Dark and Dying leaves on Japanese Maple

[dunha2j]

Hey all, I live in Northern Michigan and have a Japanese bonsai tree. I've had it since Spring so this'll be my first year taking care of a bonsai tree over the winter.

I keep it outside so far, as it has not gotten super cold up here yet.

Lately it's leaves have turned a darker red, but most of them have not fallen off yet. Additionally some of the leaves have started to turn black.

Around me, most of the trees have lost their leaves, so I wasn't sure if this was normal?

 

[Dav4]

100% normal.

 

[Shibui]

looks normal to me as well.
Losing leaves depends on lots of factors, including temperature. Your tree in a pot, and I guess, close to the house is probably more protected, better watered, etc which probably accounts for the late leaf colour change.
I'd guess the black is the final change as the dying leaves start to degrade, even though they are not yet on the ground.

Do you have any reason to believe the tree may not be OK, other than the leaf colours? The reason for asking is that very occasionally, trees that die close to leaf drop don't get around to abscission (cutting off supply to the leaf so that it falls). In those cases the leaves usually just turn brown but don't drop.
Chances are everything is normal. I'd give it a couple more weeks to see what happens. I don't think there's anything you can do at this stage anyway.

 

[dunha2j]

looks normal to me as well.
Losing leaves depends on lots of factors, including temperature. Your tree in a pot, and I guess, close to the house is probably more protected, better watered, etc which probably accounts for the late leaf colour change.
I'd guess the black is the final change as the dying leaves start to degrade, even though they are not yet on the ground.

Do you have any reason to believe the tree may not be OK, other than the leaf colours? The reason for asking is that very occasionally, trees that die close to leaf drop don't get around to abscission (cutting off supply to the leaf so that it falls). In those cases the leaves usually just turn brown but don't drop.
Chances are everything is normal. I'd give it a couple more weeks to see what happens. I don't think there's anything you can do at this stage anyway.

Thanks for the reply! I don't have any other reason to believe the tree isn't okay other than the leaves. Some of the leaves have fallen off by themselves, but most have not yet.

I'll follow your advice and keep my on it for a few weeks

 

[Frogman777]

Hey mate, had this happen recently to some of my maples - obviously starting off you want to make sure no direct sun as (in my experience) maples prefer indirect/filtered light. If it loses leaves, my suggestion would be to trim off as I did this and the regrowth was generally good across both maples this happened with - however, happy for someone to say I’m wrong.

Best of luck! It’s a beautiful tree.