[Cincinnati guy]

This maple was at my parents house for 4 years before we transplanted it to my house this late spring. All was good with it, growing leaves and looking healthy all except for the past week! Now the leaves are starting to die off. I have started irrigating this tree 2 times a day, once in the morning and once in the late evening. What could be going on with it? Is this tree going to make it, what can I do to help it along the way?

 

[Ecks from Tex]

Is it hot up there right now? This is what they do in hot weather when they don't have enough shade, but that usually is only when they are in the southern part of their hardiness zones (zone 5-8 i think). For example I am in zone 9 and MUST keep mine in the shade. You being I'm guessing zone 4 or 5 should be able to leave it in full sun.

A stressed Japanese maple will drop its leaves like you describe but most of the time make a full recovery.

Get some root simulator and water it with that along with cheleated iron mixed in. Inspect closely to make sure you don't have fungal problems or insects. I can't tell from pictures.

I agree with you on watering twice a day - the tree is going to struggle as its roots get established. It needs extra care during that time. Hopefully one day you wake up and it starts flourishing without additional care.

 

[g-man]

I would take some of the mulch out. Maples are sensitive to covered roots.

 

[Neiltsubota]

One simple test is to cut a branch to see if the Cambium layer is still healthy.

If you see a fine green layer your Japanese Maple tree is still healthy.

If the branch is dry, light weight, and brown.
Your tree may have a disease.

My experience is the cure may cost you more than the value of the tree.

Good luck

 

[Ecks from Tex]

One simple test is to cut a branch to see if the Cambium layer is still healthy.

If you see a fine green layer your Japanese Maple tree is still healthy.

If the branch is dry, light weight, and brown.
Your tree may have a disease.

My experience is the cure may cost you more than the value of the tree.

Good luck

Welcome!

 

[440mag]

This maple was at my parents house for 4 years before we transplanted it to my house this late spring. All was good with it, growing leaves and looking healthy all except for the past week! Now the leaves are starting to die off. I have started irrigating this tree 2 times a day, once in the morning and once in the late evening. What could be going on with it? Is this tree going to make it, what can I do to help it along the way?

'Mornin,' Cincinnati!

Like Ecks says, hopefully this time next year that lil beauty will have all this behind it. You mention transplanting in late Spring, can you be more specific? I ask as this is the first week of June ...

Spring is a tough time to move acers (Fall is best as they're entering or in dormancy anyway); so, based on my experience successfully transplanting quite a few acer palmatums I'll wager your tree in exhibiting transplant shock +/or stress. Really quite normal, and often regardless of care taken, etc.

And, I am almost positive you are over irrigating the little guy, potentially making things worse (transplant stress is temporary ruling out other stressors; however; root rot is more often than not, quite fatal). Here's a good article on watering this species: http://www.japanesemaplesonline.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/home.showpage/pageID/14/index.htm

I would hold off trying to stimulate the plant, the Japanese varieties of acers respond better to organics in the soil much, much better than they do any fertilizers or mineral/nutrient additives. They also require good drainage (think "gritty loam") - any chance you amended the soil with any sharp gravel +/or small pine chips when you transplanted? This is a little late but, a good primer for success in moving these hardy but, not always so "rapid-change" tolerant beauties: https://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/outdoors/gardening/how-to-transplant-a-japanese-maple

 

[Cincinnati guy]

It was mid April when we transplanted it. It filled with leaves great until a few weeks ago and now it's like this. The leaves are not falling off the tree though! If that helps diagnose. I have stopped irrigating per instruction. When we planted I did add some manure to the dirt mix.

 

[iowa jim]

I have 13 japanese maples, but only been doing this for 5 years, so not an expert but is it possible that the manure was a little to strong and burnt the roots.

 

[440mag]

Howdy Cincinnati, 'morning, all!

Cincinnati, I am certainly no expert either but, one thing I've learned (through some hard le$$ons) is that Japanese maples root systems need AERATION. This equates to sorta the opposite of manure - think of a soil composition of roughly:

1/4 SHARP pea gravel (most often quickest source is chicken grit from your local feed & grain store)
1/4 pine bark FINES (not to be confused with pine bark mulch although my last JM planting I got by with the MINI pine bark "nuggets" and I just picked out the bigger biggest "clunks" of bark)
1/4 sphagnum peat
1/4 soil (not manure, not clay, not sand but soil that, for lack of a better analogy, when you squeeze a fistful of it in your hand it stays clumped for a moment but then starts to separate and crumble)

A lot of people refer to soil for JM's and other plants that like relatively "dry toes" "GRITTY MIX" and the recipe I use a mass of us actually got from a guy named "Al" and so you may hear people refer to, lAl's Gritty Mix"

Aeration and drainage is so important that last planting I mention I actually went 1/4 everything and the last 25% I used Turface, essentially fine bits of clay which have been fired to some insanely high degree of heat that makes it rock hard and yet it absorbs and holds water! It is used on athletic fields and you can get big bags of it at turf shops like SiteOne (I believe used to be John Deere Landscaping stores), etc.: https://www.turface.com/find-a-distributor I think I used the MVP but, the pieces should be large enough to not be considered close to sand and large enough to not be considered gravel. Maybe easiest way to put it is size of the Turface particles should be smaller than the chicken grit.

