Crimson king maple?
Question:I have two of these trees. Both are about a year in the ground at our home. I have two problems going with now. 1 The leaves seem to be turning a crunchy brown after a great start this spring. The second is it seems to me that one of the trees is to close to the top of the soil. It's to the point where I think I could almost dig it out of the ground with my hands. Now can I dig this out and replant it? Or am I s.o.l.? Any ideas would be great. I have used Bayer bug control on both trees.
Answers:
If the tree is small, carefully re-dig it and place it back at the proper depth. Larger trees have the roots that come to the soil and shouldn't be happening at a young age. The drying reddening you refer to is probably a scortch due to hot temps/sun/wind. Has it been dry there? Very hot? Mine were about 3 before they showed much of a sign of being independent and healthy enough to not be staked anymore or babied. Be sure to water them and you can fertilize with a nitrogen fertilizer for the one in the ground that is still healthy. Wait til the second year to fertilize, but I'd say if you do not replant the one that is heaving out of the ground, you may lose it. DO NOT USE MULCH AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR DIRT. Be sure to mulch well in dry climates (NEVER use more than 2-4 inches in depth.) remove old and replace with the darker color (if you must have the colored) in the spring. Mulching too deeply causes disease and pest problems and well as making it so the bark cannot breathe and get the nutrients to the top of the tree and will cause a slow death of any tree. That is a HUGE peeve of mine when it comes to landscapers in general. (I have my own Landscaping business and I know better than to mulch too deeply. Deadly sin as far as I'm concerned! )
This type of tree is suppose to have shallow roots. Go to http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/aceplae.p... scroll down to page 4 and it talks about leaf scorch.
How often are you watering? Crunchy brown leaves could be a sign of not enough water. It is better to water deeply 2 times a week than shallow everyday. If you are doing the latter, then try putting your hose at a trickle and placing it at the base of the tree for 30 minutes or so.
Other things to consider are frost bite. We had a late frost here in Arkansas (April 9) and a lot of our trees have brown crunchy leaves. They have begun to leaf out again with new green leaves. The Bayer Bug control could have also caused the brown crunchy leaves if the tree was thirsty. It is always better to water before applying any kind of fertilizer or bug control. If the tree was thirsty, then it would not have had the water in its system to dilute the bug control properly and would have sucked the bug control as water resulting in crunchy leaves. One more possibility is that the one tree was planted too deep. I know you are worried about the shallow planted one, but it is so much better for any tree to be planted too shallow than too deep. Planting a tree too deep will kill it in approximately two weeks. If you think this is the problem, then dig it up and lift it to the level that the other one is planted.
If all else fails, contact your local extension office, they should be able to get you on the right track to healthy trees. Good Luck!
Take Bixby's advice! The advice is right on the money! Save them while you can. I lost a 30 year old crimson a few years ago, it was a sad loss even though I had not planted it. I tried everything I knew to save it, unfortunately it was too late.
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