Hello!
We recently purchased a home in in Northern California that is beautifully landscaped in the front. There are four different Japanese maple trees in the front of the house three of which are well established. The fourth (I have pictures if that would help) isn't doing too well. As soon as our house went on the market, the owners stopped having the gardener come and take care of the house so we inherited a few problems in the front yard. This poor maple is one of them.
After we bought the house, the gardener came by and said that it wasn't getting enough water (even though it was getting watered for 20 minutes a day at 6am). So we increased the watering time to 2 times a day at one at 20 and one at 10 minutes. The watering is a light mist.
I think the problem is over watering, because when I come out in the morning at 6:15 there is a puddle of standing water around the maple about an inch & a half deep. As you can see by the pictures, it's set down a little in the earth and there is a cloth around the base of it as well (which I also think may be part of the problem)...
I'm really worried about hurting this poor maple even more and would really appreciate any help!
[img]https://img523.imageshack.us/img523/309/img1964lk9.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3624/img1966et9.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img523.imageshack.us/img523/4980/img1965dr3.jpg[/img]
My apologies for not posting this sooner! My e-mail account was marking the notifications from the Helpful Gardener as spam, so I thought no one had responded!
But here they are, I appreciate any words of advice.
One thing, we did ask a friend who is a landscape architect and she said that it's not draining well enough and looks like it's getting too much water, so we have moved one of the sprinklers off of it - but I still think that it's not getting enough drainage - it's still in standing water in the mornings.
[img]https://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3624/img1966et9.jpg[/img]
[img]https://img523.imageshack.us/img523/4980/img1965dr3.jpg[/img]
My apologies for not posting this sooner! My e-mail account was marking the notifications from the Helpful Gardener as spam, so I thought no one had responded!
But here they are, I appreciate any words of advice.
One thing, we did ask a friend who is a landscape architect and she said that it's not draining well enough and looks like it's getting too much water, so we have moved one of the sprinklers off of it - but I still think that it's not getting enough drainage - it's still in standing water in the mornings.
How much sun is it getting? Acers prefer shade from the hottest part of the day and the pictures you have posted seem to show it in full sun?
They do best in dappled shade. Not much sun in the morning as even without the sprinkler on there will still be dew on the leaves and this makes them brown and curl. They also do not like being exposed to strong winds. Any of that any help?
They do best in dappled shade. Not much sun in the morning as even without the sprinkler on there will still be dew on the leaves and this makes them brown and curl. They also do not like being exposed to strong winds. Any of that any help?
Thank you Jess!
Yes, it does get quite a bit of morning sun... and also throughout the day...
Since it's next to the driveway (and the lawn) and there is nothing that I can do to to easily shade it - how easy will it be to move it? And if we move it - can it live under a conifer? I know that they can be rather acidic to live under - but there is an ideal spot I can move it to there...
Thanks again!
Alice
Yes, it does get quite a bit of morning sun... and also throughout the day...
Since it's next to the driveway (and the lawn) and there is nothing that I can do to to easily shade it - how easy will it be to move it? And if we move it - can it live under a conifer? I know that they can be rather acidic to live under - but there is an ideal spot I can move it to there...
Thanks again!
Alice
Hi,
Japanese maples prefer acidic soil so under your conifer could be ok as long as you plant it away from the conifers trunk but it MUST be in soil with good drainage ,BUT you could put it in a large pot and then you can move it around to change the scenery,I keep most of my Japanese maples in large pots.you can view them here,
https://koi-z-are-us.20m.com/japanese_maples.htm
Koiboy01
Japanese maples prefer acidic soil so under your conifer could be ok as long as you plant it away from the conifers trunk but it MUST be in soil with good drainage ,BUT you could put it in a large pot and then you can move it around to change the scenery,I keep most of my Japanese maples in large pots.you can view them here,
https://koi-z-are-us.20m.com/japanese_maples.htm
Koiboy01
