Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Acer rescue

jrosindellpYyVCVfdjrosindellpYyVCVfd Posts: 3
in Problem solving
We bought a beautiful mature orange dream Acer last autumn.  It's looking very sorry for itself now and I really fear we may lose it.  I've read other discussions on Acer but it's not clear to me still what the problem is.  There are some caterpillars on it but I've only seen those recently so I'm sure that's not the only problem. We have soil to pot it on but haven't yet (it's still in its original pot) Any opinions from the images would be very helpful.


Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    edited May 2022
    Are you keeping it watered? It looks very sheltered there so even if It rains, it might not reach your plant . How big is the pot?
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • jrosindellpYyVCVfdjrosindellpYyVCVfd Posts: 3
    It's a 10 inch pot for a 50 inch plant (highest parts now dead though).  The soil is currently damp but not too damp.  It was in a different position before where it would have got more wind and sun so we moved it to this much more sheltered position but it is continuing to deteriorate despite the move.
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    A tree that size in a pot will need watered daily. There is still plenty of life in it so step up the watering and re-pot if it is in too small a pot. Don't go mad on the next size pot, something about 20% bigger will be fine for a few years yet if you keep it well watered and fed.
  • jrosindellpYyVCVfdjrosindellpYyVCVfd Posts: 3
    Thank you - that's very helpful.  Is there not a danger of over watering though?  Do you think I should cut back the dead parts or leave them?
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    Assuming the pot has drainage holes then you can't overwater a pot. The dead parts aren't going to spring back to life so cut them off. Any stems which have only dead brown foliage on them should be take back to the main trunk.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    As @steephill says - the pot is very small, but pot on gradually, and tak eoff anything completely dead - but don't cut into healthy growth. Make sure it's thoroughly watered when you pot it on though.  :)
    It's likely to have been a combination of wind and lack of water. Wind is really drying and dessicates the finer foliage very easily.
    If you can get it into a more sheltered, shadier spot too, that will help the recovery. It'll also mean it won't dry out so easily, so the watering will be more straightforward. The greeny/yellow varieties aren't so good at coping with a lot of sun compared to the purple ones. 
    Don't feed it until it's recovered either. Just make sure it has a good loam based medium in the pot, and keep an eye on it - especially over the next few months  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Arthur1Arthur1 Posts: 542
    Acer are tolerant of pruning. When grown commercially they are often pruned back.  I would remove the damaged growth, though do you know if it is just the leaves that are damaged or is the wood dead? When you water, do it thoroughly so the whole root ball is saturated, then allowed to drain.  Feeding it won't help.
Sign In or Register to comment.