I planted an Acer sangu kaku in a corner bed of my garden last year. It's grown back after winter really well but only about half way up. As shown in the picture, the top part of the main stem has turned black and is growing nothing whatsoever. I really don't want to have to cut it and lose so much of the height, but do I have any other choice? Why has the stem turned black? It's planted in a north facing garden so only gets semi sun and it's fairly sheltered by fences and surrounding trees
by WillM_93
6 Comments
It looks dead to me.
Could be disease. Cut away everythig that looks like that immediately, and you may still be able to save it.
Reckon it’s planted too deep, scrap back the mulch/soil around the stem and look for the root flare/nursery mark where the trunk widens. You can lever it up with a border fork by working around the plant and gently lift it up so it’s proud of the soil before firming back in. They do tend to die back somewhat in winter time but not to the extent that yours has and I’d remove those canes, does nothing for the plant.
Definitely cut back, looks like some kind of disease – Sacrifice the height for now but hopefully save the plant.
I planted a sangu kaku a couple of years ago and lost about half the main branches to something like this. The rest of the tree is doing ok but is substantially reduced in mass (2 main branches rather than 4).
They grow back quite quickly. Chop away the dead bit and with any luck, you’ll have a nice strong new leader by end of summer.