Can leaf scorch kill a Maple tree?

Discussion in 'Maples' started by Imperfect Ending, Jun 13, 2009.

  1. Imperfect Ending

    Imperfect Ending Active Member

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    Can damaged leaf from leafscorch kill a tree later in the season/year?
    I was wondering because I just realized that my Acer Palmatum Atropurpureum is sitting in the sun for about 10 hours a day ( and I live in Los Angeles )... there's really no serious scorches yet, except for locking it up in the hot car the first day I purchased it. It's growing nice new red leaves though... luckily it's been about mid 60s... but I know how evil Los Angeles summers can get so I was thinking about leaving it out in the sun until autumn or something when I can transplant it to somewhere shadier.

    But yes... if I leave it out in the sun where the leaves will burn up, will that have a negative impact on the tree? ( except for aesthetics )
     
  2. kaspian

    kaspian Active Member 10 Years

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    If the leaves do start to turn brown or show other signs of heat- and sun-related stress, then yes, the tree will be weakened. In an extreme case it might die, or otherwise it might simply (as the saying goes) fail to thrive. Probably in the long run it will be happier with more shade.

    But it sounds like so far, the tree is healthy and putting out fresh new leaves, so you must be taking good care of it. As long as you're attentive to the plant's needs -- which is really what about 90 percent of gardening is about, I think -- then all should be well. Is there a way you could rig up some kind of temporary shade -- an awning or trellis or something -- if the sun and heat get too intense later in the summer?
     
  3. Kaitain4

    Kaitain4 Well-Known Member Maple Society 10 Years

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    Since leaves are the food factory for the plant, obviously having them burned to a crisp is a negative for the plant, and yes it can be fatal. Best to prevent.
     
  4. Imperfect Ending

    Imperfect Ending Active Member

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    Ah.. thank you, kaspian and Kaitain

    I think I will see where the sun goes this summer because I have a giant tree right next to it that casts a shade just THAT much away. I was playing around with GoogleEarth's sun map thing and I noticed that the sun is going to be moving behind the tree during summer times... Hopefully.. then this will be the best spot for it :)

    WISH ME LUCK!!!!

    ( Oh yeah and I hope the tree grows a little bit bigger so that there are more chances of casting shades during this summer
     
  5. Kaitain4

    Kaitain4 Well-Known Member Maple Society 10 Years

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    I.E.

    I made my own Sun Map of my gardens and it has really come in handy!! On a sunny day, I positioned a digital camera on a tripod and took a series of photos sweeping 360 degrees. For my camera this is about 8 frames, with a little overlap. I then took a whole series every hour on the hour from 8AM to 6PM. Later I arranged all the photos so that the frames for all the time periods at each position were grouped together, from morning til night. The result is like a time lapse view of each area of the garden. You can see the light / shadow patterns and exactly how much sun the plants get as the day progresses. It has proven invaluable in planning my gardens.

    Best Regards
     
  6. kaspian

    kaspian Active Member 10 Years

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    I love the idea of a sun map. But wouldn't you have to repeat this procedure at intervals throughout the growing season, since the angle of the sun (except near the equator) changes significantly as the seasons progress?
     
  7. Imperfect Ending

    Imperfect Ending Active Member

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    That's why GoogleEarth is great, you can select the month and such and see where the sun will be at that time. I am hoping that the tree will shade it enough during July.. August looks like it would be completely out of the way :) But time will tell!!!!
     
  8. Imperfect Ending

    Imperfect Ending Active Member

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    Another question:

    Will leaves under the upper leaves also burn if they're being shaded by the burnt leaves? :)
     
  9. Kaitain4

    Kaitain4 Well-Known Member Maple Society 10 Years

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    I did my Sun Mapping in mid-May. This gives you a good idea of what kind of sun the plants will get for the majority of the summer, since mid-June is the longest day of the year. I believe each day lasts a half a minute or so longer until you get to June 21, and then it starts decreasing by a half a minute or so each day. The sun you see in mid-May will be about the same amount of sun you see in in mid-July. So you can estimate the plants will get about what you see for a 90 day period around June, give or take 30 minutes.

    Here's an example. I Sun Mapped this bed to see what kind of exposure my maples and conifers would get. The large rock on the left marks the end of the bed, and the stone wall on the right is the beginning. The last picture shows the planted bed looking the opposite direction. The Sun Map helped me place the plants so that the ones on the end towards the wall are the most sun / heat tolerant. File names are labels.
     

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  10. Imperfect Ending

    Imperfect Ending Active Member

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    ^^ You're lucky to have that much land... I live in the middle of Los Angeles

    This is my garden:

    ( I recently replaced the right jade tree with another maple that I got on sale :D.. not too worried about that one though- they said it's a generic maple that no one wanted... I SHOWED THEM! It's about 7 feet tall and only for $10... I am not sure what type it is.. the new growth are red and the older ones are green but I've noticed green new growths too so that's confusing. )
     

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  11. Kaitain4

    Kaitain4 Well-Known Member Maple Society 10 Years

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    Land is cheap here in Tenn. A lot of people are leaving CA. and moving out here. You can get land like mine for less than $3K per acre. I'm 45 miles from the city. :-)
     
  12. kaspian

    kaspian Active Member 10 Years

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    Nice photo, Imperfect! Looks like a nice older neighborhood you live in.

    One thought about the bargain maple: If you're seeing both red and green new shoots, it's possible that some of the are coming from the rootstock, below the graft union (where the chosen variety was grafted onto a plant of the ordinary species, A. palmatum). You might want to see if you can find the place on the trunk where the graft was made, and -- unless you prefer the look of the plain green leaves -- snip off all the shoots coming from below that point. Otherwise, over time, the plant will tend to put most of its energy into those shoots, and eventually the tree will become all green or nearly so. (This might actually prove a more durable arrangement if LA growing conditions are a problem, since the species on its own roots is probably more vigorous than a grafted cultivar).
     
  13. Imperfect Ending

    Imperfect Ending Active Member

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    Here's a picture of it...
    As you can see there's also a random red leaf in the middle of a branch with all-green leaves
     

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  14. Imperfect Ending

    Imperfect Ending Active Member

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    Here's the one I'm worried about... see how the shadow is just THAT CLOSE to it? But I am looking at the sun map and it seems that the tree that's casting the shadow will cast a shade on it by this time in July.

    AND YES I DO REALIZE THAT THE THING BEHIND IT IS UGLY!!! But I grew it from seeds and I have an emotional attachment :D haha

    AND DON'T MIND THE LAWN!!! The condo H.O.A. Is suppose to take care of that... I don't know why they don't.. we pay $180 a month for that and they don't do s*** with it. >=[

    this was taken at 1:45
     

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