Question
We have an 8 year old Red Sunset Maple. It has been growing beautifully for 8 years, provides shade and has given my husband, myself and the birds much enjoyment. It must be around 25 feet tall. The problem is this year it bloomed, produced green leafs, but now the leaves are all turning brown, drying up and falling off. There don't seem to be any bugs or mold. What happened? We live in northeast Ohio where it was a very wet winter and early spring. It has been very hot for weeks now with little rain. Next door to us are two Red Sunset Maples that are doing fine. Is there anything we can do? We are very upset that we may be losing this tree.

Answer
Jo-Ann:

First, I'd look for any obvious things like damage to the bark on the trunk, especially near the soil line.  Any excavation under the tree that may have damaged the root system? Anything been sprayed directly on the tree or spilled under it?

If you don't see anything out of order, I would be inclined to lean toward a previous dry period.  Sometimes it takes a while for trees to show this type of stress.  Using your fingernail, scratch the bark off several individual twigs near their tips out toward the end of the branches.  Look for green tissues below.  If you see green and the smaller twigs are still flexible w/o snapping off, the stress may be temporary.  You may also dig down 6 or so inches to see how dry the soil is under the drip line of the tree. If things appear dry, a good deep watering may help turn things around.  It just depends how long the stress has been going along.

Regards

Steve