UBC Maple Forum

Hello:
One of the two Weeping Japanese Maples that we planted 2 years ago is acting strange. It is thriving at the trunk where new shoots are appearing, but at the branches they all appear to be dead.
We are in the East Kootenays which is supposed to be a Zone 5, but some people say it is more like a Zone 3 to 4 as the winter wind chill where this one troublesome tree is can be quite prolonged.
Also I thought could it be soil temperature that is effecting this one trees slow Spring start up but it has been relatively warm now for a couple of weeks now so I guess soil temp is not the problem.
The 2 Weeping Japanese Maples are planted within 10 feet of each other and the trouble free maple is doing wonderfully and has had a normal start-up and growth since early Spring.
I have fed them 20-20-20 they get lots of direct sun and they are well watered.
Can anybody think of the cause of why this is happening to one of these trees?
Thank you,
Robert Arber

Hello, new to the forum and this is my first post so please excuse any posting ediquette mistakes!

I have a beautiful Japanese Maple that was here when I bought my home 8 years ago, not sure how old it is but fairly mature, it is about 1 story high.
Until 2 winters ago there was a huge douglas firm which we had to remove for safety reasons, since then it has grown vigorously except in one section where every spring a new branch turns brown and dies. I had it pruned professionally last fall to let more light into the center, but again a huge branch died this spring.

Any thoughts?

Looking for insight...

I purchased a beni maiko two seasons ago; it was planted in the fall of 2010 - I live in Michigan. In 2011, she came in beautifully, but noticed some dead branches. This year, she looks to be in bad shape - a few sparse leaves, some sprouting randomly on branches and from the trunk, and a good deal of bare gray bark. We had an odd winter/spring transition this year with temps in the 80s in March followed by a few nights of frost - so a number of acers in our area are not performing as they should at the moment. Aside from the weather conditions the dead branches indicate a worsen condition.

I scratched the bark in various areas and noticed some branches had green undertones and were pliable - but the majority of the tree appears to be dead. I read folks have pruned these trees so I gave it a go, and was also advised to remove the leaf sprouts from the trunk. I am not sure what is happening to it and I want to save it.

I've read sites that talk about exposing root flare, and ensuring proper drainage. The soil in our area is rich with clay, so this might be a contributing factor. I'm worried if I dig it up and attempt to condition the soil it will cause more stress to the tree. Has anyone had a similar experience and been able to save their tree?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Hi all,

Though they started ok, Akane and another maple have suffered from a heavy pour of rain recently. I took action only when I saw them with drooping , somewhat blackened leaves, putting them away from rain.
I took off the leaves for it made no sense to me to keep them on the tree in such a state. Is the year over for these maples or can they develop new growth during summer ?

Thanks

Fabrice, Northern France.

Hi, I'm new to the forum here, and I was wondering if anyone could help me identify what is growing on the underside of my maple tree's leaves. I've never seen anything like this, and I have searched in vain for an identification. The closest thing I could find was just a powdery mildew, but that doesn't really look like this, since no pictures of powdery mildew I could find had hairs all over it. Also, I don't know if it was the slight breeze, but I could have sworn these hairs were moving on their own, like they're some sort of parasite. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've attached a picture of what I'm talking about. Thanks in advance!
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Visiting an arboretum recently I noticed at their tiny nursery that they had for sale a maple with huge leaves labelled Acer miyabei (pictured below to the left with the 'New hybrid' label).Clearly, the plant was not what the label said so I inquired with the owner who claimed that it was a seedling from a samara hand picked from their very old A. miyabei. I went to the place where the miyabei stand and, looking around, I saw at a distance an Acer macrophyllum.

The owner claims that she never picks up macrophyllum seeds and sell's only miyabei's. It is true that a stray macrophyllum seed in a bed of Miyabei's would be easily spotted, they are quite different. But I have a hard time finding any miyabei's traits. When I use De Langhe's keys I always conclude on macrophyllum ID.
Any thoughts?

Gomero
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Hi im planing on buying a big japaneses red maple that someone has in there back yard. i am wondering when it will be the best time to dig up the tree and transplant it, fall,spring,mid summer, or will it be best to do so when its fall and the plants going into dormancy. thanks heres a picture of the tree i plan on transplanting.,

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5214/redmaple.jpg



also i am wondering how far apart i am going to have to dig around the tree to make root ball, so whats the rule of thumb? say the diamater of the tree is 6'' wide i dig how far around root ball? thanks!

Travis!

Hi,

in the sellout last year i bougt an acer palmatum without identification tag. It is an atrolineare type, but i don´t have a clue what cultivar.
In spring color is reddish, in summer it turns green and the fall color is yellow to orange.

I added pictures of Spring, Fall and Summer (only in dried condition).
Could someone give me an identification for this tree?
Could it be a villa taranto?

