Shigitatsu sawa - Can anyone offer advice?

In late May, I was at a local nursery looking for a tree to put in my garden. I fell in love with a 4 foot high Shigitatsu sawa that was kept in a shaded greenhouse. The spot I had in mind has morning sun, and afternoon shade (so I thought). Bought the tree, planted and all was well for a while. Turns out, my afternoon shade wasn't all afternoon, and by about 6pm, the tree was getting a couple of hours of late afternoon sun. As you can imagine, the leaves were turning yellow and brown and they were falling off.

After contacting the nursery, they indicated the afternoon sun was too much and recommended I move it to a shady area. I pulled up the newly planted maple after about 6 weeks and put it in a pot on my back porch where it gets a few hours of early morning sun, and shade the rest of the day. I used Miracle Grow potting soil (now I know better!), and kept it moderately moist.

After a couple of weeks, the leaves have gone from the beautiful bright green to a yellowish green and many leaves are curling and drying up. I cut back watering to once a week.

I hope I haven't ruined this tree! It was very expensive and I am in love with the leaves. I figure it's had several shocks:

- moving from a shade greenhouse to outdoors and real light exposure
- moving from the ground back to a pot
- the wrong soil in its pot
- maybe too much watering?

It does have some new leaf growth, and some of the inner most leaves are still the bright green I fell in love with.

Any advice? I'm afraid to do anything else to it in case I pound the final nail in its coffin!



This message was edited Jul 14, 2006 10:41 AM

I personally would not futz with it ANYMORE...I think ...not to make ya feel bad cause I have futzed with stuff myself and messed it up... you've most likely loved it to death..it may make it... but with so many things done to it that shouldn't have ..I wouldn't be too optimistic ...hope I'm wrong but sometimes thats how ya learn ...by mistakes... keep that nail in the drawer ..David

Well, if it is getting new leaves, you have every reason to hope! Don't overwater.

Laura

I don't think it's going to die. I think if it were a younger tree, I probably would have killed it for sure. I believe it will survive, but I'm sure I've probably lost any chance at saving any of this year's leaves! Although the new leaves, and the still healthy bright green leaves do give me some hope. I just won't do anything else to it this year except water sparingly, and hopefully next spring it will forgive my mishaps and reward me with a healthy crop of leaves!

I'm a novice JM fan, and this is my first year having any. I have several other small grafts in pots, and all are doing well, so I must be doing something right for them. :)

Oh, I'm so sorry! I know that terrible feeling. I think that you did the only thing you could do in repotting it and moving it into shade. Maples are tough and the miracle gro potting mix shouldn't kill it. I got a tree at a nursery that was almost totally exfoliated and planted it in July and it's just fine. I can't promise that yours will do the same but all you can do it hope.

When and if you introduce it to more sun take it out of the very shady spot very gradually. Trees can go into shock when the sun conditions change suddenly. It's the only way I've killed maples, but I left them in their sunny location - that was a mistake.

I don'T disagree with any of these posts i too have had JM's defoliater and do fine and there are still some green leaves BUT SS as well as akaSS should do just fine in full sun ... Now maybe the tree was under shade cloth and then put in full sun ...that could cause problems but eventually those leaves should have grown back ...I think the overdoing it was the problem ..but it may be just fine ...My point being I think it would have been fine in the first place ..that cultivar especially in WA should have been fine in either partial or FULL SUN ..I think the nursery fed him BS ....David

In my personal experience... In spring or fall you can immidiately plant out full sun jm's out in full sun with NO problems even fully leaved... ditto with partial sun trees... But in summer it is better to gradually do so ..first shade for a week or so... then some sun for a week or so ... then what it will recieve when planted for a week or so ,,,then plant the sucker out... this is especially important if the plant was under shade cloth or in a green house ... Now the problem becomes what if it comes partial bare root as many are shipped ... well then I would suggest waiting to purchase til fall or spring unless you want to pot it out and I don't think that is wise if it's only for a month or so ...to much extra stress.
Now I will admit I do NOT always follow these instructions and have planted out stuff of an evening in full sun places within a day of recieving with NO problems...save a little leaf burn and any loss of leaves usually is suplanted by new ones within a few weeks ..... please be advised of several variables .... #1 any varigated or tender tree should be planted using the GRADUAL method....#2 my area is zone 5b ...summer temps are usually in upper 80's to mid 90's and extreeemly HUMID...if your in the south or desert or 100 degree range you will probably have leaf or even TREE damage even with "gradual" planting and probably should only plant in spring and fall!! David