Fungus or sunburnt/ dehydrated?

[Jeyrsmith]

Hey everyone picked up a maple at the local hardware store yesterday after looking at it im a bit concerned i cant tell if its a fungus or just dehydration and sunburn attached are some photos

I dont know if its something i can save or if i should try and return it? Also i have it away from my other trees should i worry about contamination?

 

[bwaynef]

I'd say that's probably fungal. Most of my experiences with sun-burnt leaves shows/starts at the edges.

 

[cbroad]

Looks like it could be the start of powdery mildew.

Anyways, this time of year maples are usually looking beat up, I have some that barely have leaves now and the ones that are left are looking pretty bad.

 

[Jeyrsmith]

Hmm okay should i remove the foliage to try and keep it from spreading? Or just let it happen naturally and collect the leaves and dispose of them safely to keep it from spreading to other trees, also will this be a life long issue with this tree or just for this season?

Lastly i have a little sprout near the base of the trunk not sure if its gonna survive the winter but ive been pondering the idea of trying to remove it and put it in a small planter pot and moving it somewhere to grow a secondary tree

 

[cbroad]

You can try a fungicide if you want, powdery mildew is pretty easy to take care of. Bagging up the fallen leaves and throwing them away is probably a good idea.

Those stems coming from the base means your tree is grafted. The Bloodgood cultivar is grafted onto most likely straight Acer palmatum root stock, and honestly, this will probably make a better bonsai than the Bloodgood part.

 

[ajm55555]

Powdery mildew. Pretty common at this time of the year. It will be gone with the leaves and not come back with spring because it needs some peculiar weather conditions from the fall season (wet, not much sun, etc.)

 

[ajm55555]

Lastly i have a little sprout near the base of the trunk not sure if its gonna survive the winter but ive been pondering the idea of trying to remove it and put it in a small planter pot and moving it somewhere to grow a secondary tree

The sprout is coming from the root stock. It will not survive now. If you don't remove it it will gain strength and kill the graft.
You have to choose which one you want to keep. As @cbroad said, the root stock is probably the stronger plain A. Palmatum and usually it's easier to turn into a bonsai. But if you like the graft, you either airlayer it above the junction or make sure the junction is not too much visible because it won't go away.

 

[JudyB]

Your low shoot may indeed survive the winter if you choose to keep that instead of the top tree. Grafts are generally bad for bonsai use anyway, I'd be tempted to keep the low shoot! You just want to make sure you protect that little shoot well.

 

[ajm55555]

Your low shoot may indeed survive the winter if you choose to keep that instead of the top tree

@JudyB I meant it won't survive if he tries "to remove it and put it in a small planter pot and moving it somewhere to grow a secondary tree".
As I said, if he leaves it there, it will kill the graft ;-)

 

[JudyB]

@JudyB I meant it won't survive if he tries "to remove it and put it in a small planter pot and moving it somewhere to grow a secondary tree".
As I said, if he leaves it there, it will kill the graft ;-)

Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[ajm55555]

Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying.

and I agree with you about trying to grow the root stock instead of the graft, even if it's probably more pleasing and cute.

 

[Jeyrsmith]

So i just remove the trunk near the root base and just keep the little guy safe from winter maybe build a box around this pot full with mulch and some sort of mesh cage around is what youre saying right ? Could i also try to take some branches and get rooting hormones and try to just make smaller trees aswell? Or just remove them cause they have mold?

Also is there any materials or key things i should research proior to this?
Im a complete novice so i just wanna make sure before i start touching it.

Also could the new sprout also be a blood good? Its showing red leaves i just dont have the eye yet to see if its the Acer palmatum thats will be green or red, (sorry im really new to this)

 

[ysrgrathe]

If you want to keep the rootstock, don't cut anything right now. The new shoots are weak and tender and we're going into winter. Wait until they develop strength to cut the top off.

The sucker is not bloodgood, it's just showing the nice spring color that species JMs are known for.

 

[JudyB]

Yes it would be good to build a cage of sorts around this tree, as when you mulch it in for the winter, you're creating a nice nest for rodents to live in and a food supply (your tree) to eat. I use hardware cloth beneath and around. Keep it out of sun and wind, and check during dry periods to make sure it gets moisture. Don't water when it's frozen, and leave it alone until spring.

 

[Jeyrsmith]

Heres a photo of the small shoot growing near the base

So my plan as of now is to leave the tree as is and just work on winterizing it building good protection and keeping it healthy till spring then trying to figure out how to proceed

My concern is this shoot and trying to keep it alive threw the winter

 

[cbroad]

My concern is this shoot and trying to keep it alive threw the winter

It's a sucker, trust me it's very hard to kill them. Even if you prune it completely off you have a 95% chance off it returning next season, and 100% chance it will come back in the second growing season.

 

[ajm55555]

So i just remove the trunk near the root base and just keep the little guy safe from winter maybe build a box around this pot full with mulch and some sort of mesh cage around is what youre saying right ? Could i also try to take some branches and get rooting hormones and try to just make smaller trees aswell? Or just remove them cause they have mold?

The real issue here is: you have a Bloodgood. It's more expensive that the regular Acre Palmatum root stock it was grafted onto. Do you want to keep the Bloodgood or the root stock? They don't mix: all that grows below the graft will be root stock, all above will be Bloodgood.
Usually if you want a regular AP, you just buy one of those, not a grafted Bloodgood.
On the other side, if you want to keep the Bloodgood and turn it into a nice Bonsai you'd better have a nice and low graft or you need to airlayer above the graft and rebuild the root system.
Once you take a decision on this first step, knowing what you are doing, you can proceed with the next steps.
There are many threads on this web site on how to develop each solution.

 

[Deleted member 21616]

@Jeyrsmith nice tree!

Powdery mildew: I treat powdery mildew with Natria (weekly spray, drenching top and undersides of all leaves), and that product solved the issue for me. Oddly enough (i still haven't figure this one out), powdery mildew only affects my shin deshojos in the back yard, and my red dragon in the front yard (my red leaf varieties), while my katsura, kashima, and koto hime that are up against the deshojos (literally leaf on leaf and branch and branch contact) have never contracted powdery mildew. (I am by no means encouraging you to begin rubbing your maples against eachother ).

Development: My concern is that if you were to chop the bloodgood off and keep the standard maple rootstock, what you are left with is a very young standard maple with roots that have not been grown with bonsai in mind. However, for very very little money ($5-10 USD) you can get yourself a standard maple pre-bonsai whose roots have been grown with bonsai in mind.

Would you be interested in keeping the bloodgood maple as you bought it, to be used as a landscaping tree? They are beautiful!

If you do decide to chop the bloodgood part off, don't forget that you can air layer it off and then perform your chop. There is no need to let your bloodgood upper go to waste

 

[Jeyrsmith]

@Jeyrsmith

If you do decide to chop the bloodgood part off, don't forget that you can air layer it off and then perform your chop. There is no need to let your bloodgood upper go to waste

Yes i think im going to plant the tree in spring and let it just develop as a regular tree maybe next to where i plan on building a green house so i can use it to protect my other trees

I think you and ajm5555 are spot on after reading and researching up on air layering i think ill end up doing this with the bloodgood branches and slowly turn them into bonsai, i got this tree 75% off and they where planning on throwing it away so i couldn't let that happen, and thanks ill get some of the anti fungal solution you mentioned and give her a spray soon