Help with Acer

I would treat for vine weevil as it cannot hurt. The adults eat the leaves and lay eggs into the soil from which the nasty grubs emerge. Piles of sludge under the pot suggests something is moving inside the soil of the pot. This could be worms or woodlice, but better safe than sorry.

You can get these little feet for pots to stand on which helps drainage and deters woodlice etc. Some petroleum jelly around the feet stops them even more effectively.

Compost will not create holes in the leaves, if the nutrient balance is wrong it may discolour them, but not do the damage as in your photo.
Good luck

 

Wifey uses a thing called Provado Vine Weevil which works well
The reason there is differing advice is because there are a number of possible answers to your problem
Busybee found this web site some time ago which gives advice on caring for Japanese maples. It might give you some guidance as to the reason for your problem
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Japan/Japanese-Maple-Care/1545

Freddy .... whilst Japanese maples are said to favour a slightly acid soil, they are not, in fact, that fussy, and they do succeed well in ordinary soils. Some varieties will even succeed in slightly alkine soils, but I do NOT recommend that

 

Good site there Whis, and more advice here:-
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0403/acer_cultivation.asp

As this maple means a lot to ianac1 and his fiancee, it is worth going for the belt and braces approach by treating for vine weevil and improving the general growing conditions as far as possible.

 

Another good advice site Blackthorn
I see, in particular, that they can be prone to attack from vine weevil
Mind you .. most plants can suffer from that little bug*er

 

Right guys, thanks for all the help so far.

I'm just back from the garden centre where i picked up some provado 2 vine weedvil which i've just treated the plant with.

I couldn't get insect glue but did get insect tape that you put round the stalk (is that the right word?) of the plant and it should stop any beasties climbing up to the leaves.

Fingers crossed the plant will pick up from here, i'll keep you all informed how i get on with it.

Thanks again for all your help.

Ian

 

Hello Chaps
I've only just seen this thread. Sympathising with Ian being deluged with advice, I thought I'd swamp him with a little more! In my experience:
1. whilst ericaceous compost is not essential, you'll find that autumn leaf colour is more vivid if the soil is acidic rather than neutral. This doesn't mean re-potting if you'd like an autumn show, just a mulch of leafmould (or eric. compost if no leafmould) once per year to keep the soil ph acidic.
2. as your leaf problem was in July, and as acers can be prone to vine weevil attack, your provado treatment is definitely worth it. In the summer, plants are a lot less likely to die from vine weevil attack, as only the adults are about, munching (and disfiguring) leaves and laying eggs - possibly the little black-ish scuttling chap you mention. It's only after these eggs hatch that a plant may be killed by vine weevil attack, as the grubs feed on roots: however, this will be between say November/December and April, because that's the risky (ie voraciously feeding grub) stage of the weevil's annual cycle. The trouble is, any resulting death may be interpreted as a winter (too wet or frost) casualty!
3. There is also a smallish chestnut brown moth which produces little greenish caterpillars which cause damage that looks like that in your photos. They'll attack almost anything, including my olives, chilis, bays, jasmine, lemons etc, etc! I can't remember the moth species, but the Provado might be effective with them too next year (if the vine weevil formulation isn't that different from their bug-killer product), as the plant will take at least some of it up into the leaves
Phew! Finished

 

"Each to their own and no offence intended,"

But despite two pages of well-intentioned and learned advice offered...

"It might be kinder to put it down."

 

Noooooo Doghouse, It will shed those leave's and start again next year, as soon as i looked at the pics I thought ..Slugs!!.. Anway seems like Ian has disappeared

 

I know, I'm only kidding.

Reminds me, our daughter from the age of seven kept rabbits and guineapigs, I had to build a shed for her to keep them all in. She had about seven at one time. She was very devoted and religiously cleaned them out and fed them each morning before going to school, rain or shine.
This "caring gene" led her to train as a paedatric nurse at GOS and become a specialist. She's a mum with three kids now and her nursing days are behind her. (We had the last rabbit for another eight years after she left home at eighteen to train at GOS).

Anyway, over the years, there were a few which became ill and needed care or veterinary treatment. "Dad" always coughed up the money.
The standing joke with my wife, when I'd come back from the vet with my daughter was;
"Have you any idea how much that cost compared with the price of a new rabbit?" I usually got a couple of cushions thrown at me. They both knew I didn't mean it.

 

Hahaha, now i get it Doghouse..