Several of my Japanese Maples are losing their leaves. The leaves dry out, curl up and fall off. One entire tree has gone leafeless. Another two are beginning to show symptoms. The leaves get a brown tip to the end of the points on the leaf. This progresses till the entire leaf is crisp/dead. Some leaves show spots in the middle of the leaf. Does anyone recognise the problem and possibly suggest a remedy?
Another picture
Since this is my first year of having one, Blood Red, sorry, can't help, haven't a clue. Could it be mites or something sucking the life right out of it? Hope someone comes along who can help.
Gloria
What is happening to the same trees within 100 ft.? A mile?
Any real fast changes of weather from cool to hot with no transition time?
I have had the same problem with my japanese maple, I live in Islip, NY. last summer, toward the end, I noticed dry leaves, just in some spots on particular branches. I thought that maybe I had accidentally sprayed the branches with the hose and then they got burnt from the sun, but no, that was not the case. This past spring 2004, the tree came back with new buds, except in those areas where the tree had dead leaves. I had to severely prune my once beautiful tree. I have a pretty boggy backyard, my yard has a stream in the back, as you go from the stream up my backyard, my yard goes uphill abit on an incline, my yard was filled in many years ago with a sandy fill, if you dig in my backyard, you will see water start to puddle within 2 1/2 to 3 feet. So I don't think that my tree has been suffering from a lack of water, even during dryspells, plus if that were the case, I think that my tree would be damaged or diseased all over, who knows? i could be wrong. but anyway, since I pruned the dead branches off the tree this past spring, the tree appeared to be fine all summer, it made a few new branches which strted to bud out, but I think there should have been more growth, where i pruned. But now, again, my tree is starting to show signs of dead leaves again, and only in some areas on the tree. This is strange, because my tree has to be at least 15-20 years old, why all of the sudden these problems, this is what I am trying to find out, could someone please help????? before my beautiful tree is gone!!!
Padre, your leaves do look like leaf scorch...too much sun, too little water, too much wind or a combo of any of the above. I have one that did a similar thing. It was in a pot and stresses too much. Next year I'll be planting it out. Leaf scorch seems to appear overnight and even if you water as soon as you see it, it can still continue to spread as the tissue has already been damaged.
Theresamk, your problem sounds more serious. Sounds like maple anthracnose...symptoms appear similar to scorch but where the leaves die, the entire branch often dies the following year. Prune out the dead stems and burn them. Spray the tree with a fungicide before leaf-break then twice more at 14 day intervals. This info comes from a book called Japanese Maples, the bible for Jap. maple growers. I'm not an expert, but your description of your problem certainly fits the bill accodring to the author of the book.
Thanks Todd for the information. I'll look for the book for myself. Have a good day. Padre
Padre,
I am having the same problem with my japanese maple (planted in 1997). It was very healthy up to fall of 2002 and had grown from about 4' to maybe 7-8' and was nice a full looking. That fall I noticed lots of dead "twigs" so I pruned them out in late fall (and maybe there were browning leaves, but nothing I took alarm about).
Spring 2003 was very wet and rainy. By summer I was noticing leaf and/or whole branch dieback on several of the larger limbs. I asked around and people told me things like "winter die back" and that I should just prune the dead branches off.
Well, by this spring (again a wet year) I had one large branch left (see picture) that had leaves on it and looked healthy - everything else was dead - 3 of 4 large branches. I called a local nursery and a friend who's a professor of horticulture, and they both said the only thing I can do is to prune all the dead branches off and hope for the best. By late summer the top of the live branch started getting brown leaves.... I don't hold much hope for next year. My once beautiful maple I was so proud of is pretty much gone...
This message was edited Nov 3, 2004 12:13 AM
Imelling, I wonder if your maple isn't suffering from poor drainage? From the picture it looks like your maple is planted at the bottom of a slope; Japanese maples do NOT tolerate poor drainage or standing water about their roots, especially in heavy soils. It sounds kind of contradictory, but leaf burn can occur from either too little water, where there is not enough water for the tree to pump water up to the leaves to keep up with water loss during hot, sunny days, or from too much water standing about the roots, which damages the roots and your left with a large tree with no roots. When you start seeing whole limbs die off, I think of either winter damage, or poor drainage. Fungus infection can then become part of the picture, in a damaged, unhealthy tree.
Don
Thanks Don. Poor drainage was one of the first things we wondered about but apparently that is not an issue here. What you don't see is a large culvert that rings our property on three sides and drains excess water from both the pond and the woods that surround our property. The area where is japanese maple is planted is actually more on the dry side, although the soil (clay with lots of rocks) could certainly be improved. We did put in a lot of "good" soil around it when we planted it.
Winter damage was considered the best guess by those who I consulted. The limbs that were removed showed no signs of verticulim (sp??) wilt or disease. We are in zone 5b bordering on zone 6 here. The tree seemed to come through the first 5 mild to average winters just fine, but the last 2 have been extremely harsh and cold, followed by extremely wet and mild summers. I'd love to plant another japanese maple and try again, but I think I'd be a glutton for punishment doing so here.
The only other factor that seems like it could enter into it, was that we dug a hole about 4' from the trunk and 2' down, 2 1/2 years ago and buried the ashes of our Golden Retriever there. It had been her favorite spot to lay and that brick in the picture marks the spot. I asked around and no one else thought that the ashes could have been a factor, but who knows?
We purchased a Japanese Thread Leaf Maple that seemed quite mature. The root ball fell apart when we planted it outside. One week + we started to notice dry, curling leaves around the top of the tree. It got progressively worse day by day. It has not been exposed to excessive sun, wind, or dryness, as we have carefully watered it. The soil is a bit too much clay content, so the drainage might be not sufficient, however, this all started after about one week after planting. I can't imagine it has anything to do with the present envirement. Here is a picture taken about one month after planting.
Bob
It could be any # of things...You don't say WHEN ya trasplanted it ...if it were in spring til early june I would be worried ..but if it were more recent I'd say transpalnt shock ...this looks like a really large dissectum ( older) and it looks like only the top branches have dieing leaves... I say it is transplant shock caused by root discombobulation, hot sun and too much water one or all...whether it will re-leaf this year or next on those branches is a good question .. maybe... the bottom branches look good so you might have to heavily prune next year...Of course it could be disease in which case those branches should be removed pronto... but becuse of the most likely shock reason I wouldn't "ruin" your plant just yet... I'd wait til next spring and if branches are dead take 'em off... all of this is just guess work.... you could take a smaller branch to your county extension and have it checked for disease may cost a few bucks but that tree looks expensive...david
I am almost certain that burying the ashes of your beloved pet would not cause damage to your tree. Others have more experience with the maples than I but I wish you luck on your trees.
Laura
