Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Japanese Maple Tree (Acer Palmatum) problem

Options
  • 05-11-2018 10:05am
    #1
    regedit
    Registered Users Posts: 862 ✭✭✭


    Hi all,
    We got raised planters earlier this in the year and amongst others planted a lovely maple tree with reddish foliage (at the time). Foliage has changed colour since into greenish/yellowish colour and now looks very unhealthy with foliage falling and having a scorched look.
    We watered it as instructed earlier on in the year during the dry weather but haven't watered it almost at all since Aug/Sep because there's moisture in the ground.
    I'll go to the garden centre where it was bought tomorrow to show them the images but I thought someone here may have a good idea too.

    7Nwdw2.jpg


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    my3cents
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,764 ✭✭✭my3cents


    How exposed is the site where the plant is? Maples die back like that for lots of reasons but a windy location won't help.

    Its very very hard to say about the watering as over watering looks almost the same as under watering and an under watered plant that is dieing often gets over watered for a bit to try and improve it. Anyway normally over watering is a one way ticket so if watering is the problem I would look at the possibility of under watering. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you didn't water enough because other factors like being close to a wall won't help. Close to a wall can be a dry spot and can also have excessively good drainage due to buried building rubble. Conversely the base of a wall can be a very wet spot due to the soil being compacted during building.

    So basically I doubt you'll get a complete answer unless you want to try and repeat the issue a few times with a few more expensive plants.

    Another possibility with that type of plant is if you watered and got the leaves wet when it was sunny back in the summer you could have scorched the leaves and even the thin branch wood. There's just too many ways to kill a plant and Japanese maples are easy enough to damage even in good conditions.


  • Options
    #3
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,443 ✭✭✭macraignil


    It's just past Autumn and now Winter. I have a Japanese acer and it drops its leaves for the Winter and grows new ones again in the Spring. It now has no leaves. Just checked the RHS page for them and they are generally deciduous (ie. don't keep their leaves all year round). Many trees will have the colour of their leaves change before they fall off as they take nutrients out of them to transport to the roots overwinter. The RHS page does mention that turning green in Autumn might indicate they are not getting enough light. Is the area very shaded?


  • Options
    #4
    Call me Al
    Registered Users Posts: 3,026 ✭✭✭Call me Al


    Our (extremely large) mature Japanese maple's leaves turn dark green before eventually going the bright red that they currently are.


  • Options
    #5
    standardg60
    Registered Users Posts: 4,698 ✭✭✭standardg60


    This is just Autumn colouring op, there's no need to do anything with it or go back to the garden centre. There are hundreds of varieties of Japanese maple and the leaves turn different colours before they fall depending on variety. Yours looks like one which has pinkish foliage during the growing season and they tend to go yellowish in Autumn.


  • Options
    #6
    highdef
    Registered Users Posts: 6,240 ✭✭✭highdef


    Yeah, as others have said we are in (late) autumn now. My crimson Japanese maple is dropping its leaves at the moment so what your tree is doing looks perfectly normal for the time of year.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,435 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Is it the dead twigs you are concerned about OP, I have had a couple of trees that did this on a regular basis when they were younger, but they eventually caught up with themselves and were fine. If the mood took me I would trim off the dead bits, but sometimes I left them, it didnt seem to matter. Otherwise the foliage looks fine - just as you would expect at this time of the year.


  • Options
    #8
    regedit
    Registered Users Posts: 862 ✭✭✭regedit


    looksee wrote: »
    Is it the dead twigs you are concerned about OP, I have had a couple of trees that did this on a regular basis when they were younger, but they eventually caught up with themselves and were fine. If the mood took me I would trim off the dead bits, but sometimes I left them, it didnt seem to matter. Otherwise the foliage looks fine - just as you would expect at this time of the year.

    Correct!
    I am/was concerned with the dead branches but there seems to be a consensus amongst boardsters that there's no reason for concern!
    Again, it's the first season we planted the acer, we had dry weather and the tree was probably adjusting to the new environment...
    Might trim those twigs and leave it alone for the year. While I am at the subject, is there any need for autumn/winter preparation?


  • Options
    #9
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,443 ✭✭✭macraignil


    regedit wrote: »
    Correct!
    I am/was concerned with the dead branches but there seems to be a consensus amongst boardsters that there's no reason for concern!
    Again, it's the first season we planted the acer, we had dry weather and the tree was probably adjusting to the new environment...
    Might trim those twigs and leave it alone for the year. While I am at the subject, is there any need for autumn/winter preparation?

    What sort of preparation are you talking about?

    The young tree is already tied to a support that should help stop it getting blown over so not sure what else you are thinking of doing.


  • Options
    #10
    my3cents
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,764 ✭✭✭my3cents


    regedit wrote: »
    Correct!
    I am/was concerned with the dead branches but there seems to be a consensus amongst boardsters that there's no reason for concern!
    Again, it's the first season we planted the acer, we had dry weather and the tree was probably adjusting to the new environment...
    Might trim those twigs and leave it alone for the year. While I am at the subject, is there any need for autumn/winter preparation?

