This is an answer I can totally believe! I was waiting to post in this thread hoping someone would present a viable response for the issue in picture 2, because I have experienced the same thing with MANY of my Maples over the years. In years past I thought first it was insect damage- assuming it was some sort of sap sucker draining the vigor from young growth, but I rarely saw the insect son my trees and usually you SEE aphids, white fly or whatever is causing it!
Next my assumption was fungal attack.. Well ok. So I sprayed. I tried Neem Oil, which is my standard go to, cure everything. It kills bugs if you mix it pretty hot, it discourages fungal attacks if you treat with a mild solution in early Spring and through the year.. Good stuff and it is organic so it doesn't get as nasty to work with as some other stuff... It is even fine for vegetables and you can harvest as soon as one day after you use it, rinse the veggies off and they are fine to eat... So, it don't worry about burning leaves and that kind of stuff with this solution (unless applied in full sun during the heat of the day). I have moved up as far as copper an even lime sulfer at times.. But I still see this leaf deformity once the summer heat kicked in and I couldn't figure out what it is!
Your explanation makes total sense in relation to my fertilizing regimen and what I had decided was a large contributor to the malady- HEAT! Mine tend to show this issue during the summer only. Spring growth is perfect, nice color, great shape... By fall the new growth starts looking normal again... During summer, all small and scruffy looking! I usually use a mild organic fert, but I do dose most of my trees with regular old liquid gold a couple times during the Spring and early Summer- AKA Miracle Grow. That is like a 20-20-20.. which means it is busting with Nitrogen (and everything Else). They may have even gotten a taste of some Miracid once after fertilizing my azaleas! That is even more stacked toward the Nitrogen side.. So the soil is probably bursting with it. I guess in my mind I assumed nitrogen would be a needed nutrient for trees producing so many leaves the way all my JMs have been this year. One of the only trees that did not give me that look on the new growth was planted in the ground, and transplanted a little later than I normally do for my deciduous trees, so I laid off the ferts until recently to make sure I didn't stress it. This- in light if your diagnosis- makes sense that it would not have the Nitrogen "poisoning" my other trees have shown.
I have to say man, I think you hit the nail on the head, it was SO obvious, right in front of my face and I never figured it out! You may have just single handedly dramatically improved the health Os my JMs going forward! Thanks!
JFTR, my Tridents have not really shown any signs of this damage at all. Are they perhaps more tolerant of Nitrogen and heat? Does anyone know?
