I have found that if the tree is small, that manual removal of scale is a safe and effective way of taking care of the problem (works for aphds and mealybug too, though those can just be washed off with a hose too). I have used a cotton swab and a cup of soapy water to just wipe them off if they are soft scale, or just a twig to snap them off if they are hardened. It really isn't very difficult, a couple of passes over a few days usually takes care of it, and I do take care to rinse the soap off when I done. It avoids the defoliation issues as well as pesticide exposures--my halfhearted attempt at organic approaches :) I agree with Pelham's advice to leave the tree to just grow for now, since it has recently suffered insult. I would allow a young and small tree that can't live outside year-round to gather as much photosynthetic machinery (new leaves and branches) as possible as the colder and darker season approaches, though you certainly can train the branches however you'd like--espalier as Toni mentioned. HTH.

This is an unfortunate situation, but brings up a problem I see a lot of. IÂve been growing container based tropical plants for about 35 years. Through trial and error IÂve discovered some things along the way. Most gardeners fully understand the importance of drainage, soil makeup, and ph. ItÂs critical to provide good growing conditions in the landscape to be successful. Hopefully thatÂs a no-brainer no one will take issue with. Now I fear toes will be stepped on, so put on your boots and IÂll try to do it with grace :-). I think most people overlook the importance of a quality soil mix when growing in containers and most retailers in the trade arenÂt much help. You are encouraged to buy the pre-bagged garbage most of them have sitting on the shelf. If you have a chance to visit a work area where they are potting up things in season, you probably wonÂt see them using what they just wanted to sell you. Unfortunately thatÂs the consumerÂs fault. The average Joe will run to Wal-Mart when they hear how much a bag of a professional grade mix costs, so the grower compromises for the sake of the sale. The biggest problem with that mix is most of it is peat or sphagnum. Peat or sphagnum is ok if it never dries out. If it ever does, you can strap an outboard to it and pull water-skiers. When that happens, the only way to hydrate it again is completely submerse it for days until it quits floating. Merely pouring water on the soil doesnÂt do the trick. The soil has probably pulled away from the container and the water is just running down the sides of the pot. You can leave a hose on the container all day and your plant will still die from lack of water. A commercial based mix is only about 1/3 of my mix. I like the 702 Metro mix, not a promo for that brand, thatÂs just what I use. I also mix in a composted fine pine soil conditioner along with a high-fired clay product called haydite. I may have to water more often than the average person, but my plants donÂt die from disease caused by cold wet conditions we experience here on occasion and they donÂt float way when dropped in a tub. randy

Thank you, everyone. I appreciate your responses. I did think it looked like sun damage but I didn't realize that the damage can continue to appear well after the plant has been removed from the direct sun - thanks for this insight. My plan is to repot Larry (the plant) into a smaller/lighter pot with some proper soil mixture and to slowly introduce him back to the sun. I think the pot we have is too large anyway and my husband recently injured himself and can't help me move it - maybe why I rushed his transition to the outdoors over a few days as opposed to a week or two. We're at high elevation and the sun is very powerful here in CO so perhaps moving extra slow is even more important. A few lingering questions... 1. Does anyone have a conversion chart or recommended formula for adding fertilizer to such a young/small plant? The "dosage" chart given on the bag of citrus fertilizer I have seems to be for much, much larger trees and I want to make sure I don't overfertilize. 2. Any ideas as to what the initial few white spots/defoliation might have been from? Those spots did not progress like the sun burn spots and happened several weeks before moving him outdoors. They are shown in the first image. Thank you again! I am happy to hear that Larry should recover.

Here’s the Japanese Maple I bought from the Tree Center just 9 months after I splurged for the larger size because there are slow-growing trees. I was apparently confused by the 1-year warranty and didnt realize it wasn’t like most nurseries that back their products as part of the purchase. My dumb fault for not reading thoroughly or looking into reviews. This tree dropped all of its leaves within 6 months. I had hoped maybe it was just because it was winter (I am in Zone 8a), but it was fall when the leaves fell off when this tree is supposed to look its best. had it in a nice shady spot that got some filtered sun just how my flourishing JM’s love it here. I planted the coral bark at the same time from a similar size container, although it was taller as it is a taller growing variety. the Tree Center’s customer service dept offered me a 20% discount on another tree, and they were very rude in their response. Buy local where you know you’ll get a 1-year warranty withour a hassle.