Hello All, I need some advice for our well established JM Bloodgood. Now in Spring, Early April(very early this year) some branches are not producing swelling buds. Others are fine. The affected branches have tiny buds that are dried up and I can flick them off. Those branches are healthy, they look nice and red and when I cut a branch it is green under the bark. Now last year the Bloodgood produced for the first time seeds, and I mean it was a lot of seeds. There is seedlings growing now all over the place. Does this have anything to do with it? Hmm... We did not change watering or soil or anything really. It was an extremly mild winter and a very wet February and March. I have attached some photos. Greetings, MartinP
Hi Martin, my first thoughts was that of Spring frosts. This has caused problems in the UK for the past several years, but not 2024 yet !! If you have suffered the same over the past few years, then the tree becomes weakend, this will cause it to put out a lot of seed in late Sumner/Autumn, as it's way of continuing it's survival. Your photos are not clear enough to give members a better idea as to the cause of the problem, so this is a thought, rather than a diagnosis. If it is from a weakened tree, rather than disease, a good Spring should see it should recover. But you may have some dead branches that you will have to remove.
JM's often produce large amounts of seed as a stress reaction in response to injury or other health condition, that event could be connected for sure. And the seeds produced last year would have been from flowers initiated over a year ago, so if this is indicative of an issue it is likely to be a long term issue. Is there a chance something could have happened to negatively impact the root zone between one and two years ago? Problems with leafing out in spring are often a symptom of an underlying problem in the root zone. If the cause is more recent, has the very wet February and March led to any waterlogging of the soil? JM's will not tolerate completely waterlogged soil during the winter and early spring. I agree with Acerholic that more photo's are needed for a better idea as to the cause of the problem. Including a shot of the ground around the maple and a close up of the bark on the lower trunk... Edited to add: In summary, it looks as if the size of the root network has decreased in comparison to the size of the canopy and the tree is shutting down parts of the canopy to compensate. It is not clear at this time if it is a long standing issue (loads of seeds last year) or a recent issue (related to very wet weather and possible poorly drained soil in Feb/March).
Hello Derek and Maf for your insights. I shot more photos of the whole tree. One of the photos is from May 2022 to show how healthy it looked. Last year it looked the same, but I have no photo. It sits since almost ten years in a raised bed comprised of sandstone blocks. It is well draining, I even installed a drainage pipe under the wall. The raised wall is about 1m wide at the position of the Bloodgood but the roots can expand longer along the length of the wall of course. I know it is not ideal placement, but it is the North facing side of the house. It is a narrow front garden, so raising helps with getting more sun. There was no Spring frost here this year either, but yes, previous years there was. On top of it there were very dry years, but we kept up the watering. Should I wait until the branches with no leaves die off, or should I proceed and prune? Thanks again for your insights, Martin
Ok, previous 'years' Spring frosts will weaken the tree and cause problems later down the road. North facing can be a problem with late frosts in April/May. I would prune out any dead branches now. Do carry out the finger nail scrape to ensure they are dead. The principle of Dead ,Diseased or Damaged always applies to pruning at any time of the year. I can't see in your photo the depth of planting.. If it's been there for 10 years and just started to play up, you may have girdling roots, this will gradually strangle your maple and give problems you are seeing, ie nutrients failing to get to all branches. This often occurs from planting too deeply. So my thoughts are for you to scrape away the surface soil and look for any roots that are girdling the trunk. If they are then this will need action sooner rather than later.
Yes, I always prune dead branches right away. My question was regarding waiting for branches that did not produce leaves or very few leaves, but that are still alive. I have had zero dead branches on the tree this Spring. I dug around the roots of the tree to check for girdling roots and I found only small roots that could later on become girdling roots. I made the mistake of having a layer of mulch - mea culpa - around the base of the tree, so in fact there are some small roots growing on top. However, I think I found at least part of the problem while digging and exposing surface roots. There is metal wiring around the roots. This must be still from the nursery or transport. I will dig further and expose more roots to see what is going on exactly.
At least you have found a future problem with those smaller roots that would have choked the trunk at a later date. If the branches are still alive, I would leave them alone. The wiring maybe the problem, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Won't hurt to remove and investigate further, in case there are more beneath the soil. Regarding mulch, that's not a problem as long as the tree is planted high enough to ensure the trunk is not touched by soil or mulch etc. Mulch can aid in moisture retention in hot summers.
I will investigate further on the weekend and report back. I bought the tree from a local garden store and it was in a wooden pot. I removed curling roots but most roots were in clay which I found out is used to keep the roots hydrated during transport from nurseries to garden stores. However I obviously made the mistake and not take off root wiring or cage. The mulch did not touch the trunk and I planted the tree flush to the surface of the surrounding ground, but it has built up over time, hence small roots have started to grow into that area. Thanks for pointing the girdling root issue out to me. I checked japanese maples in my local area and found none with similar problems. Our neighbor has a an Emperor One (I believe) and it does not get taken care of anymore, but it looks amazing. I remember it also produced lots of seeds last year. It must have been caused by the drought and heat of the Summer of 2022...
Looking like you have found the cause yourself Martin. It is common for a tree to produce a vast amount of seeds when under a lot of stress, your neighbours and yours has reacted simarlly, so the answer was weather conditions. Now for 2024 wet wet wet urghhh....
Well it's very likely we'll have dry, dry and, hot, hot, summer weeks too... Especially since Germany has a more continental climate than Great Britain where no-one is at more than a 100 km from the sea, the winds bringing moisture, etc. Here in Orléans, the closest to the ocean is about 350 km, and it can be very dry in summer. When it is dry in the UK, bad time for maples in Europe... Fingers crossed.
