Crimson Sentry Maple questions/help

We have a Crimson Sentry Maple that we planted the latter part of May. The leaves were just starting to come out from dormancy. Soon after, we had extraordinary amounts of rain and the ground was flooded. The leaves of the maple drooped for about a week and I was ready to pull it up and repot it when the leaves perked up. I placed a DeWitt drip bag around it and have kept it full. The bag has both kept the soil moist and helped to anchor the tree as we can get very strong winds. About a week and a half ago, we went through some very heavy rains that caused local flooding as well as this pst week high winds that have spawned five tornados one day last week, including one in my town, thigh on the other side. When I went today to fill the bag, which I do daily or every other day, I noticed that the majority of the leaves are dead and drying, though I can find numerous small, healthy-looking baby leaves. The stems of the dried leaves are pliable and not brittle. A couple of days ago I had cut a leafless branch on the very top, that had once been clipped before coming home with me, done a little closer to see if it would stimulate branching below at a node, and the center was green.

Though I'm new to this zone and its trees and shrubs, I'm thinking that the original leaves may have been dried by the winds, though the occurrences of heavy rains make me concerned about root rot. But then there's the tiny new baby leaves that seem OK. Also, the stems of the dried leaves are not brittle.

Any advice is welcomed and I thank you in advance for your two cents. Also, how long should I use the DeWitt drip irrigation bag?

Stu

You should provide images of your situation.

You should also check moisture conditions of your soil before filling the irrigation device. Most plants do not need to be kept constantly wet. Given the description of rain events in your area, I think you are likely killing your tree with excess watering.

I don't think that there is any chance that dessication enters into this scenario.

ViburnumValley,

Good suggestion. The last picture (I hope) shows the juvinile leaves. The soil was very wet, but I expected it. I took off the bag and will let the soil dry a bit. There were lots of ants under the bag. We are getting storms this week - all days possible except Wed., so will hold off on mulching till next weekend to allow the soil to breath. Suggestions?

Probably everything I could type/say here will just make you feel bad.

Stopping the daily watering is the first day of the rest of your plant's life. With stormy weather, it won't likely need any help for the next week or so.

You can mulch now - that's not bad to do, and should not make any appreciable difference to the overall moisture conditions.

You can provide more information for us. What condition was your young tree in when you purchased it? How did you go about planting it? What kind of soil is found where it is planted?

Condition means: bare root? container? balled and burlap? some other none of us are aware of?

By the time your young tree needs water again, all will have been answered...

No, nothing could make me feel bad. The tree was potted and the roots were well present at the outer portion. I roughed the outer roots to encourage growth. The hole was dog larger than the pot size it came from a bit more than hand's with and I use Grower's Gold recommended by the well respected nursery it came from. It's an indoor/outdoor mix. We have clay. After first planted, in about two weeks the tree that was just breaking dormancy was leafed out and we had several days of torrential downpours. The leaves drooped and the planting hole was waterlogged. At that time, the ground was probably not thawed well. The tree rebounded and looked good till the last four days. It probably has been too well watered with the rain and drip bag. Hoping that it will dry out enough, though they're saying storms for the next four of five days, that it can rebound. Again, though the majority of leaves are history.

Edited to add: in the last pic hopefully you can see, just below the center point in the photo, the smaller and baby leaves that have not dessicated.

This message was edited Jul 6, 2014 9:40 PM