What is wrong with my maple?

I have a problem with my Maple? Its late spring and the leaves keep dying. They are not drying up, just getting very week, the stems are bending, and then they brown but are not dry. The soil is moist, but not saturated. This should be full of leaves by now. Others in the area are covered.

Any idea what is wrong.

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Hard to say from these pictures, but the blackening stems are tell tale signs of verticillium wilt.

Still, you don't tell us when it was planted or what the exposition is like. There is sun scald evident in one picture, not dangerous in and of itself but can weaken the plant further and make it more susceptible to other pathogens. If you bought it this spring you may be able to take it back, for example.

Otherwise cut off all stems with black patches to clean wood, hopefully the emergency buds that follow will be clean. Also, it sounds as though it may be getting too much water. Let the soil dry out a little between waterings.

Good luck

-E

 

What other shots do you need. I can get them tomorrow.

We have had the tree for 2 years. Its in pot in a exposed area. Gets the afternoon sun. But full shade in the morning. A lot of the damage was from 10 months ago, we had a very bad hail storm.

Also planted in a pot.

Here are some more shots:

 

I can see now that it's a high graft, so to keep it you need to have some above it to keep the plant. But you do need to cut off the dead parts.

It looks pretty grim I have to say, but hopefully there will be enough to save. I'd also give it morning rather than afternoon sun if possible. Verify that the drainage is good in the pot, it may be that the bottom of the roots are wet even if the top appears OK.

-E

 

Sorry, I don't understand that first line.

 

OK, sorry. Your plant is grafted, the bottom is a seed grown Acer palmatum to which the cultivar with the specific character (weeping, dissected) is grafted. Many or most grafts are made low on the stem, which gives more room to work with when cutting back. Yours is a high graft or solitaire, using a larger base plant in order to give it height to weep from -- as opposed to slowly staking it up to achieve the height. Or at least that's what I guess from the picture you provided.

If all this is true, and you cut away too much of the grafted part, it's the base part of the plant that will put out the new buds. The limbs that grow wont have the same character, they will more likely be a regular upright green Japanese maple.

Hope that clears it up,

-E

 

Picture #1 - You need to mercilessly cut below the black. Give 1-2 inches (2-5 cm) between the lowest part of the black and where you cut. Make sure you sterilize the clippers before you cut, and again afterwards, to avoid spreading death. Seal the wound (or wounds, if you prune in more than one place) and treat the tree with a fungicide. I had the same problem on my "Butterfly" JM, I lost a lot of the tree before I noticed it.

Picture #2 - Looks like sun scald. This comes frequently when there is a hot sun. Dissectum JMs are vulnerable because of the lacy leaves. You need to be sure you provide sufficient shade during the hotter months of the year.

Picture #3 - No big deal. Looks like normal aging of a young tree. The bark eventually will turn gray. Don't worry about it.

Picture #4 - Wilt. Check the bottom of the pot. Does it have good drainage? Or is it staying wet? How often is it watered? Is the soil compacted? When you water the tree, does it seem to pool for a while? Or does it sink right in and you get some coming out of the bottom in a very short time? Might it be root-bound? Might it have grubs eating at the roots?

Picture #5 - See #4.

 

Second pair of pictures, some observations.

1) As was said by Emery, this is a high graft. Unusual cultivars of JM's don't produce offspring true-to-form. So to reproduce especially nice varieties, branches are grafted onto a more common variety. When you prune, don't go below the graft point. If you have no choice but to trim to below the graft, go ahead, but if it recovers, the leaves are likely not to be the same. Regardless, as long as you have the dissectum leaves on the top, if any branches or leaves below the graft point develop, tear them off immediately. Cutting them encourages regrowth, but tearing them from the base will often just cause the wound to scab over.

2) Rocks....The big rocks are too close to the tree. It is one thing if they're at the opposite end of a bonsai pot, or you have the roots growing over a rock as a part of nice bonsai presentation, but having big rocks sitting near the base of the tree just compacts the soil. Get rid of them.

3) Rocks....What kind are they? Could they be leaching into the soil?

4) White stuff on the top of the soil - What are they? Shells? Lime? Chemical composition of the soil can be critical. I've had crushed sea shells on the top of soil kill some trees (not maples).

5) I'd seriously consider repotting the tree entirely. In the process, carefully remove soil from the roots so you don't kill the finer ones. Keep them moist through this operation. When you're done with this part, look at the roots themselves. Prune off any parts that might be dead. Also cut back some of the larger roots by about 1/3. Remember - you're trying to keep the roots moist - maybe misted periodically - while you work on the rest of this. Definitely keep them out of the sun. REMEMBER: THE VERY FINE THREAD-LIKE ROOTS ARE THE ONES THAT GIVE THE TREE ITS NUTRITION. Keep them from dying or drying out. For soil, mix some rotted mulch and leaf mold with sand and soil. Put a layer of small stones - maybe up to 1-2cm in diameter - in the bottom of the pot. Make sure they are NOT calcite or limestone. Best choice is a quartz based stone. Don't use something porous that may leach minerals, or something high in iron or other metals. Consider putting a layer of aquarium charcoal on top of that to act as a filter and to remove impurities. Treat the roots with a fungicide. Loosely and carefully put soil on top of the charcoal, and spread out the roots on the first layer of soil, and suspend the tree at the desired height while carefully adding more soil in the pot, in and around the roots. I often will lightly shake the pot - vibrating it and causing the grains of soil to flow between the roots. Keep doing this until you get to the top. Finally, take notice of where the original soil line was. Make sure you don't go over it. Ideally, you want to have 2-3 cm BELOW THE OLD SOIL LINE of the tree showing. If there are small fibrous roots there, you should probably trim them to keep them from becoming a place for bugs to congregate. DO NOT COMPRESS THE SOIL. Water the pot to make sure the roots have not dried out. There will be some settling over the next few waterings. DO NOT ADD NEW SOIL. Instead, add a little mulch, being careful to keep it at least 1-2 cm below the old root line. Finally, make sure you treat lightly with fungicide.

6) As Emery said before, keep it out of afternoon sun. This is the hottest part of the day. Some morning sun is OK, but by afternoon, it shouldn't get anything more than filtered sunlight.

7) Wait at least a month before fertilizing. When you do, make it a slow-release variety. You wait because the tree will already be in shock, and it needs some recovery time. Once it has recovered some and you start seeing some new growth, that is when you can start fertilizing. Many fertilizers will burn roots, so be careful to use slow release fertilizer.

8) Monitor pH semi-regularly. There is often a bacterial bloom after a repotting. This can produce ammonia and will show up as a rise in he pH. It should eventually level out and come back down. In general, the pH should stay below 7. If it goes much above, add a little iron sulphate (a LITTLE) can help bring it down. Peat moss can do the same thing. So can a little conifer fertilizer. If it goes below 5, you may want to add a little crushed limestone can help bring it back up a little. The key to doing these is to do it gradually, because it can throw off the balance of the soil flora (microbes) in the soil, or can add to shock of the tree.

9) Keeping the soil loose while planting should do two things for you. It will allow room for new roots. It will also allow some aeration of the soil. Roots need oxygen, too.

If you do what was said above, and you are careful to keep from overdoing the pH adjustments, and keep from over-watering or under-watering, and avoid afternoon sun, the tree could recover nicely.