Is my Maple in trouble?

[Aussie Bloke Abroad]

I have a young maple (autumn blaze) which appears to be suffering from some disease which causes the leafs to turn black, from the edges into the center, eventually drying right out and dropping. Is this tar spot? It looks a little more extreme than some examples I've seen online. Is this tree in major trouble?

 

[ChanellG]

Where are you located? I'm not familiar with tar spot, but the weather this year in some places has put trees and shrubs under a lot of stress. You may want to contact a local nursery or the extension service where you are and bring in some leaves so someone can tell you for certain.

 

[Aussie Bloke Abroad]

Thanks ChanellG, I'm in Massachusetts (just updated my location on my forum profile). I will drop by my local nursery today and see what they say on the matter.

 

[Beth_B]

Hmm I looked up tar spot and remembered that years ago in a different house I had that on a sugar maple, but IIRC it was just one year, and I raked all the leaves thoroughly away and it never came back. But it didn't hurt the tree or make the leaves die and fall off.
Hopefully you'll get it figured out and it's nothing lethal, please post back what you find out! I have a couple of maples now and it's always handy to know what to look out for.
(I was born in Boston.)

 

[Corzhens]

I guess it is a pest that is a borer. There are flying insects that inject a tiny hole in the stem of the plant where they lay their eggs. That's what happened to our lemon tree which we neglected and died. The flowers in some branches started to wither and turn brown. When we discovered the problem, there were only a few branches left and the plant was not able to recover.

 

[Mint]

I am curious to find out what the local nursery adviced you about this. I am sure that if this is adressed well on time then your beautiful tree will be saved. Please keep us posted on this.