I don't know anything about gardening but I have a small patch of gravel out front where I like to keep some potted plants. My acer's leaves came back healthy after winter but as you can see it isn't doing too good now. I thought the crispy leaves might be because I let it dry out (I was ill for a couple weeks when we had some dry, sunny weather), but looking at the base I noticed this white stuff: https://i.imgur.com/2qc87P3.jpeg, not sure if it's scale or something else? Any ideas what I can do? I see a fair number of tiny bugs and ants in the soil but I'm not sure what's normal. I'm located in the UK, if that matters.
Yeah. It might only regrow very small leaves this year, but as long as it has its regular needs met, it ought to be fine next year (barring anything weird these guys do that I don't know about).