Mutated Leaves

Stimmie1

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I have a collection of Japanese Maples. Last Fall in Atlanta I was hit with a flood. This Spring I transplanted every single tree due to silt in the pots. Now after leaf break, I have noticed some of the trees have mutated to the Palmatum leaf instead of its original dwarf or varigated form. Should these leaves be removed? Entire branches are consumed with mutated leaves. I have searched for answers, but I think I should have come here first.
Not sure if the attachment went through or not.
I would appreciate the advice.
Sincerely,
Jim Stimmel Zone 7
 

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Stimmie1

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Guess the picture is too large to attach. Don't know how to make it smaller.
 

DaveG

Mame
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Find a way to get some pictures up here and we'll have a look. I have theories about what's happening, but I don't want to suggest cutting anything until I've seen the problem with my own eyes.

If you're on an IBM-compatible, I'd suggest using mspaint to shrink (Image > Stretch/Skew...) and crop the photos. But try to leave enough of the picture so we can see some of both types of growth and where the new undesirable growth originated.
 

Bonsai Nut

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Also, some JM will leaf out very differently if you move them from one location to another with a different environment/microclimate. Lighting makes a huge difference with my JM - some of my variegated trees don't variegate unless they are in almost total shade.
 

DaveG

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Also, some JM will leaf out very differently if you move them from one location to another with a different environment/microclimate. Lighting makes a huge difference with my JM - some of my variegated trees don't variegate unless they are in almost total shade.

Nut, that point about lighting is absolutely true with many varieties of Japanese maple and I didn't even think of it. I have no excuse, as my JM is an Acer palmatum 'Aureum'. It's extremely dependent upon conditions and needs a lot of sun in order to be colorful. If it doesn't get it, it just stays plain green like a wild palmatum would.
 

Stimmie1

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Thanks y'all. I can't get the pictures off of my computer, they are too large in size, I compressed the folder, and still can't attach. Keep getting an error-failed. I have Windows XP. Any suggestions? I even used a different camera.
The trees are in the same location for 10 years now. A couple of hours of morning sun and thats it. The flood broke off some of the trees, and with the silt in the pots, when the buds began to swell in March, there was a good deal of root rot that had to be removed. So, I am thinking that maybe some of the trees a mutating due to all of the stress. I wanted to wash the roots and put in coarse sand for the Winter, but metro Atlanta doesn't have course sand. All of my bonsai soils were contaminated from the flood and the extension office suggested I dispose of the soils and not use them for the trees.
I wish I could download the pictures from the computer.
 

Smoke

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Thanks y'all. I can't get the pictures off of my computer, they are too large in size, I compressed the folder, and still can't attach. Keep getting an error-failed. I have Windows XP. Any suggestions? I even used a different camera.
The trees are in the same location for 10 years now. A couple of hours of morning sun and thats it. The flood broke off some of the trees, and with the silt in the pots, when the buds began to swell in March, there was a good deal of root rot that had to be removed. So, I am thinking that maybe some of the trees a mutating due to all of the stress. I wanted to wash the roots and put in coarse sand for the Winter, but metro Atlanta doesn't have course sand. All of my bonsai soils were contaminated from the flood and the extension office suggested I dispose of the soils and not use them for the trees.
I wish I could download the pictures from the computer.

Email the pictures to yourself and then save the emailed pics in a seperate file. They should resize via email so you can post them here.
 

DaveG

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Getting a Photobucket account, uploading them there, and then inserting the images here would also work.
 

Dav4

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Hey Jim. I remember reading in J.D. Vertrees book on J. maples that dwarf J.maples will often have the more typical, larger leaves as juveniles, when they tend to grow more vigorously then as adults. I'm wondering if the trees, do to the stress with the root damage, are temporarily reverting to juvenile growth in an attempt to recover. I'd be willing to bet that they will push more normal foliage either later this year, definately by next.

Dave
 

rockm

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Could be a graft (many dwarf and variegated forms are grafted onto "plain vanilla" JM stock) has sent shoots out and they're taking over. This happens pretty frequently, as the stock tends to be more vigorous than the scion.
 

DaveG

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The major issue that I see here is that until we can see this with a picture, speculating about it invites Stimmie1 to seek treatment for what could end up being the wrong problem. The treatment for whatever is going on could be anything from "leave it alone and let it grow" to "cut it right now". The new growth could be necessary to the continued health of the tree or it could be harmful. But we just really can't know without seeing it or getting a much better description.
 

Stimmie1

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Thanks everyone. Still haven't been able to download the pictures to this site. I was able to get the pictures to my mentors and Td Matson suggested to leave them alone for this year and wait to see what they look like next year, but continure with the training. The trees have received so much truma. Still waiting onn the response from Colin Lewis.
In the meantime, I will try to purchase a photo program so that I may download the trees in subject, plus any other tree I wish to share with you.
I do appreciate all of your input.
Thank You.
Jim Stimmel Zone 7
 

Stimmie1

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Finally got a picture posted!!! Please go to the original post.
Jim
 

Stimmie1

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I was able to put a picture in the original post: Mutated trees.
 
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