Hi everyone. I had a strange and depressing thing
happen this week. I have had a large bloodgood
japanese maple for about 7 years now. The tree was
about 10 years old or older when i bought it. And
just yesterday the strangest thing happened. Each
year the green spring growth emerges with small finely
toothed leaves. Then they slowly fade to red and the
leaves get a bit larger as summer comes. This
spring however the leaves came in just as always but
stayed green. They have been green ever since never
getting there red summer color. It is in a large pot
about 4 feet wide by about 2-3 feet deep. The tree
itself is about 2-3 feet tall with a 4 to 5 foot
spread, it had a beautiful natural weeping hapit. One
branch on the trees tip died about a week and a half
ago. Then about 5 days ago more of the branch died.
So just to be safe i cut the branch off well above the
dying back section leaving space for any die back
which sometimes occurs. It did not turn black and did
not look like vertimiculum wilt, which i have run into
before. Then yesterday morning i went out to water it
as always and shockingly the entire tree was wilted.
It was not a particularly hot day and i had watered it
that morning. The soil is not the best soil mix but
is nice and open. It holds water for about 2 to 3
days usually during the summer. The tree does have a
thin layer of pine bark mulch on top of the soil. I
have fertilized it as i always do with bio gold
pellets and a dose of fish seeweed every 2 weeks.
Then i went out this morning and to my horror all the
leaves were dried up and mostly wilted. It is in an
area of partial shade only. There were no changes in
envirormental conditions. I am shocked that the
entire tree died in 2 days. The branches seem to
already be drying up and there are NO healthy leaves
on the tree now. I have absolutely no clue what
happened to it......... Neither day was unordinarily
hot or sunny for this time of year. Just to be safe
the first day i noticed it was wilted i left a drip
line on it for the day. It doesn't look like tip burn
from the sun which i have seen in the past. I don't
see any insect activity spider mites or otherwise. I
do notice some fungus gnats but that is normal for
some of my plants that reside in shade. I have 50
something other maples all growing strong with normal
color changes. But this one has me confused........
I havne't pulled it from the pot to check for root rot
but its unlikely as i repotted it not this past spring
but the one before and the root system was very
healthy. I used the same potting mixture on it last
year that i have used all the years in the past.
There are maples growing all around it in wonderful
health so im very confused as to what happened here
any ideas. One last thing the branch which had the
first leaves wilt and die was one of the few branches
wired this year. It was not cracked or broken or
strangled though during wiring and was not an extreme
bend at all.
Thanks
Ben
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