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I’ve got a red maple tree that grew like crazy the first 4 years or so. The last two years it is going down hill. We’ve had 2 crappy drought years with extreme heat, but especially this year I’ve watered regularly around the whole canopy. Also used slow release fertilizer. The leaves are small, yellow and getting dry. Any tree expert advice?

My only suggestion would be to throw the water to it and mulch heavily around the base to hold the moisture in.

Sounds like iron chlorosis, if you live in an area with alkaline soils, iron becomes unavailable:


https://denvertrees.com/treeology/p...e-and-oak-trees-in-the-denver-metro-area

I have a couple, they are ok, need more rain

This. You can throw nearly every nutrient in the book at them, but if the pH won’t allow the tree to absorb the nutrients, then it won’t help. Some good tips, there.

Google
“Root Collar Excavation”
And
“Girdling Root Removal”

Can be moderated by mulching and incorporating compost and other organic material into the soil. Use an air spade.

If you need to add Mn or Fr to alkaline soils, you need a chelated form. It is the high pH that binds those two nutrients in particular to the soil, and away from the tree roots.

Best thing people can do for their trees is mulch the soil around them and keep and exposed root collar.

OP should include pictures.

If it’s anywhere near a drain field or concrete slab let it die.. if it ain’t dyin then kill it...

Agree!

Good advice below, I would first get a soil test to determine PH etc...Like the quote from another member correct PH is needed for nutients to be to be absorbed. A reduced leaf size is a very good indicator that the tree is not "Happy" so to speak. It will be a process of elimination, It could be buried, so a root collar excavation would help, also Maples are known to get a girdling root but most times it effects one side of the canopy (use caution when cutting out a girdling root..if it a large root you can further the dimise of the tree by taking it out all at once)Sometimes it is better option to cut away part or the root that is pressing up against the truck cutting off nutrient flow....come back next season and cut away the other half giving the tree time to adjust.
Who planted the tree, was the burlap / synthetic twine removed/ wire cage cut way down ? Lastly google Verticillium Wilt. Hope this helps

It may be something as simple as grub worms, I’ve had it happen a few times. Throw down some grubex. If it is that, they will devour your root system..

I've forgotten about 96% of what I learned about soils, but I do remember that chelated iron is a possible solution for iron deficiency problems in alkaline soils. There may be more that needs to be addressed, though.

A good thing to do is to determine whether you're seeing a deficiency of a mobile or immobile nutrient before taking action. When there is an immobile nutrient deficiency, the newer growth won't look right. If it's a mobile nutrient, the new growth will rob the old growth for its own benefit...a good way to eliminate half (or just a certain class) of the nutrients that could be the problem. Unfortunately I do not recall where iron falls in the scheme of things, but I'm sure you could easily find out.

Thanks for all the good advice. I think I have a pH tester I got for the garden one time. I’ll start with that and then follow up on some of the other advice. Appreciate it

Planted a couple silver leaf maples years ago. Pretty tree that grew fast. It was short lived and fell on my boat. I hate maples now.

I had a sunset maple with the same symptoms a couple of years after I planted it.
The problem turned out to be too much mulch although the mulch wasn't that thick.

Have a very large Red Maple in our back yard. Was just a sapling when we first bought this house back in early '90s. Good shade tree but now that it's full grown and dealing with it's shortcomings -- 'helicopter' seeds covering everything in the spring, constantly picking up dropped dead twigs and small limbs, toe stubbing, lawn mower blade crashing surface roots -- I wish I'd have removed and replaced it with something else and preferably not other Maple. The full grown limbs are so long now they are susceptible to snapping in high wind and under heavy snow and freezing rain/ice load.


As always, though, ...YMMV

It sounds like root encirclement. I lost a maple to this as well. When the tree was planted did you let the roots dangle down into the hole before you pushed in the dirt? Also, did you landscape around the tree ? Did you plant the tree too deep ?

I lost mine because the roots were shallow and grew around the base of the tree. The tree was also landscaped. It had black plastic above the roots with decorative stones over the plastic. All of the roots went to the top right under the plastic and crew around the circumference of the base of tree. The tree was 25 years old when it died. I kept it alive for the last 5 years watering it and trimming it because I did not know what was going on.

If I'd of been smart I would of ripped off the stones and plastic and cut the offending roots before they finally took the tree. Unfortunately, I was about 5 years too late. I was not the person who planted the tree.

kwg

Get a 6 gallon drywall mud pail and drill a 1/8" hole in the bottom. Put the pail next to the trunk and fill it with water twice a day.