Hi there, I've planted my new "Inaba Shidare" JM (Acer Dissectum) in early May of this year, and it was fine at the beginning. I watered it daily and started to fertilize it in mid-June. It was doing fine. However, last 2 weeks, I started to fertilize again for the second time thinking that fertilizing will be help my JM grow faster. I was wrong.... Over last weekend, my 2/3 of JM's leaves got burn and started to scorch. Is it because I over-fertilized the tree? I spoke to an JM expert, and was told that I was over-fertilized, since young planted JM should not need fertilized in first year after just planted? Is this right? How do go about to reverse this? Will my JM die? She even told me to cut back unwanted/ burned leaves and branches, it will grow again. Is this right? Another idiot question: How do people water JM tree? I usually do daily watering my JM from top of the leaves, and let hose water run down to tree's base for around 2 minutes...Is this the right way to water JM ? and is this gonna be a problem for the leaves during hot summer tempeture? My JM is at the corner of North side of my front yard. Please advise if you know anything about this tree. Thanks
If you have photographs, including close-ups of your tree, that would be helpful. It would be helpful to know what fertilizer you used, as well as how much you applied. Do not water your maple from above, unless you need to wash debris or insects off, but rather water from below the leaves to help keep fungus problems at bay. In your climate, you should not need to water daily. Water deeply, especially now if you have applied too much fertilizer, because you need to wash it away from the roots. Then water again when the top inch or so is dry; you can monitor this for awhile to get a sense of how long between waterings this will actually be. Since most of my maples are in pots, someone else will be able to provide more detail on hand-watering your maple in that climate, however a consistent schedule of watering is important for a maple. Did you plant it in a well-draining soil that holds some moisture? A lace-leaf maple such as yours is actually going to grow rather slowly, but will be both fun and beautiful nonetheless. If you would like to get another maple for another spot that will grow more quickly, we can certainly make suggestions. We would appreciate seeing some photographs of the leaves before we advise you to remove them, but the burned leaves can be removed by gently bending them back. There should be another bud just underneath. There should be no need to prune the branches unless they are diseased, but we would wonder why.
Laurie's right - it should be watered well when you do it, but don't do it so often, and in fact, unless it is potted in very gritty, sandy fast draining soil (which it should be) I'd only water enough every 2nd time to get at the top half of the mix, and allow lower roots to dry out another day or so in between. They do like to dry out more than other garden (and certainly house) plants.
Thanks all for your advise. I took some pictures of my JM this morning, and will post them up soon. I used the "Miracle-Gro® Tree & Shrub Fertilizer Spikes" (from HomeDepot) twice for my JM so far this summer, with 2 months apart. Is this the right one to use? any suggestions?
My apologies for the delay in responding, however I did find the link to a thread wherein a couple of our experienced members have written that they do not recommend using tree spikes at all. http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=13506&highlight=tree+spikes. At Miracle-Gro’s website, they write that the product which you purchased is “non-burning,” to apply it “once per season (once in early spring, once in mid fall),” and that it can be used “on all species and varieties of trees and shrubs.” However, these instructions are not appropriate for fertilization of maples. The chemical analysis reads 15-5-10 plus minor elements, which is too high in nitrogen and not generally what is recommended for maples. Most sources recommend a fertilizer low in nitrogen, and if you have a water-soluble one or slow-release granules, those are safer. The website also reads that the product “delivers continuous-release feeding that lasts all season” so I would recommend digging up the soil in and around where these spikes were placed. I called the contact phone number for the company, and although I did not have confidence in the receptionist's thorough knowledge of the issue, she did say, after putting me on hold, to dig up the spikes, water the tree, and it should be fine. The tree does appear to have possibly suffered from fertilizer burn, but it is difficult to tell since we cannot zoom in on these photographs. Check for buds at the leaf nodes and look for any apparently dead twigs at the ends of branches, but there may not be any. I would not fertilize this maple again this year, and possibly not again until perhaps the spring following next spring. The tree needs to concentrate energy in forming new roots if some of these have been burned. The tree's response may be due in part to the weather, since it appears that some of the leaves are crispy brown and remain on the tree, but most of the leaves on the ground are red. This may be a result of the weather and what so many people, especially in the northeast, have been seeing this year – premature defoliation possibly due to an excessively wet spring, then excessively hot summer temperatures. Feel free to post close-up photographs of any remaining questions.
Hi Laurie, Thanks very much for your knowledeable advise. Most of the crispy brown leaves now are fell off from my tree, and I can see some of the new, tiny red buds coming out. Hope it's doing fine. I will not fertilize it anymore until the second spring ( as your suggestion). So, would you think that I should dig out the area where I planted the fertilized spike, or I just need to water my JM more to wash them off? Please advise. Best regards,
No, please dig up the fertilizer spikes, refill the holes with soil, then water well. It is great to hear that you see new buds.
