I would think it's safe to assume that at one point in our caring/growing of JM we have all had one or two healthy maples which for no apparent reason just seem to basically want to no longer be with us. Over the past several years i have lost two beautiful well established plants for no reason for which i can think of ? a eight year old Kamagata and the same again for a Garnet, one grown from a graft the other from root. When the first signs of something being wrong appear... ie the early dropping of the leaves then discolouration of the branches and moisture loss the inevitable pruning back of dying branches begins with hope against hope you can salvage something. Finally your once beautiful multi branched JM resembles something from an apocalyptic film just a solitary piece of wood standing there stripped bare of it's branches and foiliage!! then you realise its the bonfire for the remains of your JM Well during the summer of 2013 the same happened to an established Winter Flame, leaves suddenly changing plus everything mentioned above, this was a lovely three branched tree which was in the ground and every body around it doing fine.Three branches became two then finally one.At this point it was dug up and nearlly burnt but this time i thought i would try something different from my past two losses. All the root system was cleaned using a high pressure washer/hose until none of the remaining growing medium was left just a mass of tangled roots which were then heavily pruned and cut back. A new growing medium was mixed 60% peat 20% finely shreded pine bark 10% small mini grit and 10% john Innes no3, plus a 5g scoop of slow release fertilizer. New planting container with plenty of drilled holes on the base, then finally the tree was re-potted carefully packing all the bare root system with the new growing medium. Looking at the pictures posted you can see we have new growth in the plenty and branches coming from all directions, albeit the base of the tree looks a bit rough where the two branches were removed but it's still alive which to me is a great relief. Iv'e learnt not to be to hasty and try different methods before you light the match!!
Looks pretty good so far! Good luck with it :) I will have to keep this in mind if I encounter a similar situation, thanks for the suggestion.
Yes there is always hope! I have had to cut out the main dead stem of first-winter-with-me maples several times and these plants all have survived and suffered no dieback in subsequent years. It takes some time to return to a pleasing shape but well worth the effort in the long run. Roebuck, funny you should mention 'Kamagata'; this is the only cultivar I have grown that just died for no apparent reason after being with me for a few years. It just failed to wake up one spring.
Maf Bought a nice Kamagata last year to replace the lost one, and another one last month so i'm doubling my bets for this year, one is to be planted out and the other to stay in it's pot so we will see how they both get on. Hopefully both will flourish they look healthy and bursting with buds!!
