Silver maple concern

[Jerod Taylor]

Silver maple started having leaves turn red about a month ago and now about half of the north facing side of the tree has turned red. No leaves are dropping. Also oozing sap that I didn’t notice before, agIan only on the north facing side. Any ideas what is going on or what I can do?

 

[ATH]

Get a picture of the base. The one you have is cut off about 3" too high. Take another from the back side too.

Lose the landscape fabric.

 

[Jerod Taylor]

Get a picture of the base. The one you have is cut off about 3" too high. Take another from the back side too.

Lose the landscape fabric.

We just bought the house in the fall and the previous owner had newly put down the fabric and rocks around the tree. So I will work on getting rid of it and using a mulch.

 

[ATH]

Good that it doesn't look planted too deep. That is a frequent problem. Maybe it is just the shadows...but the first picture, the back side of that trunk looks flat where it should flare out. Does it flare out back there or does it go straight into the ground? (if you were standing at the planter boxes looking at the tree).

I am looking at the rooting conditions because the conditions at top are suggesting that the problem is down there, not at the top.

 

[Jerod Taylor]

The photos are of the tree base going all the way around. The normal gray base is the side of the tree that is still green.

 

[Jed1124]

I think there is a girdler on that side that' diving into the soil. Like ATH said, loose the fabric, and I would say the stone too. Bring in organic mulch 2"-3" thick max.

Dig down and see if you find a girdling root first.

 

[ATH]

Yep...that second pic (ending in CDA2), just below that black streak. See how that side is flat while the rest of the roots flare out? The usual reason for that is that a root has wrapped around the trunk.