    On a Japanese maple its worth trimming back any dead wood sooner rather than later because the dead wood can pick up coral spot which in Acers can also damage the living wood.


  • Options
    #11
    standardg60
    Registered Users Posts: 4,698 ✭✭✭standardg60


    regedit wrote: »
    Correct!
    I am/was concerned with the dead branches but there seems to be a consensus amongst boardsters that there's no reason for concern!
    Again, it's the first season we planted the acer, we had dry weather and the tree was probably adjusting to the new environment...
    Might trim those twigs and leave it alone for the year. While I am at the subject, is there any need for autumn/winter preparation?

    Be very careful with what you consider to be dead wood. There doesn't seem to be any from what I can see, dead wood on an acer will turn light brown and is easily snapped off. The stems, while leafless, look dark brown and perfectly healthy. Cutting back live wood on an acer can cause further die back. If you're unsure, leave well enough alone till next Spring and then you can see which stems sprout and which don't.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    my3cents
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,764 ✭✭✭my3cents


    standardg60 wrote: »
    Be very careful with what you consider to be dead wood. There doesn't seem to be any from what I can see, dead wood on an acer will turn light brown and is easily snapped off. The stems, while leafless, look dark brown and perfectly healthy. Cutting back live wood on an acer can cause further die back. If you're unsure, leave well enough alone till next Spring and then you can see which stems sprout and which don't.

    All the defoliated stems look like they are dead from the picture posted. The stems just look to thin (even for a Japanese Maple). A close up or higher resolution shot could tell us a lot more.


  • Options
    #13
    standardg60
    Registered Users Posts: 4,698 ✭✭✭standardg60


    my3cents wrote: »
    All the defoliated stems look like they are dead from the picture posted. The stems just look to thin (even for a Japanese Maple). A close up or higher resolution shot could tell us a lot more.

    I'm sorry but that observation makes no sense, dead stems don't get any thinner than live ones. The stems have/had to be alive to reach the length they are in the first place. It is perfectly normal for Japanese maples to have new stems that thin.


  • Options
    #14
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,992 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    standardg60 wrote: »
    It is perfectly normal for Japanese maples to have new stems that thin.
    Yes but there should be some strong laterals, and there are none.
    IMO this tree is suffering from regular, quite severe setbacks, probably drought. Lateral growth dies back, then later the tree tries again with a new one.

    I'd start by moving it a bit further out from that wall, and then dig in plenty of humus into the new planting hole.
    Also its too spindly and high. Take away that stake and cut the top third off the tree! The shape of it is awful.


    If the leaves were red when it was first bought, they should be red now, and falling. Within the next few weeks, its a good time to move a tree.


  • Options
    #15
    standardg60
    Registered Users Posts: 4,698 ✭✭✭standardg60


    recedite wrote: »
    Yes but there should be some strong laterals, and there are none.
    IMO this tree is suffering from regular, quite severe setbacks, probably drought. Lateral growth dies back, then later the tree tries again with a new one.

    I'd start by moving it a bit further out from that wall, and then dig in plenty of humus into the new planting hole.
    Also its too spindly and high. Take away that stake and cut the top third off the tree! The shape of it is awful.


    If the leaves were red when it was first bought, they should be red now, and falling. Within the next few weeks, its a good time to move a tree.

    Looking back over your previous posts in the gardening section, i'd be fairly confident your knowledge of horticulture is sparse to say the least.


  • Options
    #16
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,992 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    standardg60 wrote: »
    Looking back over your previous posts in the gardening section, i'd be fairly confident your knowledge of horticulture is sparse to say the least.
    Are you going to back up this personal insult with some evidence? If not, you had better apologise.


  • Options
    #17
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,435 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    It is perfectly possible for thin stems to be live but leafless, or dead. Certainly on mine you could easily see that most of the twig was dead, and where it was live. The tree that was more exposed (though still in a walled garden) was more inclined to go 'dead twiggy' than a bigger tree in a sheltered corner of the garden. The tree in question eventually caught up with itself and is fine now. In the past I have had a smaller tree that never did get past the twiggy stage and eventually I removed it.


  • Options
    #18
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,443 ✭✭✭macraignil


    looksee wrote: »
    It is perfectly possible for thin stems to be live but leafless, or dead. Certainly on mine you could easily see that most of the twig was dead, and where it was live. The tree that was more exposed (though still in a walled garden) was more inclined to go 'dead twiggy' than a bigger tree in a sheltered corner of the garden. The tree in question eventually caught up with itself and is fine now. In the past I have had a smaller tree that never did get past the twiggy stage and eventually I removed it.

    Similar experience with the one Japanese acer I have. It originally had more dead stems but has now less as it has settled in its position in the garden. If you do find them particularly ugly looking you could simply bend the stem that looks dead and if it is completely dead it will usually be brittle and simply break off with light pressure where as bare living stems will be more resilient and not damaged by the light pressure. The acer I have is extremely slow growing. This maybe is exacerbated by being in a shady spot behind a fence but in any case I would be very slow to cut them back since they are so slow growing. It could take a considerable amount of time to regain the size they were and dead branches will naturally break off and sort themselves out anyway.


Advertisement