Acer palmatum, Orange Dream. Poor condition.

10-10-20

This is an Acer palmatum "Orange Dream" potted last year.

As you can see, it's not growing well and given the loss of leaf - appears to be possibly suffering from drought.

It's watered two to three times a week with rainwater and also has an automatic dripper delivering small amounts of tap water every 6hrs. The pot is lined with plastic membrane and has a drain-hole, so should not be drying out very quickly. It was lightly fertilized every month with a GP fertilizer as well as some liquid fertilizer occasionally in the rain-water. The pot was filled with a quality compost and soil mix. The plant itself came from a reputable garden-centre (not a Lidl plant) and was in good condition when planted!

So even though it's getting water, what would you propose could be the issue here? I'm trying to avoid trimming it back as I wanted to retain the long limbs as it grows to about 1.7m height.

10-10-20

Ha. I just read this by @looksee in another thread... https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058260611/tree-choosing-advice-please#latest

"If it likes the spot a Japanese acer can be really lovely, but if it is not happy - usually because it is too exposed - you will have a permanent halo of dead twigs round the top of it."

So I'm guessing it must be exposure then. :)

secman

They're not overly fond of wind, leaves can suffer from wind burn. We had several acers in pots, most were planted and generally did better in the ground. Mostly the purple ones, have a pale green one still in a pot, still relatively small after several years, think the containers do contain them and overly so.

standardg60

You could be killing it with kindness OP, they don't like to be too wet.

Have a poke through the compost, if it's saturated let it dry out before watering again.

10-10-20

Thanks for the feedback all. I don't think it's over-watered, I think it must be the exposure - even though this spring and summer weren't windy, I wonder is it just not suited to that warm corner. I'll move it to another location where it gets more dappled sun and is less exposed to wind and see how it fares next year. I was looking forward to the orange flush in late Sept/Oct, but I think it's not going to put on a good show.

I'll have to go off an decide what other plant to replace it with as I have another empty half-barrel to replace it with.

Take it out of the pot and either plant in the soil or repot in a larger pot. It looks like it could do with a feed....an occasional male taking a leak once or twice a month won't do it any harm 🤨

The Continental Op

While its the death of a lot of container plants I don't think over watering is the problem here because over watering tends to affect all the leaves on the plant. Another way of getting the same effect as overwatering is to put the plant in to large a pot. Then what happens is wet compost can just sit against the roots even though watering is moderate.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119564416#Comment_119564416

I think that's exactly what's happening here Op, the plant won't have rooted throughout the barrel in a year, so there's going to be lot of compost doing nothing except absorbing and holding water. Watering it every 6 hours in addition to the two to three times a week is way too much imo. I've definitely seen dieback from the tips down due to overwatering. In addition the dieback is affecting all sides of the plant simultaneously, whereas you'd expect windburn to be more one-sided, not that i think it's that anyway.

10-10-20

Ok, fair enough, I'll pull the dripper off it. I only installed it in late June anyhow. I'd guess it was only delivering about 50ml of water every 6hrs anyway.

Thanks for the continued feedback.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119565433#Comment_119565433

You're welcome, to be sure for yourself do excavate a small hole maybe half way down the barrel at the edge, if it's wet all through then it has enough water and shouldn't need any until is starts to dry out again. Which could be a while in this weather :-)

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119565488#Comment_119565488

Yes, the wrong week to be diagnosing damp.