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Japanese Maple freeze damage.

17 years ago

I live in southern Mo. and my Japanese Maple was in full leaf when we got a very hard freeze that lasted 2-3 days. Now the leaves have all dropped off and the branches look dead. Has been about 3 weeks since the freeze and there are no new shoots on any of the branches. There are new shoots coming out on the trunk, up near the crown. Should I prune back all the branches and if so, how close should they be pruned?

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Comments (3)

myersphcf
17 years ago
I personally would wait ... if your tree is grafted and they are coming out of the graft or below... the root stock is alive but not necessarily the grafted cultivar ... if seed grown or it's leafing above the graft you may have a new small tree/bush only...whether that is worth it or not is your decision ... It is doubtful the rest of tree will leaf but on the chance some is alive as i said I'd wait...it will do no harm and... it is what it is... whatever you do now will not effect it's ultimate except negativily..David
gillygirl
17 years ago
My 7 year old Japanese Maple did not leaf this spring.
We had a warm spell followed by a foot of snow in mid-April. I'm devastated that my maple may not come back. I've watched it grow from a baby when I planted it after moving into my house. I've given it Miracle Gro with plenty of water in the last several days in hopes that it will kick-start it. Is there anything I can do to save my tree?
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The real question is how long will if be below freezing. It took multiple freezes/frosts and input from others to realize that is the critical point. It can hit 27 for a couple hours and be fine. There is still a mystery as to what the low for me was on Tues night. My therms. said 21 and 23. The official recorded low was 28. Bottom line is that my trees in leaf where subjected to below freezing temps for about 9 hours. 5' Emperor One...black leaves the next day 4' Red dragon...extremely wilted and limp leaves 2' Fireglow...black leaves the next day 7' Katsura...black leaves the next day 6' Sangu Kaku...extremely wilted and limp leaves My shirs haven't leafed out yet...no wonder so many say to stick with this species in zone 5. I've been told "most" decidious trees bounce back. However, Acer palmatum is one that can have more casualties than others.
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Sounds like what you are doing is about what needs to be done. There isn't much that can be done at this point except wait. TBH, I don't know if I would increase the watering much if any. If you are watering more than twice a week then you are probably watering too much unless the soil drains and dries very quickly. I've noticed on several cold damaged trees where some of the new growth after the freeze died on areas where the cambian was damaged under the bark. So if it is sporadic growth throughout the tree rather than the outer most leaves all over the tree that has dried up, I wouldn't increase the watering. This just means that there was too much damage under the bark for sufficient water transfer to those new shoots. It wouldn't mean that there isn't enough water at the roots, just that there is damage somewhere between.
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It looks like it was planted too deeply. Have you removed mulch away from the base already? Do you see anything like a root flare or signs of surface roots? Certainly mulch piled up against the trunk can cause bark to split and peel away as well as more severe problems. You always want a clear span of several inches around the trunk before mulch starts.
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I see NOTHING of concern :-) The green spots are just the natural mottling of the bark. No worries!! I would like to see a more visible root flare, however. It almost looks like the tree is planted too deeply.
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mattlwfowler
17 years ago
Unfortunately all you can do right now is pray...or cross your fingers if you are not into that sort of thing. I'd also be careful about the miracle grow as it is a high nitrogen fertilizer, and JMs don't usually like high nitrogen fertilizers. In fact...they don't really like any fertilizer if planted in the ground and mulched yearly.

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