Originally Posted by Emery Davis

On Sun, 22 Oct 2006 10:04:15 +0100
Zarch wrote:


Morning all,

I have an Acer palmatum (Sango-kaku) that i've had for about 18 months
now and all has been well until yesterday when i noticed that one of
the branches has gone black and appears to have some sort of fungus on
it. All the leaves on all the black branches have died as well.

Please see picture for more details.

http://tinyurl.com/yeq28d

I suppose there are 2 options. One would be to treat the problem, but
with what? and Two would be to removed the problem branch, but where
do i make the cut? I'd have thought under the split where the first
blackness appears and lose the whole upper sections, but can anyone
advise please?? Obviously i dont want whatever it is to spread any
further so i'm looking to sort this out asap.

[]

Zarch,

Your little Sango kaku is almost certainly suffering from verticillium wilt.
This is very common in A. palmatum cultivars, in fact it's very difficult
to buy "clean" maples. There is unfortunately no cure for the wilt.

However, it need not be fatal, and usually isn't unless the plant is
otherwise stressed. But, you need to cut back to clean wood,
below the split where the die back occurs. With luck and a little
babying you'll be OK. (This said verticillium kills plenty of maples,
I lost a Seiryu and Higasa yama to it this year.)

On another note, where did you get this maple? I don't think
it's really a Sango kaku at all, if you'll forgive me for saying so.
I have 4 different Sango kakus (from different sources) and
although they exhibit some variation none have the light green
wood that yours shows. Even in summer they range from
salmon to quite red bark.

Verticillium causes a vascular constriction that essentially cuts
off moisture to the effected parts of the plant. You can get lots
of information from google, no doubt, or visit the UBC maple forum
and ask there.

Good luck,

-E
--
Emery Davis
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