Japanese Maple
I planted a Japanese Maple last year. Well this year the top half of the tree is not growing any leaves and the bottom half looks normal. I think the frost may have gotten to it. I took my fingernail and rubbed the top half and it was all brown and looked dead. Should I cut off the dead parts of the tree?
Do you know the name of the tree, is it a graft and where is the graft? High or low? If the remaining live portion is below the graft then you would have a different tree. Although by now you would likely have noticed a difference in the leaf shape. While this does sound most like cold damage there is one other posibility. Japanese maples are susceptible to Verticillium wilt. If the tree got the disease late last year you would not see symptoms until this spring at leaf out. I think I hate this disease the most becaue there is no treatment and once you have in your soil you have it forever. Lets hope this is cold injury. Which brings up the question of this particular japanese maple and its zone rating. Is there a zone problem and/or an exposure problem?
https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3053.html
https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3053.html