Red Maple

[hippie10]

Hi -
We have a red maple that is about 3 years old. This spring, one side of the tree bloomed and the other (about 6 branches) are totally bare. We're wondering what is happening - if the whole tree didn't bloom I'd say it was dead. But, that isn't the case.

What to do?

Thanks
Nancy

 

[S Mc]

Nancy, welcome to the forum. It would be really helpful if you could post some pictures. If you do, take one of the whole tree, showing both the healthy growth and "dead" growth and one of the base of the tree showing how it was planted.

In the meantime a couple things to check would be any trunk injuries that this tree might have. This could be anything from sunscald or other vertical injuries, lawnmower or weedeater damage, to animal injuries, etc. Those would be the "easier" to check above ground damage that could result in a half dead tree.

The underground issues that might be affecting this tree won't be quite so easy to determine. But we may have some insights after seeing your photos.

For posting the pictures, I open them in Paint, select Image, then Stretch/Skew. Select 25% reduction on horizontal and vertical. Save.

This reduces them to a size that the website will accept and yet keep them large enough for us to see detail.

Good luck.

Sylvia

 

[RedlineIt]

Good Pics will tell the story. Also recent your recent weather history.

I recently worked with a client with almost the exact same query, I was there to ameliorate some wind damage to some larger trees.

The wind had come up just as the small maple had been setting leaf, the exposed side was damaged by wind burn at the trees most vulnerable moment.

That tree will come back next year, but it will take a year to see how well. Then we can procede with a plan to correct the damage but i would not cut any thing before then.

Just trying to say there are are many possible reasons.

A qualified Arborist onsite can give you your best analysis.

RedlineIt

 

[S Mc]

Good point, Redline. Environmental events and/or extremes can be a huge factor.

So Nancy, cast your mind back to any special events, be they wind or late freezes this spring, early freezes last fall, dry winter conditions, extreme weather during the winter, etc. etc.

Sylvia

 

[hippie10]

Thanks for the responses.

Here are some pictures. The trunk of the tree has a splice down it where the bark is peeling away from the trunk. Reminds me of a cut on someone's skin. The trees are planted by a creek and there are boxelder bugs in the wood chips - pretty heavy in the fall. I also noticed some crawling around the trunk today when I took the picture. There is another red maple to the south of this one which is fine and didn't see any bugs crawling around this one.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[S Mc]

Nancy, I missed your posting these pictures, sorry for the delay in responding.

This appears to be a red-leafed cultivar of the Norway maple, which is a species rather notorious for frost cracks. The boxelder bugs are incidental and not an issue here.

Many times the maples will have frost cracks that they can live with for years, causing little problems. But occasionally they can be deep and severe enough to cause dieback.

Could you take a picture of the entire tree showing the base as well?

Sylvia

 

[hippie10]

I've attached a picture of the full tree.

 

[ChrisWNY]

You may want to pull the gravel a few inches form the trunk and expose the root flare carefully as the tree almost appears as if it may have been planted a bit too deeply.