# Forum Home Renovation Landscaping, Gardening & Outdoors  Maple tree problem identification

## brettule

Here is my young Maple tree, it's been pretty healthy so far down in Melbourne   I noticed that a lot of leaves are showing this problem at the moment. Does anyone know what it is and the cause?  
Some info which might help: The area is known to have lots of clay, dig down 50cm and you'll hit it. The lawn has an automated sprinkler system that runs for 10mins every other morning. It's been very hot over the past few weeks.

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## Cecile

Looks like sunburn to me.  Maples are not hot weather trees, they are indigenous to the cooler northeastern US and Canada and it's been freaking hot here.  I have no idea how it will survive in our climate, and it's very exposed where it's planted.  Not sure of the orientation there but the radiant heat from the side of your house will not do it any favours, especially if it's north or west facing. 
You are going to have a very serious issue with that tree in a few years.  Maples are BIG trees when they are mature.  It's planted far too close to your house.  Your gutters will fill up with leaves every autumn.  I highly recommend you dig it up NOW while it's still small-ish, and move it as far away from the house as you can. 
PS, I'm from the US and believe you me, these trees get BIG  My parents had one in their yard and it would have been about a metre or more in diameter and 40+ metres tall.

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## brettule

Thanks for the info. I plan to prune it every year to keep it under control. This is about the max height I want to allow it to get to.

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## joynz

There are some maples that grow smaller - e.g. 4 metres high and foliage spread of 4 metres left unpruned.  Flemings website has examples. 
However, it does seem very close to the house.

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## Cecile

> I plan to prune it every year to keep it under control.

  This won't stop the main stem from growing huge and eventually damaging your house, leading to the need to eventually fell the tree and then try to kill the root system to prevent further damage.   
You may be thinking that you won't live in the house long enough for this to be an issue for you in the long term.  This happened to us, a former owner (my mother in law) planted an ironbark seedling about a metre and a half from the footpath in the mid 1960s, refusing to listen to family who said it was too close.  "We won't be here then, not my problem."  Roll forward to 2013, we own the house.  The tree, a majestic mature beautiful healthy tree was not quite 6 metres away from 66,000 volt power lines and after years of lopping branches (to comply with new government regulations about clearance) and rendering the tree unstable, Powercor decided the tree had to come down.  It's devastating to lose a healthy native species, especially one that created a haven for native birds, and provided much needed shade in our hot climate.  The horrible pruning by Powercor over the years caused the tree to tilt slightly, lifting the footpath.  So far the council hasn't said anything but if they wanted to they could make us pay for fixing it.  
All I'm saying is to be prepared for problems.  I still recommend you wait till the tree is dormant, after it's lost its leaves, and move it.

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## brettule

> This won't stop the main stem from growing huge

  I was told that the rules of bonsai apply to all trees and if you keep the surface parts of the plant pruned so it's small the root system won't grow to an excessive size.

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## Moondog55

Yes in Bonsai this is true, but in Bonsai they root prune anually and keep the specimens in VERY small containers. TBH I can't see this tree being dug up every year to root prune.
These are huge trees when mature

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## brettule

> Yes in Bonsai this is true, but in Bonsai they root prune anually and keep the specimens in VERY small containers. TBH I can't see this tree being dug up every year to root prune.
> These are huge trees when mature

   Ha, you're right about that, I'm not digging it up every year. Aren't these trees tap root systems that tend to drill down rather than outwards which causes havoc?

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