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| Hello,
Been seeing partially and totally blackened new-growth leaves on a red maple over the last few weeks, and am wondering if its a hydration issue due to the heat, or something else. It's mostly near the top of the tree (first pic), but there's some of it near the bottom as well (pic below). Thanks. :-) |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by plethora87 VA (My Page) on Sat, Jul 7, 12 at 10:06
| Pic 2 |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Sat, Jul 7, 12 at 10:28
| thats not a water issue.. type of damage ... has the lawn recently been sprayed.. or any other spraying?? look on the undersides.. any sign of sucking insects.. like aphids??? KEN |
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- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Sat, Jul 7, 12 at 10:57
| That's the durnedest looking leaf clusters atop that thing. I agree with Ken-look for aphids on the leaf undersides. Something is sucking out the juice, causing this distortion, I think. +oM |
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- Posted by girdledinvasive 9 (My Page) on Sat, Jul 7, 12 at 22:20
| Down here that's what red maples do from lack of water and/or excessive heat. I agree very strange new growth, and that doesn't even look like a red maple to me. |
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| That screams of an insect. If it was just lack of water, the tree would simply stop growing. |
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- Posted by plethora87 VA (My Page) on Sun, Jul 8, 12 at 6:39
| Hello, So, no obvious signs of bugs on the bottom leaves. But most of the problem is at the top. I do see ants cruising up and down the trunk, which I understand is indicative of aphids. What are my remediation options? Is there anything I can do now? How about for next year? When I've had aphids on my bushes I've just rinsed them off with water and my fingers -- but no such option here. Thanks! |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 8, 12 at 9:47
| ants.. ants.. ants.. honeydew thieves ... and that would include scale ... any sign of those??? .. what are those specks on the branches???? ants are how i usually find most of my problems.. on conifers... they arent there.. for the heck of it ... i doubt some bug doing superficial leaf damage.. is going to kill a maple ... i wouldnt worry about that ... ken |
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- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Sun, Jul 8, 12 at 18:16
| Ken's right that this borders on cosmetic damage. One area to explore, that will take you one step beyond the hard stream of water, is the use of insecticidal soap and/or "summer-weight" horticultural oil, like Sunspray. These rather benign substances can go a long way towards controlling aphids, scale insects, etc. Both items though do require that the applicator be sure to coat all plant parts. The insects are only killed if actually hit with the spray. There is no residual action to speak of. +oM |
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| That looks very much like potato leaf hopper damage to me, and up here in ct. leaf hoppers have been pretty bad this year |
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- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Mon, Jul 9, 12 at 17:45
| Good call, ronr. While certainly not the potato leafhopper, there's many other kinds, and they too can distort leaves like this. Not a big deal, especially this late into the growing season. The tree has already pretty much done its work for this year. +oM |
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- Posted by plethora87 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 24, 12 at 14:05
| Update: I saw an army of ants going up and down the tree, protecting whatever was up there, so after some research I applied tanglefoot to the trunk like so: sticky foam weatherstripping wrapped around the trunk (to allow growth), duck tape over the stripping, and tanglefoot on the duck tape. Then I went on vacation for 10 days. When I came back, the ants were gone and normal growth had resumed at the top of the tree. (The latter could be a coincidence I suppose.) However, I noticed a gash in the trunk right under where the stripping was applied. When I removed everything to investigate I realized I had made a mistake: in this humidity, the trunk was moist under the weather stripping, and I guess some tiny critters were eating away at it. The pic shows the gash. Caliper diameter is around 8 inches for reference. I imagine just leaving it alone would be best, but I wanted to check here. I'm also open to suggestions on how to prevent ants in a way that doesn't cause this problem. Thanks! |
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