Maple dying

kmdesigns

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I am slowly losing one of my Japanese maples and I think its way beyond saving. I noticed about a week ago that all of the leaves shriveled up on it and the trunk began turning black. The green bark around the base and about 1/3 of the way up the trunk is completely black and any branches in this area have died. Is this some kind of fungus or disease? Do I need to be concerned about any of my other maples or trees in general? I have a few air layers off of this maple that are doing well aside from some leaf burn from these hot summer days we've been having.
 

Smoke

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Probably verticilium wilt. Put the tree in a large garbage bag and put in green container. Disinfect all tools that you have used. Disinfect all of them in harsh stuff. This stuff can spread.
 

Gene Deci

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Smoke is not kidding. If you are not as careful as he says you could lose all you maples.
 

kmdesigns

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Thanks for the reply Al. What do you suggest as far as a chemical treatment? I have a ton of other Japanese maples and seedlings that I'm worried about. Does this affect tridents?
 

Smoke

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There is no treatment. I have never seen it in tridents, only palmatums. Thats not to say it can't.

People have chased it by cutting off the infected portions of a tree. Sometimes it can be arrested in a large tree. The problem with bonsai is, cutting off major branches kinda ruins the whole purpose of what we do. Also our trees are so small that a small infection usually is too large for even a medium sized tree.

Keep maples off the ground, and do not allow runoff from air conditioner condensation splash dirt onto the leaves. Verticillium is usually ground borne.
 

edprocoat

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Ok, I lost my maple to this I think, I was sure it was the heat even though I removed it from the sunlight as we have been having 100+ degree days. I noticed that the leaves had wilted and I noticed that the trunk had developed a black color too it almost like mildew, I also have the same thing on my crimson pygmy barberry looking like mildew on the trunk and all the leaves wilted and died, which has also expired. I found a wiki page that lists plants susceptible to this, and it says three different types of elms are susceptible, but does not mention Catlin elms which I own. This can be spread by bugs including aphids, leaf cutter bees and potato leaf hopper, it also adds that its symptoms include chlorosis, which was noticed on my maple when I first posted it here. It said pines and firs and junipers are immune, I lost one of my Thuja already but it does not mention if this is susceptible or not, at least by name, I would think it would be classed with pines, junipers and firs though, still my other Thuja is starting to have leaf tips brown even though I have had some new buds pop out on it. I am going to clean everything with bleach just in case.

ed
 
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Alex DeRuiter

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Now you guys have me a bit worried. I have a few palmatums that show similar symptoms, and both were on the ground at one point.

I'm including pictures to see if anyone can give me a definitive answer on whether or not this is what my maples are suffering from...pretty please? :D

First two are of a Kiyohime, second two are standard palmatums in a group planting.

On that Kiyohime, those little chips in the bark are from me scratching it.

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Brian Van Fleet

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Don't know, but I'd definitely get affected trees away from the others until you get it sorted out...
Good luck.
 

Alex DeRuiter

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Lol, I moved them just after I read this thread and took the pictures.

The group planting isn't terribly concerning to me as that was relatively inexpensive, but that Kiyohime wasn't exactly cheap and I'd hate to see if go, especially if there's nothing I can do to try to prevent it. . . . Ah, well...that's the way she goes. ;)
 

edprocoat

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Alex, thats exactly what the trunks on both my Jap Maple and my Barberry looked like, like a mildew was in the bark. I thought it was the heat.

ed
 

kmdesigns

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I'm starting to think I may have it in a few of my palmatums. Can you guys tell me if this is leaf burn or possible verticullum wilt? Also the shot of the trunk I'm pretty sure is wilt and I have a feeling this tree is what brought it to my yard.IMAG0135.jpgIMAG0136.jpgIMAG0138.jpgIMAG0139.jpgIMAG0137.jpg
 

0soyoung

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I'm starting to think I may have it in a few of my palmatums. Can you guys tell me if this is leaf burn or possible verticullum wilt? Also the shot of the trunk I'm pretty sure is wilt and I have a feeling this tree is what brought it to my yard.View attachment 25291

This photo shows cambial death in the upright stem. The fundamental cause is a lack of water. It is not likely that it will ever heal, so I suggest that you cut it above the crotch. If you see discoloration in the xylem, (usually black or green-ish black), you've probably got verticillium. You may as well toss them all and start over because you almost certainly will lose this war.

Now, before you do anything else, dip your pruner blades in a dilute chorine solution (e.g., 1/4cup household bleach to a gallon of water), then spray with WD40 to displace the water (or dip in alcohol and then use your favorite tool oil) and save your tool from corrosion/rust.

If you do not see discoloration, it is probably not verticillium. My guess (for you to check) though is that your trees suffered 'heat stroke' because of toasted roots. See the 'my scorched juniper' thread.

Best wishes
 
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kmdesigns

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The last photo is of a larger maple that I cut to remove a large scar and encourage healing this past spring. It was well healing and at the top of the cut there is some rolled over tissue, but within the last couple of weeks this die back happened. We just had about 9 or 10 days of triple digit heat so it makes sense that it could be heat related, but the large maple that died of verticullum wilt was sitting right next to it and I'm super paranoid that my maples are all infected.
 
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