Acer rescue

Nwjblake

Hello all,

I purchased an Acer Osakazuki from homebase this weekend. Its stems had been tied together, it was placed in the middle of a large group (obviously not optimal conditions) and the pot had dried considerably. This had caused the central leaves where it had been bound to die and some of those stems to blacken. I got a very good price for it and hoped to bring it home and rescue it. I immediately pruned back all the dead foliage, leaving some blackened stems bare in the middle, but with good leaf growth at the top, where the tree was not constricted. Over all it is a very attractive tree and I hope the stems will grow new shoots next year, but wonder if anyone can offer some advice if I can do anything to help it along? Whether I should cut back the blackened stems completely to allow new growth?

Many thanks,
Nick

amancalledgeorge

Looks like a nice specimen. In my experience they are quite tough plants but make sure you keep it well watered and maybe repot it in a larger container with ericaceous compost to give it access to more nutrients and to be a bit less thirsty. You can also try to use some seaweed fertiliser to give it a boost.

Fingers crossed it will put on healthy growth next spring. 

punkdoc

Make sure you use a soil based ericaceous compost and not an ericaceous MPC.
Give it some shade.
Keep soil moist.
Try to keep out of wind.