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Brown patch of leaves on Green Cascade Japanese Maple

12 years ago

Hello,

We have a Green Cascade Japanese Maple that we planted either late 2008 or early 2009 (I forget). It's in an irrigated planting bed on the SE corner of our mid-Missouri home and has done very well.

This summer has been brutally hot here, as in many other areas, and we did have a very dry stretch as well. For example, we have a regular Maple tree (planted at about the same time) that is ~12'-14' tall and has a lot of orange-ish leaves from the heat.

A few weeks ago, I started noticing a few brown leaves in one area of the Japanese Maple, which I at first mistook for new growth from a distance. But then the patch of brown spread and is now quite noticeable even from the street.

Sorry that I don't have a photo. I double-checked that its sprinkler head is working properly, so it's getting enough water. That bed is all fill-dirt and therefore drains pretty well (compared to the clay elsewhere in our yard), so I doubt that it's getting too much water.

Should I be concerned? Or could it just be a reaction to a really tough summer?

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years ago
Surely a reaction to weather. Impossible to tell whether a long-term concern. If bed of fill dirt was placed directly on top of native soil, a possibility there may be a perched water table making roots unhappy contributing to problem.

Dan
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
I double-checked that its sprinkler head is working properly, so it's getting enough water.

==>> i doubt that a general sprinkler.. allows enough water to insure moisture thru the entire root zone ..

you dont say how big of a transplant it was..

go dig a hole 6 to 12 inches ... out near the tree ... not too close.. and tell us how dry it is at 6 inches.. my guess... bone dry ...

trees should not be on sprinklers.. they simply do not need such.. ONCE ESTABLISHED ... but even then.. you arent putting the water.. where it is needed ...

ken
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eslie_4plants : another member named, cupshaped_rose told me to post pictures here u have to: 1)Create a free account at Photobucket: http://photobucket.com/register.php?link=topmenu (cut and paste the link above to your adressbar) 2)login to your new photobucket account http://photobucket.com/login.php (cut and paste the link above to your adressbar) 3)upload pictures from your picture files 4)when you want to post a picture in a post to this forum you have to highlight/Copy and paste the line underneath your uploaded picture that says HTML TAG (there are 3 lines underneath your uploaded picture (URL, TAG, Code...choose tag) to your post: 5) when you click Preview message you can see if your picture has been posted in the message Like this: Jimmys Abricot-coloured Heritage. ---------------------------------------------------- I find setting up your own "blog" more easy than the above method because sometimes the photos you put in photobucket doesn't appear in different browsers. U can set up a free website or a "blog" as it is often call in: http://www.blogger.com/start and follow the 3 simple steps. Once done come back here and type down your own website name in here. say for instance, I named my website, "www.myfavoriteplants.blogspot.com/ and under "name of the link" I wrote: "Jimmy's favorite plants".
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geeman1082
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the replies.

Dan ... the dirt was indeed placed directly on the native soil, although calling it "native" might be misleading because it was backfilled against the front porch when the house was built 3.5 yrs ago. The width of the bed is about 6-7', and the distance from the bed surface to the previous surface is probably a couple of feet under the tree. The bed is held in place by a retaining wall about 3' high on one side and the front porch on the other side. I'll try to snap a photo and post it.

Ken ... you may be right about the sprinkler, but I didn't want to trust my diligence in watering it so I had dedicated heads put on all of the plantings in the primary landscaping beds ... the head seems to soak the area pretty well, but my wife and I were planning to investigate as you suggested to see if we needed to do something different ...

The heads are small adjustable units that spray a continuous wedge-shaped curtain of water ... we have this head placed about 18" from the trunk so that it covers a fairly wide swath around the base of the tree. In the hot season, I run it twice (with a break to allow the water to soak in) every other day ... other times I back it off to every third or every fourth day.

The tree is about 30" tall, with a canopy about twice that in one direction and about 3' in the other (it's growing mostly in one direction, which is why we selected it for this area). The trunk is perhaps 2-3" dia, so it's a fairly solid little guy.

Thanks again for the feedback ... I still have so much to learn!
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
The tree is about 30" tall, ..... The trunk is perhaps 2-3" dia,

===>>>>
well.. you have some quote marks problems..

is thirty inches tall.. and 2 to 3 inch diameter .... i guess that defines solid little guy.. lol ...

30 feet tall????

i am confused!!!! which is normal.. so dont worry yourself.. lol

ken
geeman1082
Original Author
12 years ago
Sorry ... I've always used the double quote " as inches and the single quote ' as feet.

Anyway, I dashed home at lunch and snapped a few quick pics with my phone, and posted them in a revised webshots album ... I hope the link below works.

While I was doing that, I noticed some white spots on the bark, and discoloration of the leaves on most of the tree ... took a pic of that also ... could that mean fungus or disease?

And I also took a closer look at our Shaina Maple, which is on the other end of the porch, and it has some white discoloration and little holes in some of its leaves, which I also took a pic of.

Here is a link that might be useful: pics of trees

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