Poorly Acer....

vicmajor81

I have had this Acer for four years. As you can see from the photo, leaves have only come out on a small branch at the bottom of the tree this year and the rest looks dead! There are buds on the rest of the tree but nothing is happening with them. I wondered if it could be late frosts and all the snow we’ve had this year.

Do I prune the tree or could leaves grow on it next year? It is sentimental to me as my late father bought it for me so I want to save as much of the tree as possible.

Many thanks for any advice in advance.

Blue Onion

If you scratch the bark on the upper twigs with your nail, is it green underneath?

autumnglory

Sorry to say but it doesn't look good. The picture isn't that clear but the branches look black at the ends, it could be verticilium wilt. There was a post about this a while ago.

https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/994601/acer-stems-turned-black-this-year/p1

vicmajor81

Blue Onion said:

If you scratch the bark on the upper twigs with your nail, is it green underneath?

No it’s brown...

Thanks for the link, it does look similar. I wonder if I should cut off what looks dead and hope that the new shoots with leaves survive?

Blue Onion

I would.