AusBonsai

Hey everyone
The new growth on one of my trees doesn't seem right
Hackimoto identified it as a Sapium sebiferum
Any help would be appreciated

Cheers
Matt

Looks like it could be a fungal problem. (check to see there are no aphids hiding in the curled leaves as these sometimes cause similar distortion) I see similar leaf distortion on Chinese elm, plums and crabapple occasionally. Trident maples had something similar a few years ago. Some people treated with heavy duty fungicide and believe that cured the problem. I did not treat with anything and it has not occurred in tridents here since then either.
Your options are to try a fungicide or just and hope it clears up.

Where are you keeping it? And do you wet the foliage regularly? My guess is you're keeping it under cover and you only water the soil. It could be a bad case of Red Spider Mite or Two Spotted Mite if you are not wetting the foliage. Mites thrive in a dry warm environment. Foliage should be wet regularly to cut down on their numbers.

shibui wrote:Looks like it could be a fungal problem. (check to see there are no aphids hiding in the curled leaves as these sometimes cause similar distortion) I see similar leaf distortion on Chinese elm, plums and crabapple occasionally. Trident maples had something similar a few years ago. Some people treated with heavy duty fungicide and believe that cured the problem. I did not treat with anything and it has not occurred in tridents here since then either.
Your options are to try a fungicide or just and hope it clears up.

thanks for the reply shibui
i had a look in some of the "curled" leaves but i could not find anything i did see a tiny tiny black bug running around it kinda looked like a flea?
i wouldn't have thought it was a fungal problem i found this tree on august the 31st completely bear rooted not even a speck of soil on it
so i just assumed it had to do with that
i originally posted the tree in this topic viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12811 if you wanted to see a photo of the root ball?

Hackimoto wrote:Where are you keeping it? And do you wet the foliage regularly? My guess is you're keeping it under cover and you only water the soil. It could be a bad case of Red Spider Mite or Two Spotted Mite if you are not wetting the foliage. Mites thrive in a dry warm environment. Foliage should be wet regularly to cut down on their numbers.

thanks for the reply hack
you have it spot on
i keep it under a large dense cypress which is on the west side so it only gets morning to some of the midday sun i wanted to keep it protected after collecting and the foliage heads towards the cypress so i don't really water the foliage
i have now moved it so it gets full sun i watered the foliage heavily to try and wash any bugs away and gave it a white oil

Keep us posted as to how any new growth develops. Make sure that you wash the majority of the oil off before strong sun hits it or it could burn badly.