saved them from dying. ARA - KAWA RISING SUN
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT — A MIRACLE!!!! I cannot believe how much the Ara Kawa has flourished after every leaf burnt up.
YES I CAN! <LOL> I was pretty sure it would recover. I've already up-potted maples that were sun-scorched, some to the point they hardly had any leaves left : a larger pot, not touching the roots, completing the space between the side of the pot and the rootball with very free draining mix (lava rock 1,1.5 cm and very little composted pine bark, or gardening soil) and that's it. It's supposed to be a temporay measure, but actully it often lasts 2 or 3 years. ;-) BTW, I "slip-potted/repotted" some 2021 seedlings. See the thread "Seeds 2021" in a moment...
Rising Sun had come out swinging!!! She’s incredible so far this year. So happy we are gorgeous and grub free!!!! Looks like my moms prayers and holy water worked
