Green_lover
Seedling
Hello everyone,
I got an acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' at the end of this May and it was thriving until 2 weeks ago. It is not a very small tree, so I believe it was already established. However, the leaves started to scorch and it seams this is not stopping.
The following photo and the 2 videos at the bottom are from 5 days ago.
![tempImagePjaaPd.png tempImagePjaaPd.png](https://www.bonsainut.com/data/attachments/545/545768-df0ec7f8b8a730c5b9156eea36ce48a8.jpg?hash=wEgQZ8oOtJ)
This is a photo from now. There are more scorched leaves now
:
![tempImagehcyKuD.png tempImagehcyKuD.png](https://www.bonsainut.com/data/attachments/545/545773-7c04b623faa8e6ff2c70524ffcc98962.jpg?hash=BK9GzkB9CN)
I repotted it in the beginning of June in a big pot - the one on the photos (with 60-65 litres of soil) and started watering it as per the nursery specialist's advice: 7-8 litres of water when the first 5-6 cm of the soil is dry and wait for the water to drain through the holes of the pot. It sounded and looked like too much to me, but hey, he's the specialist. The pot is from plastic and it has at least 12 holes (1 cm diameter each) at the bottom. I also put a 3-4 cm layer of stones at the bottom and then I put a fresh soil I bought from the nursery. So I guess this is enough for good drainage. To add, I never let water to sit in the pot dish.
However, the summer began and we've been having really hot weather here (35-36 C). The leaves started scorching, but the wierdest thing is the soil is not drying. I cannot say it's soaking, but I even bought a moisture meter and it has been showing the soil is still in the wet zone even after 2 weeks of no watering at all. The soil (the one I test when I dig 10-15 cm in the pot) feels moist to touch as well and it really confuses me how it is not drying in this hot weather. Long story short, my acer is giving me mixed signals.
The soil is wet, but the leaves are dry and keep scorching. The roots do not seem rotten from what I could see.
I have a few questions:
1. What can I do to prevent this happening to my acer?
2. Does this mean my tree is already dying?
3. Should I water it now or wait more time (I repeat, it has been more than 2 weeks now and the moisture meter still shows the soil is wet). Even the soil is moist, the problem is I can still see new leaves scorching.
Important note: The location of the pot is on a balcony that is east oriented and it has direct sunlight only until 12:00-13:00. I live in Skopje, Macedonia and this summer is really hot (almost every day we have temperatures above 30 degreees celsius).
Thanks in advance to anyone who would take their time to help me!
View attachment IMG_3653.mp4
View attachment IMG_3655.mp4
I got an acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' at the end of this May and it was thriving until 2 weeks ago. It is not a very small tree, so I believe it was already established. However, the leaves started to scorch and it seams this is not stopping.
The following photo and the 2 videos at the bottom are from 5 days ago.
![tempImagePjaaPd.png tempImagePjaaPd.png](https://www.bonsainut.com/data/attachments/545/545768-df0ec7f8b8a730c5b9156eea36ce48a8.jpg?hash=wEgQZ8oOtJ)
This is a photo from now. There are more scorched leaves now
![Crying face :cry: 😢](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f622.png)
![tempImagehcyKuD.png tempImagehcyKuD.png](https://www.bonsainut.com/data/attachments/545/545773-7c04b623faa8e6ff2c70524ffcc98962.jpg?hash=BK9GzkB9CN)
I repotted it in the beginning of June in a big pot - the one on the photos (with 60-65 litres of soil) and started watering it as per the nursery specialist's advice: 7-8 litres of water when the first 5-6 cm of the soil is dry and wait for the water to drain through the holes of the pot. It sounded and looked like too much to me, but hey, he's the specialist. The pot is from plastic and it has at least 12 holes (1 cm diameter each) at the bottom. I also put a 3-4 cm layer of stones at the bottom and then I put a fresh soil I bought from the nursery. So I guess this is enough for good drainage. To add, I never let water to sit in the pot dish.
However, the summer began and we've been having really hot weather here (35-36 C). The leaves started scorching, but the wierdest thing is the soil is not drying. I cannot say it's soaking, but I even bought a moisture meter and it has been showing the soil is still in the wet zone even after 2 weeks of no watering at all. The soil (the one I test when I dig 10-15 cm in the pot) feels moist to touch as well and it really confuses me how it is not drying in this hot weather. Long story short, my acer is giving me mixed signals.
![Loudly crying face :sob: 😭](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f62d.png)
I have a few questions:
1. What can I do to prevent this happening to my acer?
2. Does this mean my tree is already dying?
3. Should I water it now or wait more time (I repeat, it has been more than 2 weeks now and the moisture meter still shows the soil is wet). Even the soil is moist, the problem is I can still see new leaves scorching.
Important note: The location of the pot is on a balcony that is east oriented and it has direct sunlight only until 12:00-13:00. I live in Skopje, Macedonia and this summer is really hot (almost every day we have temperatures above 30 degreees celsius).
Thanks in advance to anyone who would take their time to help me!
View attachment IMG_3653.mp4
View attachment IMG_3655.mp4