Moon Fire Japanese Maple Bark

[BapaJon]

Hello,
We have several well established healthy Japanese Maples. However, one Moon Fire Japanese Maple seems to be deteriorating over the last few years. We lost a couple of middle branches last year and a couple in prior years. We are in zone 9 in California. I recently noticed issues with the bark on several branches. Please see the pics.
Can anyone tell me what is going on and perhaps how to fix this ... if it is fixable?
Thanks,
Jon

 

[Raintree]

Sunscald do to canopy decline.

 

[BapaJon]

Sunscald do to canopy decline.

Is it a goner? Or is there a chance of saving it?

 

[Raintree]

Don't know why it's missing half of the crown. If it's just a hack job prune it should recover. If the missing limbs were dead then the decline might be fungal. That would point to root collar, root zone and or soil issues.

 

[BapaJon]

I only pruned out the dead limbs for the most part. Someone in another forum mentioned wood borers... I did take some more pics. One of the pics looks like something is eating and leaving traces of sawdust.. kinda like when termites each into lumber. And today I did just notice some sort of fungi at one location.

 

[Raintree]

Something has stressed the tree, pictures just show the symptoms.
A few notes about Jap maples.
Short lived tree
Sensitive to weed killers
Root collar disorder is common
Once the tree starts to decline very difficult to recover.
In your case I would suspect verticillium killed off most of the crown.
Recommendation would be to remove and replace.

 

[BapaJon]

Something has stressed the tree, pictures just show the symptoms.
A few notes about Jap maples.
Short lived tree
Sensitive to weed killers
Root collar disorder is common
Once the tree starts to decline very difficult to recover.
In your case I would suspect verticillium killed off most of the crown.
Recommendation would be to remove and replace.

Our Moonfire Japanese Maple has continued to decline. It appears that wood borers or bark beetles are ravaging it. We are planning to replace it this fall.
We have several other Japanese maples in our yard. So far... they are all looking good and healthy. Can you recommend some sort of method to protect them from the same fate? Perhaps some sort of systemic?
Thanks