Help me with my maple

[vcnsiqueira]

Hey guys how are you?

I bought a Japanese maple about some weeks ago. I bought in a supermarket and it was not in a good shape. It need desperately water. Bring it home cause I really wanted a maple and these one had really small leaves (it was called little princess in it).

Well the point is that after bringing it home I pruned some of its leaves and it was okay. But now I realised it seems the leaves are curling and falling. Am I doing something wrong? By the way, I've been living in Ireland and the weather is, you know, never really good!

 

[Shibui]

Normally when I see this in summer I'm pretty confident the tree has dried out but in Ireland?
Overwatering can have the same symptoms because compromised roots can't absorb water and the tree dehydrates despite being in wet soil.

You are probably best placed to decide which is more likely. Have you been keeping the pot on the dry side or the wetter side?
Sunburn is a possibility (even in Ireland LOL) if the tree was kept in shade before you got it and is now in more direct sun. Leaves become adjusted to whatever conditions they are in. Sudden changes can cause problems.
The symptoms may even be from the dry conditions before you got it. Sometimes the effects take a week or so to show up.

Definitely check on watering and soil moisture but otherwise I'd be just watching and waiting. They are generally resilient and can come back from most temporary problems.

 

[penumbra]

This could well be a coincidence, but it is here for your consideration none the less. I bought a AP Little Princess about 5 or 6 weeks ago. It was about this size when shipped to me. It was not in the box long and it was unpacked and put in a fairly shady area right away and watered. Within a week every leaf dried up and fell off. Within two - three weeks it grew all new leaves and today looks fine. I have unpacked dozens of AP and this defoliation is a rare occurrence for me. After reading about your experience, I have to wonder if this particular cultivar is more prone than others to lose its leaves under periods of stress.
Don't really know and it may be just a coincidence. I'm just putting it out there.

 

[vcnsiqueira]

Hey guys!

Well, it wasn't in perfect conditions when I bought it. As I said, it was in a supermarket where nobody care about the plants they are selling and they generally die drought. Anyway, I bring it home (about 5 to 6 weeks ago, so it has been with me for a while) give it plenty water and I've been watering it regularly since it. I didn't defoliate it (maybe I should have) and after about 2 weeks I pruned some branches (nothing big). It got better after one or two weeks I bought and now it is not that well.

I think I've been doing something wrong with this beauty, but don't know what. It definitely isn't drying out since I bought. It gets only the morning sun, so I don't know. Maybe I should give it water less frequently and see what happens.

Maples are one of my favourite trees, but other than a big tree I have in my backyard I don't have much luck with them. I hope this one survives, but not knowing what has been happening is very disappointing.

Any considerations about this strategy? Do you think repotting is a good idea (I don't think so)?

 

[clem]

when i see these lesions in the leaves of my JM, it is always sun burn but i don't say it is the same for your tree.

If it was mine, i would lift the rootball up, to check the roots :
Healthy roots - > water only when the soil surface is dry (your soil is bad for Bonsai with too much water retention))
Rootrot -> emergency repotting in 100% akadama

 

[Shibui]

Thank you for the extra info. Every little bit helps when looking for difficult problems.

when i see these lesions in the leaves of my JM, it is always sun burn but i don't say it is the same for your tree.

I agree, which is why my first suggestion was dehydration/ sun burn but it appears the tree only has morning (Irish) sun each day.
Photos are not very clear. Maybe if we can get some where leaves are actually in focus it might help?

I only repot in summer as a last resort so first look for other solutions.
The idea of checking the roots is good. You should be able to tap the pot and lift the root ball right out of that pot intact, check root condition, take some (in focus) photos and slide it back into the same pot.
If the soil does fall off, don't panic, just hold the tree in the pot and pour the soil back around the roots after checking why there's not enough roots to hold the soil and taking some clear photos for us.

 

[vcnsiqueira]

Hey guys, thank you for the replies.

I've done what you have asked. Take some clear photos of the little tree and checked the roots (don't know how to say if it is good or not). Sending them all here for your considerations.

It was easy to lift it up from the pot and no soil fell off. What do you think. By the way, it's been raining almost every day (of course) and the soil is humid. I don't think I will water any of my plants before Saturday. Maybe tomorrow if the weather gets better (I doubted about that).

