Silver Maple Not Growing Well

20 years ago

2 years ago I planted two silver maples. One was a sapling that I doug up. It has huge leaves but all of the characteristics of a silver maple, is now 10 feet tall. The other I bought at Lowes it was about 6 feet when I purchased it, the idea was to get a head start, I needed shade. 2 years later the one from Lowes is now shorter than the other, its 7-8 ft. It is approximately 30 feet from the other one that is doing so well. The leaves on the shorter one are smaller and lighter green, it has grown 1 foot this year so far, the other has grown 3 feet.

Does it sound like this tree is diseased? Why is it growing so slow compared to the other one in the same soil>

Thanks

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Comments (5)

myersphcf
20 years ago
Silver maples are not prone to disease at least in my area ...but anything is possible ...more likely a lack of something in the soil of where the smaller one has been planted or it may just be a genetically slower tree...every tree is differnt especially if seed grown. Although silvers are universally fast growing ..Most folks grow 'em shade size but have planted other more suitable shade trees nearby which i would suggest you do immidiately then when the 'good' trees are large enough they cut the silvers out...cause silver maples are cruddy trees ...soft wood ( ie: falling branches)...no fall color ...a basic non descript tree that grows fast but is basically worthless other than fast shade...they also spead everwhere with their seeds that seem to be more abundant than sugar maples or red maples IMHO...So get going and get some more suitable shade trees started asap ;>) David
carterobrien
20 years ago
it might just be taking longer to establish, although the lighter colored leaves do seem to suggest it's not getting enough nutrients.

I agree you should try and plant some longer-term trees, I hope these aren't too near your house as falling limbs will eventually be a problem.
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mattfox82
Original Author
20 years ago
I looked closely at the leaves of each tree today. The healthy one has large healthy nice green leaves, the other one has brown spots on it. This almost makes me not want to buy another tree from a store, the other one I transplanted.

I had seen that Hybrid Poplars are extremely fast growing, however I have a well on the property, I wonder if those would be worse than silver maples as far as the roots tapping into water. I would be concerned with the roots breaking the well casing and messing something up there. Of course a silver maple could do that. Anyone know much about the Hybrid Poplars?
myersphcf
20 years ago
I personaaly don't like poplars.... for wind breaks maybe.....for shade NO ...maybe the hybrids are differnt I just don't know about them ...In my experience ...regulat populars are NOT long lived either and a row of them alwauys seems to have about 1/3 dead trees within just a few years...As I said maybe the hybrids are differnt ...go to daves and look under plant files and read the feed back http://davesgarden.com/pf/
radagast
20 years ago
Hybrid poplars are worse than silver maples. At least with silver maples, they'll live a while before dying back (I've seen plenty of 30 to 40 year old silver maples in decent shape, even though they are not long-lived). The hybrid poplars will fail in a considerably shorter timeframe.