Death has come to my little piece of Eden - three Japanese maple have died. All three maples stand in a row, near a retaining wall, which separates the slope of the yard from the patio. All three maples have thrived since we moved into our home fourteen years ago. All three maples now show the same symptoms – first the buds did not develop last spring, then mushrooms and conks began to grow in the fall, then the bark peeled on the northern face of the trunks in the winter. Looking back, death happened over a period of time, so I could have take action sooner.
And, looking back, I can see several events that may have contributed – several years of drought, followed by two very rainy seasons. There was as sprinkler incident last spring, where we realized we had an underground leak, which might have flooded the root zone. Perhaps the soil itself is infected with something. A beetle infestation might explain the peeling bark (although, in the Arboriculture class I took last fall, we learned that pest infestations may be a secondary symptom for a tree that is already in a weakened state).
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| One of the maple trees - notice the peeling bark |
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Another possibility is that circling roots may have strangled the trees (I also learned in the Arboriculture class that many container grown trees develop circling roots; after they are planted, the trees grow fine until they reach a certain size, and then the roots cut off the vascular system and strangle the tree). And a final thought is that every living thing has a life span, and eventually dies. Enough speculation, it is time to call in our arborist, Brende and Lamb of Berkeley (http://www.brendelamb.com/), to diagnose the problem. They have been pruning my big trees and providing guidance for years.
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