Questioning Buds and Shoots

[BonsaiEngineer1493]

Hello,

I noticed something unfamiliar on my two maples. My first maple has a blueish shoot. My second maple has dry greyish looking swollen buds (possibly dead). I'm concerned if this is something I should worry about. Can you guys please share you knowledge

First two pictures are the blue shoot and the rest are buds.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[edprocoat]

I am not familiar with maples but have you recently painted anything blue near you tree? It really looks like a paint drip on the branch, its just a really unnatural color of blue.

ed

 

[bonsaibp]

The blue looks to be some foreign substance not part of the plant. The others its hard to tell from the photo-but you can scrape off one bud if its green underneath your ok, if not......

 

[Dav4]

I agree, looks like blue paint or something similar. As far as the other maple, I've found that when maple branches die, the cambium dries out and the bark shrivels...and you can see the wrinkles as they run longitudinally along the branch. Fwiw, I wouldn't worry as there isn't really anything you can do except continue to overwinter it properly and hope it wakes up come April. Good luck.

 

[aphid]

The one in the yellow pot looks like a couple of mine that didn't wake up last spring. I was expirimenting with different soils and containers. The ones that died were in big wooden barrels that evidently didn't drain well enough.