Acer palmatum stock plant affected by... something.

[Mellenoire]

I have no idea what, though. This plant has many years to go before it can even be considered "in training", but at the rate it's going, it might not even make it that far. It put on 30cm of growth in autumn then just... gave up.

Something's eating it, clearly. Also, I'm concerned about the white "cloudy" patches on the lower leaves. There seems to be some mottled discolouration on the leaves too, and they're not dropping (wouldn't they have, by now?)

It's in semi shade (with a bit of full sun in the morning), gets watered when the pot feels "light", in a sheltered spot away from winds. We haven't had any frosts yet, either. I'm not fertilising it at present, I stopped around end of April.

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What's eating/infecting these and how do I get rid of them, please?

Thanks

[kcpoole]

this time of year I would be expecting the leaves to be looking somewhat second hand anyway. Depending on where you are in Sydney, they may hang on for a few weeks yet.
if you are worried, Give them all a treatment of Anti rot, to make sure they do not get hit with fungus over winter, but apart from that would not worry too much

Ken

[Mellenoire]

Thank you so much! This Anti-rot looks perfect for the whole garden, any plants I shouldn't be using it on?

[Luke308]

I currently have 68 maples in my yard in varying stages from seedling and layers to stock trees in training. Only a handful of them are bare, in fact they colour has only started to turn this past week. I would keep a keen eye out for bugs and caterpillars as mine often get attacked. If you have a look at night time with a torch you may be surprised just what you may find. I have found a caterpillar that hangs on to the trunk (or branch) with about 1cm of its length and the remaining 3 or so cm is dead straight at a 45degree angle disguising himself as a branch or shoot. Crafty little suckers.

[kcpoole]

Hi Luke
I get them too, but only in Summer.
they are called a looper worm adn I posted this thread about them a while ago
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4317&p=48482&hilit=looper#p48482

can be controlled with "Dipel" from yates.

Ken