I have 4 Maple trees. 2 I believe are Red Maples.. Both were doing well then yesterday I noticed the leaves at the top of Maple #2 were wilting. There are leaves at the bottom that look healthy.. I noticed an abnormality midway on the trunk.. I'm thinking this has something to do with the problem.. Question.. What is the problem and how can I fix it?? Thanks
How long have you had it? It looks like graft rejection to me at first blush, but then I can't see if it's grafted from your pictures. The leaves coming in from the bottom are perhaps the understock, trying to get something going in order to feed the roots. I don't think the anomaly in pic 2 is anything more than some poor pruning, the tree is recovering slowly (or has been). If it is grafted, rub off the lower leaves, make sure it has plenty of water.
I think I've had the tree for 3-4 years.. it was approx. 5ft when I purchased it. The tree looked fine several days ago . It did look as healthy as this tree. Purchased at the same time.
Odd. Hard to see from your picture, but this looks like a Norway maple, not a Red maple (which typically has plain green leaves). In that case, it might be more sensitive to over/under watering. The healthy tree also seems to have some leaves at the base. Do these look different from the leaves in the crown area? If so, they should be removed. You should look for a graft union and see if there are differences between the two. You might try pulverizing a copper solution on the tree. After 3-4 years though they should be established, so hard to see why this might be happening, unless there's been some disturbance to the soil near the sick subject. Someone else here may have some ideas, but the best will be to get a local arborist to look at it. Unfortunately when a tree completely wilts like this it often indicates catastrophic failure, and there isn't much that can be done...
