# Japanese Maple + Neem oil = Very Bad



## ej24 (Jun 5, 2016)

Hello all,

I've posted this on other gardening and horticulture forums and nobody had any real advice so I figured I'd try here.

I recently had spider mites and root aphids attacking a small, ~5 year old Japanese maple (grown from a seed) in a ~25 gallon pot. The new growth was beginning to wilt pretty bad so I decided to do something about it before it started dropping leaves. I don't like overly toxic pesticides so I figured the usual Neem Oil would take care of it. Well it wilted worse. So I figured, hell I'll spray it again every other day until I wipe out the insects. It wilted worse. It was at this point I realized Japanese maple might be one of those _few _plants that simply can't tolerate Neem. Unfortunately I was right.

I doused it with fresh water every day (it's very well draining pot) to wash it as best as I could. Alas it dropped every damn leaf. No insects anymore, also no tree...

It's been about a month. No new growth. No new buds. No signs of life.

Most branches have turned grey and dry so I know they're dead. However, I noticed the lower half of the trunk is still dark. I slight scratch of the bark still yields green flesh below. So in a last ditch effort to save the tree could I coppice it? Do Japanese maples tolerate coppicing? Do I have any options? I'd really like to save the tree.


----------



## ej24 (Jun 5, 2016)

Sorry, I realize now I meant to post this in the Help Forum


----------

