Do sugar maple trees grow out of leaf scorch?

10 years ago

Howdy, fellow gardeners and tree lovers. I have a young sugar maple tree here in southeast Tennessee (Chattanooga) zone 7a . This sugar maple has been growing on my property for about 4 years. I bought the tree from Forest Farm online nursery (the company is located in Williams OR). This sugar maple has fresh mulch, a little tree tone fertilizer in the spring and plenty of water. But every year around the middle of July until the end of August the tree sub comes to leaf scorch. Other than leaf scorch the tree is healthy with average to above average leaf size and puts on two to three feet of new growth a year. So my question is will the tree mature out of this leaf scorch phase as it gets older or should I replace the tree with a hardy sugar maple cultivar? Thank You, any suggestion would be great. I hate seeing this tree suffer every summer with leaf scorch.

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Comments (8)

eddie980
Original Author
10 years ago
The whole tree
whaas_5a
10 years ago
Is that actually leaf scorch? I'm not used to it looking like that.

What cultivar do you have? Many Sugar maples are susepctible to leaf scorch and will never out grow it per say.

Need to a select a cultivar that is resistant.
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eddie980
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi Whaas, I think it might be because it only shows up around July and August the hottest two months here in Chatt. This sugar maple is a generic type not a cultivar. Thanks for responding :).
eddie980
Original Author
10 years ago
Howdy :)
jean001a
10 years ago
"Scorch" is due to water shortage. Give it more water. Not soggy, but evenly moist.
eddie980
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks Jean, I thought it'd be a little more adapted with it being in the ground for the past 4 years but I guess not. I'll up its watering.
Sarah80
10 years ago
Although Sugar maples are native in TN, if you bought a generic, non named tree, you have no way of knowing if its seed came from TN, or somewhere like Ohio or Vermonet....seed provenance matters.

It might do better over time simply by having a more extensive root system, but in your zone you are better off with either verifiable TN seed source, or a named variety like Legacy or the Caddo types that tolerate hot summers better.
whaas_5a
10 years ago
One of my chlorotic maples is showing what you have there.

Looking more closely your plant appears to be nutrient deficient.