Knowledgebase
Maple Tree Not Budding #864757
Asked April 16, 2024, 2:33 PM EDT
My maple tree is producing very few, and small, buds. It is currently April 16, 2024. The same occurred last year, but to a lesser extent. Last year the tree produced a small volume of leaves, and I suspect the same may occur this year. There is a significant amount of what I believe is lichen growth on the trunk. I pruned a number of branches 2 years ago. I took a sample of the end of a limb within the past week, and I observed green growth. I am in the city of Saint Clair. Do you have any information or suggestions that you can offer? Thank you in advance.
St. Clair County Michigan
Expert Response
The lichen doesn't concern me so much, it's pretty common to have lichen on a tree trunk.
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/what_are_lichens_and_what_are_they_doing_on_my_tree
You should start to see flowing on your maple flowering right about now and then leafing out soon after. Since yours is not, there may be an issue but it's hard to tell from these photos. There are two common leaf diseases maples can get in Michigan, anthracnose and maple leaf blister, but they do not typically kill the tree.
If it were me, I'd send us some more photos if and when leaf out happens with this tree to see if we can drill down further on what may be going on. If we still don't have a good idea of what may be the issue, you could send a tissue sample into our diagnostic lab to be analyzed: https://www.canr.msu.edu/pestid/index.
There are some other diseases maples can get that are more serious, but you'd see wounding, oozing and cankers associated with something like that, so I'd just want to see how the tree develops this season to give us some more clues as to what may be going on.
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/common-disease-pests-of-maple-in-north-carolina
You may simply have an abiotic issue, meaning that it's not disease-related, but the tree is failing to thrive due to some other environmental factor or combination of factors. Maybe it's not getting enough (or too much) water, fertilizer, light, etc. and that's impacting it's growth. Maples have a very shallow root system compared to many other trees, so sometimes even compaction of the root zone area around the tree can cause issues. Unfortunately, there's no straightforward answer I can give you at this time. Having some leaf tissue later on could be helpful for diagnosing though!
