Japanese maple needs help

blue_elle

We received a baby Japanese Maple as a gift about 5 months ago. I tried to follow the recommendations found on web nursery sites, but the leaf tips had curled and turned brown during the summer, I believe from insufficient water. We went ahead uped the supplemental water and the browning seemed to stop spreading. The tree itself was still growing well so we were assuming that in the spring the leaves would come back healthy.

Recently, though, our area experienced heavy raining and flooding. The extremely heavy downpours and winds have ravenged the tree. It's now a one foot stick. Are there any special steps we should be taking to care for it at this point to get it through to the spring? How do we judge the care it needs when it's but a twig?

I forgot to mention the tree is in a planter currently. We were planning on transplanting once we move into our new house, but I think that would be too stressful at this point and should probably wait.

BelhurstBride

I don't know where you live, but this time of year, when it's nice and cool, is actually the best time of year to transplant.

Alisha_A

Have you contacted a nursery near you, or where its from? Websites may not be considering your location. Japanese maples are popular here but I have no advice because they're really low maintenance. I have a baby one I'm cultivating from my neighbor's yard... but I'm not doing anything to it.

~NB~

Japanese Maples do well in containers (I have 5). One of the advantages of growing them in containers is that you can MOVE them out of heavy rains and windy locations.

Plant it in the ground if you wish, just choose the location carefully; otherwise you can grow it in an appropriately sized container for years.

You'll have to wait and see if it leafs our again in the spring- best wishes with that.