Need advice on how to keep all the coral bark cultivars alive

aphid

Mame
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Sango Kaku is my most favorite cultivar, but I can't keep it alive whether in a bonsai pot, a big wooden barrel, a big plastic barrel, or in the ground. When I get them in spring, and they'll be fine for the whole year. Then they would start to turn black and die before they even leaf the following spring...

I have tried all the pink bark cultivars . They all have met the same fate. I usually get them online as 1-year or 2-year grafts.
  • Sango kaku
  • Little Sango
  • Aka Kawa Hime (I got 2 of these as 1-year grafts. One died the following spring. The other died the spring after)
  • Fjellheim
I got Beni Kawa this year for the first time. It's not pink, but I read that it's tougher. I'm obviously doing something wrong though. Does anyone have these cultivars? Do you do anything special to yours? What's your growing zone? Location of the tree? When I had these, I kept them in full sun. In winter, I place all the pots together in a group on the ground with a couple of inches of soil or mulch in full sun. I live in Eastern Massachusetts. Zone 6b.

I'm a Japanese maple cultivar hoarder. Here's a list of my other cultivars that have done really well. Half of these, I have had for 5 years now.
  • Bloodgood
  • Butterfly
  • Fireglow
  • Kashima
  • Seiryu
  • Tamukeyama
  • Mikawa Yatsubusa
  • Shishigashira
  • Chishio Improved
  • Corallinum
  • Katsura Hime
  • Shirazz
  • Shindeshojo
  • Kotohime
  • Yuri Hime
  • Orange Dream
 
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0soyoung

Imperial Masterpiece
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Buy a cheap meat thermometer probe ($15 or less at your local grocery) and stick it in the pot amongst the roots. Do whatever you've got to do to keep the root temperature below 95F - cover the pot with a damp light colored towel, put the pot and all in the shade, etc.

Cold dry air, clear skies can dessicate thin barked trees, especially with wind added. What sort of winter protection do your trees get?
 
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Les

Mame
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I have many Japanese maple cultivars in my garden as well that are doing great. A couple of years ago I purchased a nice size Sango Kaku and It looked great that year but the following year it died as well. :(


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ysrgrathe

Shohin
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The corals don't seem to take cold well. I lost corals in the landscape two years running with similar experience: fine all season, dead in spring. Tried wrapping in burlap the second season, no difference. Last year bought a 20g coral, layered it and reduced the rootball on the mother, stored both in my 40 degree garage. Both mother and child came through fine. Zone 6b here.
 

coh

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Yeah, Japanese maples "turning black" usually means disease of some kind.

I've been working with a sango kaku for a few years now, and while I've kept it alive it isn't thriving. It grows slowly/relatively little and the leaves start to look "tired" by midsummer. They color up and drop earlier than other maples. I think I'm doing something wrong but haven't been able to pin it down.
 

Dav4

Drop Branch Murphy
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You can never have enough palmatum cultivars:). With that said, the cultivars in question should grow just fine for you, particularly in the ground. I'd try again with Sango Kaku, which should be the most vigorous of that group. Plant it in the ground (I assume you heard the saying about planting a 5$ tree in a 10$ hole) in an appropriate site, mulch appropriately, then leave it alone other then weekly watering for at least the next year. A healthy tree planted correctly in good soil doesn't need anything else other then a 2-3" layer of mulch and an inch of water per week for the first growing season.
 

cbroad

Omono
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Like Bnut said, sounds like psuedomonas. Spray spray spray... A few years ago I talked with a local wholesale JM grower and she said they have a big problem with psuedomonas on their coral bark varieties. She mentioned one variety she hadn't had much issue with but I forget which one, but it wasn't a true coral bark, I guess more of a pink type...
 

Saddler

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@Bonsai Nut thank you for the link. I am pretty sure you just solved a problem I didn't even know I had. I thought the tree might have been knocked about in transport when I took it home and turned black from the damage. I am pretty sure your link is the real answer.

Thank you!
 
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