Trident Maple Help

Cdcurnick

Seedling
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I wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on whats going on with this Trident Maple… I am very bummed out as I was going to take this tree to a BYOT workshop tomorrow with a very well known artist.

I got this tree back in march, I am assuming it was field grown and then transferred to a nursery pot. The soil was dense, but the tree was already leafed out a bit, so I just removed the tree from the pot and just transplanted the rootball mostly undisturbed into a mostly pumice mix with the boons mix on top as I ran out of pumice. The tree had a growth flush and seemed to be perfectly fine, but over about the past week, the leaves have started to look like this across most of the tree.

Heres some more info:
- Fertilized primarily with slow release nutricote, and a bit of biogold.
- Water with Reverse Osmosis De-ionized water with 0 TDS, to which I then add Cal-Mag & Liquidirt to every time. Occasionally I’ll add something like superthrive or a low dose organic liquid fertilizer (I use this same water on my 100+ Houseplants and orchids too.
- It sits on the south side of my building in zone 7A on a small balcony, pretty much full sun when its out. But the weather has been crazy here lately, with temps dipping below freezing last week at night.
- my other trees (elm, hinoki, JBP, juniper) are all perfectly heathy.

Heres my guesses as to what may be wrong:
- Fungal issue effecting the leaves
- Anthracnose like in this thread
- Frost Damage
- Fertilizer burn, but it seems like the issue is concentrated on certain parts of the tree
- Root rot/imbalance of oxygen + water/overwatering/etc

** It was raining + windy all day today so I couldn’t get pics til this evening when it calmed down.
Pics:

Full side shot
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Closeup:
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Shibui

Imperial Masterpiece
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I think brown edges on leaves is most likely dehydration.
I've picked up on:
The soil was dense, but the tree was already leafed out a bit, so I just removed the tree from the pot and just transplanted the rootball mostly undisturbed into a mostly pumice mix with the boons mix on top as I ran out of pumice.
The problem occurs because both water and roots don't like to move through the boundary between significantly different soils. I have experienced this here and found that the water runs through the new, open mix and does not penetrate into the older root ball. Meanwhile the roots are taking more water from the old soil to support new growth. Little water gets into the older soil and the tree gets drier and drier despite the outer soil looking damp.
I think it would be worth scratching down to see what's happening between the new and old soil types.

Fertilizer does not seem aggressive enough to cause burn on leaves of trident.
Occasional dips just below freezing should not hurt trident significantly.
Brown edges don't look like fungal to me.
Anthracnose tends to occur at leaf out and you'll see soft shoots wilting and black bark round the base of the trunk.

Root rot is possible but only if you have been watering a lot. Checking the soil will tell more.

A few burnt leaves will be embarrassing at a workshop but should not preclude the tree having some advice and even some work done provided you can address the underlying issue. People at the workshop will also be in a much better position to diagnose the problem with a first hand examination.
 

Cdcurnick

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Ended up leaving this tree at home and used it as an excuse to pick up another 🤣

I pulled the tree out of the pot to take a look at the roots, and while there were some that made it into the pumice around it’s clay-like soil, the ball of bad soil under the tree was extremely dense… so I think the dehydration caused by the different soil mixes was the culprit, but since it was raining for 48hrs beforehand it was throughly wet.

I made an executive decision to gently rise most of the bad soil away and replacing it in a well draining mix while minimizing damage to the roots.

Overall, the roots seemed to be in good shape.

pic of my new tree for tax:
45F69863-31BB-4A21-8C80-18EF503C3817.jpeg
 

Kullas

Shohin
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Congrats on the new tree. My workshop got canceled so I didn't get to bring home a new tree. I purchased another tree to.
 
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