Well, no one responded to your question so I'll give it a shot. But I would preface my comments by saying that Im a realtive newcomer and Tapla and Rhizo are much more authoritative....

You probably messed up on the container mix. That's probably why the gurus didn't respond. You commited so many errors that it was not time effective to teach you the error of your ways.

I dont know if the fertilizer is too strong but my guess is no. But Im just now trying acers.

The problem will ultimately be poor drainage, at least according to the more experienmced people in this forum.

At least with respect to woody perennials, a relativlely coarse, largely inroganic media is probably better for your application. Search for Al's recipe and his pretty technical justifications. Again, I'm pretty new, but he and 'Rhizo' are big advocates of this approach. I'm smart enough to recognize when someone knows a lot more than me and I think they both do.

As for a remedial measure, I would defer to them becsuse I'm just starting to work with these plants. But good luck. They are beautiful.

My Japanese Maple was just planted in a cheap potting soil, with pine bark as mulch. It's in a self watering container.

The first year it didn't do very well... I don't know if that was due to the VERY hot summer, or the fact that the soil didn't have the right ratio of N-P-K.

It's doing much better now, but still has some brown spots on the leaves.

Next year, I hope to have enough money for trying Al's recipe, stuff like pine bark is really expensive here. One bag, that contained enough to mulch three containers, cost me around 20 US dollars (actually EVERYTHING is expensive, Copenhagen is the second most expensive city in the world).

Here is a link that might be useful: Al's recipe

I use the Miracle-Gro potting soil pretty much as is when putting my Japanese Maples in containers and they do just fine. On the other hand, it's SO dry here that you NEED something that retains a bit of moisture for anything that isn't endemic (Sagebrush...).

Lisa

I I planted a 7 foot JM with a 2 inch diameter trunk at the base, in a half barrel cedar pot with Miracle grow tree and shrub soil. I drilled plenty of extra holes for drainage, put in a good gravel layer, then a layer of dirt, then the root bulb, then dirt all around the sides. I topped it off with a good 2inch layer of mulch and put it on the deck with a water line to drip water it 1-2 times a day until it starts dripping on the patio below. We got a huge heat wave here and the deck was very hot with full sun. Leaves started to burn and curl, from above you can see the burns on the leaves better. I have since shaded it with its own umbrella for 2 weeks and it looks like it helped, there are plenty of happy undamaged leaves, but the burns are disturbing. I am wondering if I should just put it in the ground now in a nice spot, or wait on that and see how it does.

Thanks for your quick response to my question about my Japanese Maple "orangeola" . I will cut off the root and try to clear the drain hole today. If I can't get the pot to drain properly should i try "plan B"? Using a clear plastic cover worries me a bit because it might cause mildew.

Ideas?

Thanks,

Sylvia

Sylvia, I think you may have gotten your JM threads confused :-) Your question and the responses are in this thread: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/1385103/root-pruning-japanese-maples#n=6

Just an aside, but this can be a problem when resurrecting stale threads. It would have been better if you had started your own thread and then you'd get notifications of any replies.