I have a 3 year old bloodgood J. maple that I suspect is dying of verticillium wilt. Only half of it leafed out this spring and it is continuing to slowly die back. I understand that the fungus that causes this is in the soil and so wonder if replanting with another j. maple is inadvisable? I also noticed that a nearby peony had begun to wilt in the center so cut it down and wonder if it is the same fungus?
I have a suspicion that it is not verticillium wilt. It could be that part of the tree didn't make it through the winter and has died back and that you may have a root problem or other issues whereby the tree is slowly dieing. Verticillium wilt does and can affect one side of the tree, causing sudden wilting and in some cases, death to that part of the tree.......but since part of your tree didn't leaf out makes me come to this diagnosis...... I also feel the same about your peony.....it could be some other unrelated issue such as tuber rot etc. Ian
Have a look at some of these pages. http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/...t_alpha=Select&host_text=maple&submit=++Go!++
What a great link. I always wanted to see pictures of the stem damage. I could never quite visualize what it would look like from description. Thank you.
