By Benpcoleman
California, United States
Help! My flowering maple looks sick. Is this a virus? Planted in ground a couple months ago.
- 1 Dec, 2018
Answers
It's a Flowering Maple, Bathgate, a subtropical shrub in the Mallow family, genus Abutilon. The leaf shape causes all kinds of confusion with gardeners from up north, where they are hardly ever seen outside of a greenhouse.
Ben, it looks like a combination of iron and magnesium deficiency. That is usually caused by too much sodium in the soil, and/or too high a pH--i.e., too alkaline soil.
1 Dec, 2018
Thanks for clearing up the confusion Tug. I have a flowering maple myself but it's actually a maple tree that flowers- acer rubrum.
1 Dec, 2018
I also thought micronutrient deficiency when I saw the pics.
Miracle Gro might be a good, short term, remedy
1 Dec, 2018
I still think some of it is insect damage-the crinkled leaves
1 Dec, 2018
Awesome, thanks tug. I am always paranoid about viruses. I will give it some miracle grow. Any good long term solutions?
1 Dec, 2018
Soil improvement?
1 Dec, 2018
Many varieties of Flowering Maple have impressed veins like that.
My first choice of treatment would be an inch or two of coarse compost, and a very deep leaching watering, followed by gradually watering more deeply and less often. Calculated doses of copperas (iron sulfate) and Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) would provide a quick fix, but won't be long term effective until the soil improves.
3 Dec, 2018
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What kind of maple tree do you have? How big/old is your tree? Where in California are you? Maples are extremely thirsty trees & need full sun exposure. If it's getting enough of both, then it could be aphids. If this is a mature tree, not much you can do, but predators like wasps & lady bugs will come along & clean them up. It won't affect the tree too much. If your weather in California is very very hot, then it could be sun scorch.
1 Dec, 2018