One question bouncing around my head is, "What was the soil like at your parents', where the tree was doing so good for 4 years."

You have a couple options but, I am fairly confident they all involve amending the soil. Since we're coming up on the hottest, driest part of the year, "rescuing" any plant can be a tricky proposition with it out in full exposure. It looks as if the root system of your tree may be too big for you to put it in a pot with and move it to a partial til, say, September but, that may just not be practical for you.

At the very least, I'd consider getting yourself at least 4 10lb bags of chicken grit (you want particles about the size of pencil erasers or slightly bigger and THE SHARPER THE EDGES THE BETTER); 2 or 3 bags of the finest pine bark ("mini nuggets") you can get and if you can't source Turface then even several bags of perlite. I wouldn't think you would need any planting soil as I suspect the soil you have there will be fine, once you mix it with equal amounts of the chicken grit, pine bark fines and Turface or perlite. (OTOH, if that area is pure clay or sand then, yeah, score a couple bags of generic planting soil as well.

Dig that little beauty up, create a hole as deep as and twice the diameter of the root ball and get to mixing! If you are mixing and thinking, "Geez, this is almost going to be "too dry" for the plant to retain any moisture" you've probably got it right. When you replant the tree make sure it SITS HIGHER than the rest of the planting area. Then give it a good 2-3" layer of regular pine bark (pine bark actually contains lignins that prevent their breaking down as quickly as many other "bark" type mulches)

Depending upon what you see once you get the roots out of the ground, you may want to either prune some of the finer roots back and at the very least make sure they are not "clumped" together (which they tend to do when they stay wet (and heavy % of manure turns to an underground "glue" :-(

As I type all this I recall ecks in Texas mentioning "the cost of the cure may make it not worthwhile" (or something along those lines) so, only you can decide if a replant is practical or not but, in any event, I hope all this is a bad memory asap and that everyone enjoys that tree for many, many years to come!

Edit: on looking at the picks again, some light (as in very light) pruning of the ends of the longer ("wispier") branches may also aid the plant in recovering. I know the consensus has shifted against sealing pruning cuts but, I am fairly certain most would agree that Japanese maples, and especially already stressed specimens, are an exception to the "don't seal prune cuts" rule. Therefore, I'd dab a finger tip of Elmer's glue on the ends of any branches I pruned back.

Best o' Success!

Another Edit (geez!): it can only help (a lot!) if you can also get a nice sized bag of bone meal and incorporate that into the soil as you backfill directly around the edges of the existing root mass (I can't say enough about using bone meal when I do transplants!

 

[Cincinnati guy]

That's a lot of good information!

So I went and trimmed down some of the branches they still have a green layer so that's good right?

It don't look like the leaves are falling off the tree, they're just wilted and brown.

Since the tree has been planted for over a month is it still advisable to add in some of the mixture you talked about?

 

[Neiltsubota]

This looks good. I would be "cautiously optimistic". At this point in time I would advise you to mark out a 3 foot diameter. This is a "NO STEP ZONE". The roots of a Japanese are fairly close to the surface. Cut circle and lay some bricks from the big box store. Don't let the kids, or dogs in this area. You need the tree to get it's "strength" back after trans-planting shock.

The above advise has been good.

Let the Spring, and Summer Weather do this tree some good.

I know that you have some tough winters in Cincinnati, OH. The tree go dormant during the winter, but they should bloom in the spring, and show new growth this time of year. Please be patient with this tree. It may have a disease you can't see from the outside.

Update us with photos.

 

[Cincinnati guy]

Ok so a little update, we have lost about 95% of the leaves on this tree, there is only a small section of about 5-10 leaves all the rest turned brown and wilted. I've trimmed the tree up a little like suggested. I tested a limb today by breaking a small one and it still has some snap to it with green inside. Does it mean it's still alive? I'd like to know what is going on with it, wondering if I should dig it up and count my loss or you think come spring it'll be in great shape?