Curly Maple Leaves

kulim_jin

I've browsed through many days of past postings in this regard and found limited information. I was wondering if people could help me identify the disease(s) that my maples are going through. I suspect it to be a virus infection?

Please note that prior to this, these maple had a mildew attack. I have since applied fungicide (Bayer, Clear Fungus or something), and provided better air and light to them.

What should I do? Please help.

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ElGringo

Is it possible that this is the result of too much direct sunlight? It may have forced the new leaves to develop strangely. I just say because you said that you had recently moved them to a different location, which can be stressful. Do you fertilize them at all? Are any other trees displaying similar symtoms? just offering ideas.

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Richard

kulim_jin

Funny you should mention that. I brought the issue to Wisley last Saturday and they said the same thing. They doubt that it has anything to do with viruses. Though without any proper investigation, they can't be sure. They suggest providing shade.

So I guess I shall put up some form of shade around the trees soon. My garden is very small, and when I say moving them, I meant moving them from the left of my garden to the right of my garden (distance of 5 meters?). Is that sufficient to cause stress? If so, I must have been stressing them a lot! Feel so bad now... poor things.

No, other trees are doing OK, though my Oak is abosultely infested with the mildew. The fungicide did not work. But no deformation on the leaves strucutre of the oak. I have reduced watering to the oak, no watering on the leaves, and lightly fertilse the oak. No luck in removing them. It's unsightly, but the tree seems to be OK for the moment. What can I do to improve the situation?

So, only my maples are involved in this curly thing. And yes, I have fertilise them regularly since spring, at an interval of 3-4 weeks.

Thank you for your input.

007

have you pruned them this year? I've found that my maples do the same thing if I prune in summer . . . its been suggested that doing so forces immature buds to break which is why the leaves come out distorted.

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ElGringo

If it is mildew on your oak, I would suggest giving it better air movement, the main cause is probably constant and high levels of humidity, perhaps made worse by our recent weather.

Regarding moving your trees, for example if they are under partial shade (say, an area of your garden that only has a few hours of direct sunlight per day) and then picked up and moved to an area where they get a lot of sunlight, especially during the summer, it can stress them.

Its the sudden change in conditions that does it, not the actual distance...Increased heat from the sun, risk of completly drying out between waterings, more ultraviolet light/increased risk of photo-damage to the leaves, there can be many things. Some trees may even completey shed their leaves and grow a new set altogether as a response.

Many people will recommend that you steadily aclimatize trees to changing conditions, i.e. giving them a little bit more light each day in this case. It might do best to leave them where they are for now and let them recover.

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Richard

kulim_jin

Thank you all for your kind replies.

I have pruned some of the leaves which were too severely infected with the mildew (I read here that that was what you do) and burn them. Recently I have pruned some of the bigger leaves to make room, space and provide air to the trunks (it is a maple forest composition) as things were getting too crowded. Other than that, it is usual and continual pinching off new buds for better ramification. No severe pruning since then.

I don't think that I have moved them to the point of stressing them as even though I displaced them, they have always been in direct sun light positions. I do rotate the pot to provide a more even exposure of sunlight. Since last night, I have moved them to a shadier part of my garden, as I read that the move from light-shade is less stressful than the opposite.

We'll see how they do now. Thanks again for your inputs.

007

I should have also mentioned that even though the leaves break out and look odd for the reamainder of the growing season, the following spring the tree looks normal.

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watzone69

I had these same kinds of leaves after I leaf pruned earlier this summer. It was recommended to leaf prune maples at that time by a senior member of our club. If the strangely shaped leaves were caused by forcing the immature buds to break, should I have waited until later in the season?

Thanks,
Mike

007

I'm still trying to figure that out . . . my guess is that it has a lot to do with the weather trends you've experienced in the season.

This is the third year I've experienced this . . . the first year I thought perhaps I pruned too early in the growing season. So the second year I waited and got the same results.

This year, i waited again, but not as long as last year and again got the same results. This year, i went with the conventional timing of waiting until the "summer dormancy". Trial and error it seems is going to be the only way to nail this down . . .

I think that this year has produced the best results with only minimal leaf deformities, but they are still present none the less.

My plan for next year is to wait until just before the summer dormancy to see what happens. If that doesn't produce more positive results, then the following year I will wait until the END of the summer dormancy. In fact, as I type this out, i think I may switch my game plan . . . if the best time to prune a tree is as it leaves its dormant period, then perhaps it makes more sense to wait until the end of the summer dormancy period, which in my area would be late july, early august.

Hmmmm . . . food for thought.

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