correct plant feed for acers?

[DrWu]

Hi folks My acer (japanese maple is starting to look a bit sorry and curl up yellow at the edge of the leaves. Its a small, young tree, only in a couple of weeks and our soil is clay. A friend suggested that acers like acidic plant feed, does anyone else agree with this? I don't want to put something in the ground that's going to make matters worse! Thanks Our newly planted acer (japanese maple...but you know that!) is starting to look a wee bit sorry for itself i.e. the leaves are starting to yellow despite copious watering and a good mix of copmost when the thing first went in. Our soil is a bit clay and someone I remember suggested that acidic feed is the best thing for acers. Any ideas as I don't want to ruin the thing even more! (on an unrelated note I hope this posts okay as it's typing out horizontally without starting new lines!?..here goes

[Robinia]

Oh dear.. think I've got double vision! Never mind - got the gist of your question DrWu. Firstly, acers need fertile, neutral to acid soil with good drainage, but you say that you did dig in some compost at planting time.Hopefully you dug a reasonably good size area over & not just a few inches arond the planting hole? Secondly, the thing that acers hate are cold or drying winds & that could be the cause of your leaf problems if it's an exposed area. As for the feeding, I used a general food (Phostrogen) last year on my acer (little & often rather than a lot every few weeks) & it's looking much healthier now. They really are fabulous aren't they? Mmm you've set me thinking now, I just might treat myself to another one!

[Newt]

I realize you posted this a long time ago, but you mention "copious watering" which could be the problem. When I hear of newly planted trees in distress it's usually one of three things. If your trees look like telephone poles planted in the ground, then it's either planted too low or the mulch is piled up against the trunk and the root flare is not exposed. Take a look here. http://www.tlcfortrees.info/planting%20depth.htm http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/planting/nosoil.htm http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/planting/rootballdimensions.h tm Another reason for stressed newly planted trees is lack of water or too much water. Lack of water can be caused by the tree having been rootbound when planted. If the roots were circling, then you will need to remove about 2/3 of the soil around the rootball and, either untangle some of the outer roots and spread them out, or cut some of them and spread them out. http://msucares.com/lawn/tree_diseases/images/rootball.gif Watering a newly planted tree for the first year or two, depending on the weather, is important until it's established. http://www.watersaver.org/pdfs/fall_watering_trees.pdf Newt

[DrWu]

Thanks for that Newt. I feared the worst as all the leaves withered and died off by the end of July. Then a strange thing happened...new growth. Lots of lovely leaves, this time all closer to the 'trunk' and not so much at the end of the young branches. The bottom line is it seems to be thriving again. I originally bought the tree from one of those gazebo things in tesco's car park which must have been over 100 degrees inside. I think it just took awhile to recover from that experience!