Japanese Maple

[Elahrairah]

I have a couple of Japanese Maple trees. Don't have specific ID's but one is deep red and the others have green leaves....

Anyway, the one with the red leaves this year has been very distressing. The leaves showed up in spring nice and full, and by mid summer they started wilting and falling off, now it looks like the dead of winter for that tree. I can tell the branches are not dead and new buds will form, but why this tree and not the others?

I have been told both too much water and not enough water, and too much sun and not enough sun, so which is it? I can't do much to change the amount of sun it sees, and last year we didn't have this problem.

I am in SoCal and we have been unusually cool this year. How to combat this? Less water? I have tried cutting back, but then other tress look like they are starting to suffer, so I didn't cut back too much.

Thanks.

[rainbowgardener]

My red Japanese maple looks just about like that. I'm pretty sure for me it's due to the horrible drought we are having. I've been watering it, but probably not enough to make up for the 9" of rain we didn't get.

Japanese maples do not like direct sun.

But in my experience with mine, it will come back just fine in the spring (assuming that the rains come back next spring).

[bullthistle]

I've had mine, 4 in containers for years and water sporatically and they are doing fine in a shaded area so it could be something like insects, check the bark at the graft area. It could be just poor grafting.

[Elahrairah]

The bark and branches all look good. There are a couple of smaller "sub branches" That have dried out and are dead, but most of the dying leaves are on branches that are very flexible and green.

So, I run my sprinkler for the zone the tree is in. I run it for 7 min and my water meter shows I used up 105 gallons of water. This zone is approx 400 cubic feet or so, that means approx 1/2 gallon per cubic foot. That is approx 1/2" according to my calcs. That should be enough water (note my sprinklers are set so they do not waste water on concrete, etc).

Wow, I should have plently of water (without being too much), right (I water 4 times a week)?

Only.....I set out some cups to catch water fall at 20 spots randomly placed throughout the zone.....the cup with the most water in it was about 1/8 or less water in it!!

Also, the maple tree is planted not with mulch, but with rocks around the base, which could be holding water back from evaporation.

The drainage rate for a 1 foot deep hole once it is filled is about 30 min to drain out completely.

So I still can't tell if I am over or under watering this thing....

The tree is in filtered sunlight, only direct sunlight for a couple of hours in the early morning, if that helps. More sunlight is almost impossible to accomplish as I have no place to move this tree to and cannot move the larger tree providing the shade. But keep in mind this amount of sunlight has been consistant for the past couple of years, with good growth before...

I will post a picture tonight, the thing looks so miserable...I hate the idea that I am making it suffer. I cut back the water by 1/2 a week or so ago and I want to wait and see if it improves, but if it is underwatered, I may have signed it's death warrant.

I should also note that I played with the timers etc earlier this year when I saw my water bill. I played with them so much (number of days, time per cycle, number of cycles per day and even sprinkler tips), that I cannot remember what it was before, so I have no idea if they have more or less water than last year....

Why is over and under watering have the same results (curled up/browining leaves)?

By the way, I have asked people at Armstrong Garden centers, friends I know who like to garden, and my neighbors landscaper and I get all different answers...

Thanks in advance for any help.

[microcollie]

I'm curious if the trees are freshly-planted or fully-established. Perhaps they weren't planted correctly? And how big are they? Were they originally potted or B&B?

[Elahrairah]

Planted in it's position when I purchased the house 3 years ago. I wouldn't even try to move a tree!

[microcollie]

And they've faired well in previous years? This would make me think that there's something disturbing/eating the roots. Was your watering schedule the same as last year?