autumn blaze maple

[carol foshag]

Hi, This is my first post and hope someone will give me some advice. We went to a nursery and bought a 12-15 foot autume blaze maple tree. It is a beautiful tree. The nursery planted it in April It looked liked it was doing pretty well until about 3 weeks ago. Now the leaves are all turning color. It looks like I would imagine it looking in the fall. I called the nursery and they told me it was a common problem. They said it was probably under stress. I was told to water it slowly, about 20 minutes a day, every day for about a week. I live in lower Michigan and the weather has been very warm the past few days. Does this seem to be the right thing to do. I told the nursery that they planted the tree in clay and they said that wasn't a problem. They said the leaves would probably fall off early, maybe in September, but not to worry. Thanks so much for any imput.

[stenbough]

Carol, this is the same exact problem I'm having (and I live in lower Michigan as well!). I have a post that you can visit here that shows a few photos of my tree. I also have clay soil, but I don't think mine is suffering from lack of water since I planted it last year and the soil around the tree is still moist from the last rain.

[DarbyPlanters]

It's June of 2010 and I am in Ohio and having the same problem with mine! I'm wondering if your problem was resolved with your autumn blaze. Should I be hopeful?

[bullthistle]

Although it may be warm watering a tree that much might drown it if you have clay soil. Wind may be a factor as well so I would suggest instead of watering everyday is to spray water on the leaves in the evening and soak once every three days.