Tree Problems, Both Maple

[KnotPro]

We have two maple trees in our front yard. Both of them are maple trees. In picture number 1 you can see how they are positioned in relation to our house. The side of the house the trees are on is west. The 8 year old is towards the north while the 18 year old towards the south

The one on the left is 8 years old, while the one the right is 18 years old. the 18 year old (right) suffers from what I believe is leaf scorch. Something that I have found is that if you touch the leaves in the green stage, they fall off in your hands. If you wait until they are dead, they need to all, but be picked off. They will hold on past the winter, sometimes right through the first spring storm. If anyone can confirm, or has another opinion please let me know. You can see that it has had its growth stunted. Pictures 2-3 show the condition of the leaves.

In Picture number 1 the tree on the left (8 year old) has white sack like features that are no bigger that about the size of a pincil eraser to slightly bigger. they can be seen in pictures 4-5. Some times there are webs between two clusters, but I don't believe it is bagworm. If anyone has any idea please let me know.

A bit of background:

1. Both have a 6' diameter of mulch around theme. The mulch has been pulled away from the trunks.
2. The 18 year old was planted by hand (root ball). The 8 year old was purchased from a tree nursery. (Plug/tree spade)
3. The 18 year old had weed mat under it up untill 2 years ago. The 8 year old never had any.
4. We have not taken samples of the dirt or trees for testing. The soil is sandy in nature.
5. We have had a tree expert out and he has fertilized/injected.
6. As stated earlier both trees recieve west sun. The problem on the 18 year old can be found all over. The 8 year old just recently developed the problem. It can be seen on the east side right now.
7. They do recieve 1 hour of water per day when it is hot out, mainly the summer months. Trickle pace. (side note: sometimes it is every other day to prevent over-watering.)
8. We are considering water stakes that can be driven into the ground.
9. We have decided after some research that we are over-watering, therefore we are going to back off.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Pictures are below.

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[Raintree]

Your Silver Maple has cottony maple scale, these soft scales are easily controlled with treatments. Do this before they get out of control.

Your Norway with stunted growth, weak crown & leaf scorch symptoms has classic signs of being root bound. You need to get the root collar air spaded & see whats going on with it. Most likely it's too late to intervene but worth a try.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

If the proportion of discoloration is as little as shown in the photos, with so much leaf also unaffected, it seems inconsequential.

Some of that leaf margin discolor can just be due to a weather and temperature fluctuation and a bit of bacteria or fungus that was short-lived.

 

[KnotPro]

If the proportion of discoloration is as little as shown in the photos, with so much leaf also unaffected, it seems inconsequential.

Some of that leaf margin discolor can just be due to a weather and temperature fluctuation and a bit of bacteria or fungus that was short-lived.

This is the earliest that the tree has shown a problem, but it gets far worse through the summer. It seems that Raintree has a good idea with it being root bound.

I will see if I can get a picture when it is worse off for confermation.

Edit #1: we also didn't have a bad winter last year(2011-2012). We have had a lot of wind, so much so that we have lost one of our weaker trees.(not one of the above mentioned)