I have a sunset maple tree that I have had for about 9 years now. I live in Idaho and the tree has been doing wonderful until this year. What is happening is that 60% of the branches have no leaves and I think they are dead. None of the top branches have any leaves at all. I have been giving the tree plenty of water and I put on some save a tree that the green house gave me. Last year each branch grew about 2-3 feet. I am not sure what happened to it. We did not have a lot of snow cover this year and temperatures fluctuated quit a bit. Our lowest was about -5 for a one week period.

If I look really close at the bark, it looks like I can see some little cracks. Not sure if this is normal or not.

Any suggestions? Leave the branches with no leaves on them until next year?

Thanks