Greeting Raino
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I planted a 2" caliper Amber Ghost last fall. The area where planted was an old construction road of compressed gravel and debris. I dug out a hole 2X the size of the root ball and about as deep. I filled in half of the hole with a mixture of good soil and compost and also created a trench to provide drainage for the hole and filled it with mulch and rock. The root ball was placed in the hole and amply watered. A combination of good dirt, and some compost was used to mound around the root ball.
This winter was extremely wet.
This spring the Amber Ghost started to leaf out but the majority of leaves seemed to wilt after beginning to form, never reaching full size. Most of the tree has not had leaves form yet and many of those small leaves have begun to dry. There are a few leaves that have not dried, but are only about half normal size.
Any suggestions? Dig out and give up or wait and hope?

I have since many years a beautiful aconitifolium, that produces a lot of seeds.
I've planted them many times and never seen a new plant..
Any advice?
Can it be sterile?
Thanks Lucia

I know this is not the optimal use for a JM . I have the bug so a JM it will have to be . I have a sitting area for a cold weather cactus garden . Western exposure 8 hours of full sun till dusk . I have two large acer palmatums and a 8' Bloodgood that thrive in this location . My 6' fireglow scorches still . I am looking for a upright green cultivar . 10 ' that has a graceful flowing nature ,Quicker growth, Seryiu comes to mind .Mind you I am not looking for deep cover Just a break from those hot ones " Dappled ". Nice color changes would be a benefit as well. I have an Orido Nishiki ,but I want it to keep the varigation ? What are your thoughts ?

My 25 year old maple tree suddenly died. I was told it has maple wilt and the root fungus will spread to my other maple shade trees. I don't know what to do. Can someone help me.

I collected a large number of acer palmatum seeds from local parks in the autumn, stratified them over the winter and sowed those that germinated in the spring. One of these seedlings is Tricotyledenous - that is it has three first leaves rather than two. The first set of standard maple leaves have now emerged and these have also come in a set of three. Does anyone now how common/rare this mutation is in acer palmatum? Is it likely to persist or will it revert to the usual paired leaf form? If it does persist, will it produce a healthy specimen?

Some nice bigger Iseli trees from my local garden center.
Looks even better in person and can't resist not to take a picture.

Rhode Island red and 2 red sentinels in the back ground.
Second pic is a very tall and large butterfly.
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I believe I read on here that a wet spring is no good for japanese maples. Fungus is the problem if I remember right. I just planted a bunch of new Japanese Maples and watered well at planting as I always do. I pretty much flood them and then don't look back unless we get a serious drought. It's not the right way I'm sure but it's worked 100% so far for somewhere around 100 trees so I stick with it. My drainage must be pretty good. Now my concern with this new batch is I just planted them a couple days ago with the ground pretty much water logged and now we are getting loaded with rain for the next few days and a week of cold weather. I've already noticed some problems on the leaves of a few. Is there anything I can do to help them make it past this wet spell? The worst one is one that tipped over the night before I planted it and it rained all night. I found it soaked laying in the woods. Now a bunch of the leaves have spots on them that are clear looking. I'm not sure if it is fungus or not but I'm kind of worried about it. The others show typical signs of over watering and one of them has some dark brown on the tips. I'm not sure if I can do anything but wait it out but I figured I'd see if any of you could help before it gets worse. I would hate to lose any of these new trees. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have a one-year graft of Kinshi which has just two branches, both vertically oriented and both emerging from the exact same place on the same side of the graft. Should I remove one of the branches? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Attachment 101901
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I made the 3 1/2 hour drive out there today to pick up my 4 maples, which turned into 8 and man it was worth the drive! They are great people, great prices and most important, great trees. Gale was very helpful as well as the guys out in the nursery, JD I think and I didn't get the other guys name. They had more Japanese Maples than I've seen in my life. It made it very hard to choose but I really couldn't go wrong. They wraped everything up very nicely to protect it for the wind on the long ride home. Everything made it home in perfect shape.

Thanks Davidsans!

Now for the pics.

Orange Dream
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There's some bloodgoods and some "red emperor" maples at my local Costco for $50. They're about 6 feet tall and look pretty healthy. After some brief research I think the Emperor might be a better choice for me (I'd prefer a more compact size, the bright color and am in Michigan). My apprehension comes from the color of the tree. It's got some very small red leaves but most of the bigger ones are a dark green color. I was curious if this was due to it being indoors and traveling here or if it might be something that wouldn't be rectified once I got it into the sun. For what it's worth all the blood goods were still very red.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

We have just moved to our new home, and our yard backs onto a creek. I am considering planting some of my maples along the back fence, but am a little concerned with the local wildlife helping themselves to my 1-3 yr grafts. Do rabbits - we also have some ducks, skunks, possums, etc - tend to like nibbling on these young trees? What precautions should I take if I do decide to plant them along the fenceline?

I have had this Katsura JM for two years now and this JM needs some help in the pruning dept. It is top heavy and leans way over especially when it rains. My thoughts would be to take the top off to the branches on next level down to encourage side growth, and maybe trim off some of the excess smaller side branches down further. Thoughts?

What time of year would it be best to accomplish this?
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