Crumb
c/gardening · by Aberration13@lemmy.world · 92d

Japanese maple dying?

Small japanese maple seems to be dying, it's on the side of the house and gets partial shade, it is planted in mulch on a fabric barrier and a slight slope.

It's been doing well for around a decade and this spring suddenly it is only growing leaves on a few branches in small vollyball sized areas while a good 90% of the plant has no leaves at all.

Any ideas?

22 points · 3 comments · view on lemmy.world

3 Comments

dgdft@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 92d

You'll get better answers with some pics.

Since you mentioned it's in a mulched area, did you rule out girdling roots?

just_another_person@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 92d

Call your local extension. They'll have more info about your specific area and whether there may have been a chance of frost damage, currently active pathogens or blooms, or critters active in the area that put your plant at risk.

A few other things:

  1. Get the soil tested. Take 3 samples from around the plant.
  2. Check the moisture 6" down. If it's too wet, check and see if you have spouts or water leaks in that area.
  3. Are any other plants in the surrounding area struggling?
  4. Get some basic slow release organic (mostly manure) fertilizer and spread it around the canopy range of the range according to directions. If it has an infection of some sort, this will at least help it defend itself.
frisbird@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 92d

Did you get hit with a frost during bud break? If the plant is stressed, the goal is generally going to be doing the absolute minimum to it and let it conserve its energy. At best you could make sure the soil has sufficient nutrients.