This is an OLD post. But since it's spring and thoughts are turning to seed planting I'll add this. Seeds from Shin Deshojo Japanese Maple will give you "plain" Green Japanese Maple plants. Some of the leaves on your different seedlings/trees may have leaves which differ a little from each other. but few if any will produce Shin Deshojo. If you must have Shin Desojo w/o the grafting scar you can get a rooted cutting. Or get a grafted tree and air layer a branch.(yes you can). Good Luck R

if there is no drainage.. they should have planted high .. i suspect too much water ... if there is little drainage.. in a clay based soil .. throwing some rocks in the bottom of a clay cauldron is not a solution ... water trees.. when they need water.. not on a timer 'system' .. plus deep waterings in addition ... most trees need to nearly dry in between waterings .... though apparently your rain forest plants dont mind.. a tree might ... i do not favor fertilizing an already stressed tree .... you wouldnt give a sick child some steroids to bulk up .... while his feet are rotting in a swamp .... hows that for mixing metaphors .... lol only a soil test will tell you.. what if anything is missing from the soil .... all that said.. it is CA.. and i wouldnt be surprised at all if one with CA background thinks otherwise ... good luck ken

Thanks for all responses. I'm beginning to think that maybe some of the damage is due to a day or two of heavy rains and winds. Even though the tree is under an overhang so did not get direct rain, there was definitely major winds. I should have moved it out of that area. The tree is planted just as it was in it's previous pot from the nursery except for in a larger pot. In terms of leaves slightly curling downwards instead of being flatter, does this usually mean too little water or too much? Or could this all be a reaction to too much daily wind? There is a slight breeze throughout the day, but nothing crazy. there is a lot of pollen from a nearby avocado tree that has collected all over the leaves. If, and this is what I am hoping it is, the damage is from the storm in tandem with the shock of being newly potted, would it be a good idea to prune off the dead leaves and dry twigs that have appeared? a lot of the dead/dying leaves are in clusters underneath other branches of leaves (sort of internal to the structure of the tree's foliage). I checked all the way down into the container to make sure of drainage again, and the soil is barely moist, so I really don't think it's too much water. We do have very alkaline water here in southern California. I was told to use rose or azalea food to help replenish the acidity in the soil, but didn't plan on using that for several months since the tree was just repotted. I'd like to post images of the tree, just need to figure out how!

The red leaves on the one Red Sunset is not due to chlorosis. Chlorosis does not present as red leaves but rather leaves that have a washed out, pale green, chartreuse or yellow coloring with darker veins. And that could be due to either an iron or a manganese deficiency, both of which are common with alkaline soils. With red maples the deficiency is typically manganese. There is no easy fix for this. Acer rubrum just does not tolerate alkaline conditions well and it is just not a good choice of tree for those conditions. You can do some temporary fixes addressing the Mn need but you are unlikely to get soil pH anywhere close to what it needs to be. As to the red coloring of the new leaves, I'm not sure what to attribute that to. Are you sure it is not just the flowers you are seeing? They appear before the tree leafs out and are red in color. It's definitely NOT chlorosis but possibly some other nutrient deficiency, the source of which may also be the high soil pH.