Today I went to check my JM for any signs of budswell. I saw a small twig that at first I thought was dead, but upon closer inspection saw all these perfect little "corn" rows of white bubbles. Is this some kind of insect egg? Should I try to wash it off, or just snip the twig. It's only on one at this point. Something new every day in the land of nature!! See pictures.
Shelli, due to the discoloration in the twig, I would make a side scrape above the buds, and look for green or black streaking. If there is streaking, then prune the twig above the buds, and look at the cross-section for discoloration. Are there any other areas of discoloration on the branches or the trunk of this tree?
Hi, Laurie. Yes, there is all sorts of "bad-looking" stuff going on. (In my humble opinion.) To me the bark overall looks worse than it did a month ago. We did have another 2 weeks of unusually hot weather so I don't know if this burn on the bark, tight bark spreading, or if the tree is just plain dying and drying up. Someone advised me to make a scraping to see if the branches were green inside (to see if it was alive), but from what I've read here the green could indicate disease. What color should the scraping be if the tree were alive? healthy? I've attached some pictures of the bark from two days ago. I'll try a scraping today to see what I find. Thanks again for your input.
Where are it's leaves?! Even if the cambium is green, the fact that it has no leaves during the growing season is a good indication that the tree will not recover. Simon
Simon, It lost it's leaves in July. They curled and dried up, I'm still not sure exactly why... could have been root rot, could have been shock from the weather turning from cold and VERY wet, to hot and dry overnight, could be the tree was weakened to begin with from disease it came with when I bought it in April. If you'd like to read the whole saga and analysis of this tree it's in the thread, "Did my Japanese Maple catch verticillium." Now, I'm just waiting to see if it will recover, but the bark is looking worse (to me).
So the scraping reveals white with a cream-colored middle. Does that mean "dead"? On a different note: I would like to move my baby offspring JM out of the woods and into the yard. Is it better to move it in the fall or spring????? I've moved it once already, in the spring of 05 ... just planted it in an old pile of garden compost in the woods and let it be, never watered it ... hmmmm, it did fine, too!! Go figure! Maybe I should transplant the sick one out to the compost and see what happens. I get the feeling sometimes I over-think things.
