Curled trident maple leaves

Horticulture
1

Hi all,
My trident maple leaves has all the edges of the leaves curling inward. Otherwise, the tree appears healthy (no yellowing leaves, black spots, shedding leaves, etc.). Has anyone else had this kind of problem with tridents? What do you think is causing it?
Thanks

2

Attaching a picture can be very helpful

Is it all leaves or only new immature to semi-mature leaves?

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curled-trident-leaves
curled-trident-leaves866×1154 231 KB

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I’ve posted a picture above. It’s all leaves, even immature ones.

5

Have you had a sudden change in weather lately?

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We’ve been suffering a heat wave recently, with little rain. I’ve kept my maples under a shade cloth and kept up on watering. It does look like they’re drying up, but they’ve been this way for several weeks now and don’t feel as though they’re drying up. Weird, eh?

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I’ve seen a variety of Trident Maple that exhibit this leaf type as its natural growth - it will stay that way forever if its that type.

8

Could you have overheated the pot on the first hot day?
Looks like my (other) decideous trees when the leaves / roots fry fast… Doesn’t take long at 90F+.
Can’t tell from the photo how large / deep the pot is, or how large the tree is. Shallow and medium /shohin?
Looks like it survived. Should see new buds and leaves come out. If it was just the leaves fry, think of it as a partial de-foiliation in. Light Organic fertilizer…

2 Likes
9

Thanks, Kurt. I’ll treat it as though that’s the case. Yes, it’s a shohin, but with a 2" deep pot. Still, in a heat wave it might not be enough.

10

Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. My other tridents do look different from this one…

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Search ACER BUERGERIANUM ‘NARUTO’ TRIDENT MAPLE

1 Like
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Thanks! I guess my tree isn’t sick after all, LOL. Just curly… I’ll have to get used to it, I guess. It was a nursery pre-bonsai purchase, and I swear the leaves didn’t look like that at the nursery.

1 Like
13

I tried but I couldn’t get used to mine. Those curled leaves are awful. Fortunately, a nice healthy branch that had reverted to normal showed up. I thread grafted it a few months ago so now I will have two good branches at least!

Acer b Tancho
Acer b Tancho866×1154 481 KB

Here’s my Acer buergerianum ‘Tancho’. Trunk looks kinda like an elephant from that angle…

2 Likes
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Is it grafted?
The branch probably originates below the graft…
Air layer… Love the trunk…

15

Thanks, I needed to hear that. I can’t get used to it either. No hope of my tree reverting to normal foliage. It’s happy just shooting out the curled leaves. I’m sure I’ll grow to like it over time. It has a great nebari.