I have finally got most of my silver maple's leaves to be green, but I fear it will be an ongoing battle.

I almost have to keep mine, because it's the only shade to speak of. But if I were just starting with a tree and already seeing chlorosis, I wouldn't even try (although I think I'm going to have to plant another magnolia, even though I know I'm asking for trouble--my daughter insists that we "need" one, and I can be such a dad sometimes).

If the amur is a maple that doesn't get too big, you might be able to get by with occasional doses of "acid-loving" plant food, or iron chelate. If you're using the iron chelate in the soil, it needs to be EDDHA. The EDTA works as a foliar spray, but you can't spray once it gets hot or the leaves will burn (the yellow leaves I have are burning in the heat, anyway, but an iron spray makes it worse).

It is possible to get a maple to have green leaves, but I used 50 lbs of sulfur last fall and spring, and I'll probably use another 50 lbs this fall and spring. What seems to have helped the most was buying a bulb augur for my drill, drilling holes and filling them within a few inches of the top with sulfur and then covering them back up. The grass filled in, so I can't see where the holes were, but I suspect that this will be a once or twice yearly event for me.

Thanks BP, I was hoping you'd weigh in because I remember your silver maple woes. The Rocky Mountain and Big Tooth maples that I planted at the same time are doing very well as you'd expect since they're native but I also planted a Sugar Maple that I'm worrying about since it's not native. If I have chlorisis problems with that I'll try and save it, but I'm afraid the Amur is going to go.

I'm not sure why you'd afford the silver maple more leeway than the amur, except for the fact that it's not chlorotic. Yet.

Chlorosis is odd. I have a neighbor with a couple of aspens planted within a few feet of each other. One is probably going to die, because he does nothing for it. The other is thriving.

If I were you, I'd probably spread a couple of pounds of soil sulfur around the silver maple every year. Maybe that will keep the soil acidic enough.

I'm a bit skeptical, but the organic proponents on the soil forum claim that if we add enough organic matter, the soil tends to neutral. I'm willing to give it a shot.

Why the difference? I paid $150 for one and the other was free!

That's a significant difference!

A maple with scented flowers and red-winged samaras? I'm sure keeping mine!

I like Amur and would make an effort to keep it. I don't know your efforts in keeping the other maples from chlorosis, so excuse me if I repeat.

Excess manure results in salts.....so beware those have to be leached out. Getting a nice "permanent" organic layer on top (nothing lasts forever in the aird west) would help but means near constant organic ammendments. I think of it as mini sheet composting.

I have the best success with troublesome trees by putting down several 18-24 inch sections of PVC pipe with holes drilled into much like a sewer pipe (I've found sewer pipes' holes are a bit too large) at, within, and outside of the drip line and then packing them with granular soil acidifiers and a balanced fertilizer. Of course the fertilizer only goes in during the early season........as the leaves settle on their mature size. The iron can go in anytime, but does better early season. One year's treatment usually lasts about 2 years.

Amur suffers from hot sun and drying winds like the rest of the maples, so keep it out of wind blasted areas.

Help me understand this....

The tree is now putting out healthy leaves. The old sickly yellow leaves with green veins are browning away and the new ones are dark green and perfect looking. Could it be that it got too much water during the Spring?

Too much water can cause chlorosis, particularly in heavy clay soil with its poor drainage.

Typically, if you have problems with iron intake, the new leaves are the most prone to yellowing, so if the new leaves are coming in are green, that's probably a good sign.

After some of the comments on how nice the Amur is, maybe it's worth trying to save after all. I'm intrigued by the idea of putting down pipes for the sulfur. I bought a bulb augur this spring and drilled holes, then filled them to within a few inches of the surface with sulfur, then filled them back in with the "soil" that had been there before. Putting pipes in would be similar, but would give a permanent hole for the sulfur.

Last fall, I also put quite a bit of sulfur down, and even dug some holes with a post-hole digger and filled them with a mixture of sufur, coffee grounds, and clay. But there's too much gravel, so that was too much work. However, I think that helped with the spring greening.

I only had a little yellowing this year, and most of those leaves have since turned green instead of burning and falling, so I think the sulfur I added this spring has kicked in.

I've also been putting a lot of Starbucks grounds on the lawn. Coffee grounds aren't very acidic (although coffee is), but they do add organic matter to the soil, and adding something that is neutral will at least bring the soil closer to neutral. Also, anecdotal evidence is that worms love the grounds. Increasing the worm population should help aerate the soil and improve drainage.

If I were you, I think I'd check the pH of the soil around the Amur. If it isn't horribly high, you may be able to save the tree without as much work as it took me for my silver maple. Also, now that my silver maple is no longer a yellow maple, I realize that it can be done, so I'm more hopeful. I think that especially if you start now, and use the bulb augur approach to get the sulfur deeper into the soil, you should be able to get and keep a healthy tree.

Good luck. And keep us posted on how it works out for you.