 

[clem]

I can see a few white rootlets, so for me, your tree is fine. Be carefull with water excess.

You can also remove the top layer of potting soil (and surface moss) until you find the nebari : the soil will dry out quicker this way.

IMO, next spring, you can repot it in 100% akadama in a flatter and wider pot to developp horizontal roots (nebari)

 

[Shibui]

Agree that the white roots are a great sign which should rule out root rot for now.

The clearer shots of the leaves show the distinctive brown edges of dehydrated leaves which points back to the tree drying out at some stage - or more direct sun than the leaves can handle.
Leaves can be damaged by just a few hours of dry soil. Maybe 1 day we forget to water or that weekend you were away, etc.
Dry soil is notoriously hard to wet properly. Water runs around the root ball and out the bottom of the pot, giving the impression the tree is well watered when it is still mostly dry. Many of us learn to water twice or thrice allowing a few minutes between each application to give the water time to soak in further each time.
Your pot is obviously properly wet today.

That's the best I can offer for now. Hope the Little Princess toughens up and grows better for you.

 

[dr.tenebris]

Hmm from what I'm seeing it looks like you may have not given the pruning dieback space when you did your minor clean up, you wanna leave a little bit of branch between the first prune and then next bud to prevent harsher die-back... Honestly if it were my tree I'd stick it in the ground to recover but overall the tree looks like it would be fine once given room to grow and some fertilizer

 

[vcnsiqueira]

Do you think a repot light now? I can just take it out of its pot and put it in a bigger pot and complete with soil. About the watering, today I watered all my plant but this one. I'll be taking extra care of it these next weeks, but it is said seeing it with so few leaves. I think that I should have defoliated it as soon as I came home from the supermarket. It seems to me that because it was drying out, the leaves didn't recovered. Also, I didn't defoliated, so the tree didn't shoot new leaves and that is the consequence.

Anyway, it seems the tree will only recover next spring now. So I just have to wait and see.

 

[clem]

Do you think a repot light now? I can just take it out of its pot and put it in a bigger pot and complete with soil.

I did the same with a joung JM cultivar that i recieved a month ago and that was in a mix of potting soil and pine bark.
: i scrape the root ball a little to remove the soil which falls easily, still keep a root ball, no root cut, and fill in a larger pot with 100% akadama. Doing so, the drainage is far better until next spring repotting.

 

[dr.tenebris]

Do you think a repot light now? I can just take it out of its pot and put it in a bigger pot and complete with soil. About the watering, today I watered all my plant but this one. I'll be taking extra care of it these next weeks, but it is said seeing it with so few leaves. I think that I should have defoliated it as soon as I came home from the supermarket. It seems to me that because it was drying out, the leaves didn't recovered. Also, I didn't defoliated, so the tree didn't shoot new leaves and that is the consequence.

Anyway, it seems the tree will only recover next spring now. So I just have to wait and see.

Definitely not a full repot, in my area that would be a death sentence but I think If you follow clems suggestion of lightly clearing some soil it wouldn't hurt .. tho the tree would 100% be happier in the ground, I find if a tree is struggling they can recover a lot better in a morning sun planter bed.

 

[vcnsiqueira]

An update about my tree. Since the post, most of the leaves have fallen and I put the tree in the shade area. Now it seems new leaves are sprouting in some branches. So I think the tree is recovering.

 

[dr.tenebris]

How wonderful! It'll recover here soon for sure with care

 

[Orion_metalhead]

The original leaves were probably from the original stress. Good roots.. Id care for it this year and get it into more predictable soil next spring.

 

[dr.tenebris]

The original leaves were probably from the original stress. Good roots.. Id care for it this year and get it into more predictable soil next spring.

Second this, or possibly plant it in ground to develop

 

[vcnsiqueira]

Yeah! The leaves were very bad because of the tree dried out before I bought it. Just before next spring I intend to repot it to a bigger container and develop it a bit more before making any hard pruning or styling. My idea now is let it grow more until doing some work.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I would do no work this year on it given the stress it just recovered from. Ive made this mistake. Sometimes it takes 2yrs after a stressful event to fully recover.

Especially with deciduous which readily backbud, you dont need to be overly concerned with letting grow out for a couple years to gain health.