Advice for Japanese Maple that's losing leaves

damon00

I have a Japanese maple that was weekened do to a re-potting, and then hot dry summer weather burned most of it's leaves. Since then it's droped all the leaves off of it's crown, and off one of it's largest branches. And there are no new buds appearing in these areas.

I'm now concerned about die-back on the crown and on that branch.

Any ideas on what I should do?

I thought about defoliating the rest of the tree to promote new budding in the areas that lost their leaves, but I'm concerned that it might kill the tree considering it's weekened state.

My other though was to just leave the tree alone and if I lose the branch, just do a trunk chop and start over. I'd get more taper added to the tree this way too. And it could use more taper.

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Dav4

Don't defoliate the tree, as that will only weaken it further. Place it in the shade and out of any wind, then keep it moist, but not too moist. The tree will use less water after dropping its leaves. I'd imagine that later on this late summer/early fall, the tree may push some new growth. Good luck,

Dave