What happened to my acers?

[Cutandpaste]

My neighbour gave me a couple of bags of compost when she was moving. I used it plant two small acers into pots. It may have been the wrong compost for them - I think it may be have been a peat based compost.

The leaves have gone brown and are curling up. They were really healthy before the repotting. The pots are positioned somewhere where they only get sun until about 11am. Most of my garden is in full sun and very hot on hot days. Do they need more sun?

Is there any way of rescuing them? I've kept them alive since they were tiny plugs and would be very sad to lose them!

i suspect that this has been caused by a combination of factors. early morning dew then sun burning the leaves. Also the weather has been crazy. Depending on the variety, but most Acers work better in shade.

I have grown Acers for many years and have similar problems with the ones that were newly planted this year.The weather has Put a massive amount of stress onto Acers. High winds, late frosts, excessive rain then hot sun. Quite often all in the same day. When you think about the type of climate Acers have in their country of origin, this is a big ask of them.

Acers like an Ericaseous soil in pots but I add a bit of ordinary Compost to mine as well. I would do nothing for the time being, don't feed or replant them now.

If you did not use Ericausous Compost wait until The leaves would normally fall from them. Late October to early November and repot them and move to a sheltered position over winter. As the new leaves emerge next spring feed them with a liquid Acer feed. You only need to to this once.

Sorry for the essay.

Mine have done the same thing 2 years in a row- my neighbour says a combination of too much sun and strong wind where they are located but have grown back beautifully and we will be putting them in the ground when the time is right next

I thought I'd lost half of mine over the heatwave last week of June. They're tucked down the side of the patio in the shade of the fence/house. Garden table protects them from wind corridor. The leaves went crispy and they looked a state.

I delicately pruned all the leaves back to a node and hoped for the best, if not this year then in the spring.

The red one has made a miraculous comeback and looks good as new The two Orange Dreams currently have no leaves but I can see tiny nubs. I'm hopeful these will sprout into leaves. It's given me hope that they've survived anyway.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for your replies everyone; not an essay at all gruuumbleweec! All very useful info.

I'll repot in October, I normally keep them in a cold frame over winter, no idea if that's the right thing to do or not! Here's a picture of them looking very sorry for themselves The smaller one especially isn't looking too healthy

Certainly looks like weather damage, possibly wind. If you want you can snip off the affected stems carrying the damaged leaves. As GingerKitKat says, they will regenerate. The little one looks ok, although can't always tell from picture. They do like their roots to be snug so possibly the pot for the little one is too big. Can you remember how big the root ball was when you repotted it. I might be inclined to repot the little one into a smaller pot.

This is my new Acer Griseum which I did not trim and the other is Katsura which I did trim damaged bits off. I did it abou 4 weeks ago and it has come back well. I took advice from the supplier about what to do with them

An Acer nursery advised me to give a newly planted (but large) Acer a bucket of water every single week through the summer months.

It worked and the tree made it happily through the first half of this summer.

Looks like a combination of wind burn, and scorched leaves due to having sun shining on water droplets on them when wet.

Maybe keep somewhere sheltered from strong winds, and try not to wet the foliage when watering. They can stand full sun, as long as they are established, in a reasonable sized pot and you keep them well-watered (but not water-logged). In the winter, they do better kept a bit drier though.