Japanese Maple Help Needed

Alto, GA

This is my first attempt at raising jap maples. These are bloodgood variety. I bought them bare root and arrived dorment. They have been potted for nearly 2 months now. Yesterday was the hottest day thus far(mid 90's) this year, and the leaves look really bad on a few my trees today. I had them getting around 4-5 hrs of full sun. I'm guessing that is my problem but not sure. Could it possibly be a wet feet problem? They are definately more moist in the bottom of pots. I moved them this morning to a more shaded area. They were watered well yesterday morning before I left. Any advice appreciated. Here is a pic of one of the worse ones.

Thumbnail by jjb1981
Boise, ID(Zone 5b)

I would let him dry out a bit. Moving him into the shade was a good idea also. Bloodgoods tolerate more sun when they are bigger but not as much when they are that small.

Poughkeepsie - Hyde , NY(Zone 4a)

Hi. The picture tells me that it is not too much damage. I have a couple of these. One that is very big and one that is about 4 ft tall.

It has been my experience that when the seeds drop, they drop beneath the mother plant, they grow and are shaded by the mother. When they are about 5 inches tall I move them. However I put them in pots and move them to a simi shaded area to continue to grow. I have about 10 of these growing. I never take them out of the pots, and they are put in the ground pot and all.

I don't do much at all to them. No special watering, etc. Only simi shade is what I believe they need as the prior poster said, too much sun will damage the tender leaves.

One year the leaves on my mother went dry, I almost died... I watered and watered, but the leaves fell. The following year the plant was back to it's old self.... Mother nature has a way of getting things back on track.

I have made it a habit of taking my cup of coffee and my three dogs out in the am and walking my total garden, takes about 10 minutes, I look at every plant and tell them, I love them very much but if they do not grow, I plan on kicking "axxxs".... LOL... Point being that one can worry to death over our plants, but in the end, they will make it or not, we can only help the best way we can.

Thumbnail by NYGrower
Jackson, SC(Zone 8a)

mine is in morning sun only here in Sc/Ga border. i water mine alot because of our hot weather.

they are very slow growers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_palmatum

Alto, GA

Thanks for all the advice. They haven't gotten any worse since I moved them, so I guess that is a good sign. I put a couple in the green house when I first potted them and they are by far the healthiest looking 2 out of the 50 that I have. I also had put 4 of them in the woods where only about an hour of morning, and an hour of afternoon sun hit them directly and they look pretty good. They are much greener, rather than red like the ones that were getting the 5 hrs of sun, but are definately healthier looking. How much time would you allow them to get of full sun, if any at all, with the temps reaching the 90's every day for a couple of months?

I moved half of them underneath my deck, which gives them almost no direct sun(maybe 30 min at most). Is this a good or bad idea?




This is a photo before I moved them a few days ago

This message was edited Jun 19, 2010 6:00 PM

Thumbnail by jjb1981
Poughkeepsie - Hyde , NY(Zone 4a)

They look real good. I would put them under some trees if you have them close. They should be introduced a little at a time to the hard sun. You could also put up a kind of tent made out of the netting material that is used to keep deer out of a garden to filter the sun. They look like about a 3 year old tree. They are worth some money indeed.

Good luck

Nancy.

Dublin, CA(Zone 9a)

In areas with hot summers they need a fair amount of shade--I keep mine where they get a few hours of morning sun but are shaded in the afternoon. Unfortunately the coloring won't be as good as if they got more sun, but in hot summer climates you can't really give them more sun without frying them.

Jackson, SC(Zone 8a)

mine gets morning sun until about 11 then rest of day its shaded


i want another one to go on the other side of my porch since the first one i got is doing well. just haven't seen any pretty reasonable lately.

This message was edited Jun 20, 2010 5:55 PM

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