FIRST... YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL WATERING THIS YEAR .... insert your finger to the second knuckle and water deeply when the soil at the root level starts to warm or dry ... superficial watering will not do ... and provide a 4 to 6 foot ring of good mulch ... to a depth of about 3 inches.. once it settles... keeping it off the bark ... SECOND ... is it possible that what you are seeing is the tree growing its bark from a juvenile to mature type of bark .. without a picture ... it is hard for me to say ... it would answer that as the trunk matures and swells.. from the bottom up .. that this might be happening... very familiar to me on oaks... so smooth and grey in youth.. moving .. from the ground up into the cragly bark of an older tree ... but you say the thing was thriving... before you moved it anyway ... PLEASE DONT HARM THE THING with too much love.. trying to fix a problem that really isnt there ... and stop scratching the limbs... you did your test.. i know you are anxious.. but too many wounds MIGHT end up worse than just allowing some patience .. you will know.. soon enough.. if it will make it through spring ... good luck ken

These are great trees in north Texas, but Ken is spot on about dealing with poor weak branching as they grow - this is a characteristic of these trees. Once they get above 20ft or so, they're pretty good about maintaining a nice oval crown on their own... other than trimming the occasional rubbing branches or "whips" that grow out from the bottom of larger limbs. We have a lot of these in our part of Dallas which suffered little, if any, damage from the ice storms last winter that tore up a lot of our oaks. My impression is that any reputation for weakness is more likely due to poor branching that was not rectified when the trees were young. There's also a germ of truth in all of the other objections, so here are some thoughts from our selection and experience with our tree: Invasiveness ("produces seedlings") - A legitimate concern in some parts of the country. Nursery industry has dealt with it by producing cloned males. If you bought your tree from a major grower within the last 15 years, I suspect it's most likely male. This is probably the major strike in the male vs female debate. Seems the strength of any arguments for cutting down established female trees would depend a lot on their locations (urban lot vs natural park space, etc.). Male vs female - Main arguments for female are the berries, which are attractive while on the tree, and less pollen than the males. Main argument for male is no potentially invasive berries - which probably trumps most other considerations. However, male flowers put out a LOT of pollen, so some concern has been raised over risk of increasing problems for those with sensitivity if/as usage of this tree grows. Trashiness - Does not seem that different to me from several other common trees and less than others: pollen is a problem over parked cars, flower/fruit/leaf debris are problems over driveways and pools, etc. Consistency/duration of fall color - Not one you mentioned, but something we've seen. There's a lot of variability among the trees in our neighborhood. Some don't ever reach that vivid red, some drop their leaves within a few days of the color change, and others seem to hold onto a good portion of their vibrant red leaves for weeks. Someone planting this tree for a great fall display could be disappointed... even if the tree is otherwise beautiful. Planting a known named cultivar is not an absolute guarantee, but can improve the odds of good fall color.

no pic.. no opinion ... no one can diagnose deficiencies.. in LATE FALL ... they are deciduous .. arent they??? and if they are.. why not just shutting down for winter??? no soil amendments.. unless you have a soil test done.. or at a min.. talk to your county extension office ... they MIGHT know offhand.. ken

There are definitely reasons to intervene in a young tree's structure. I'm not at all saying never do anything. Heck, I myself have probably pruned tens or even hundreds of thousands of trees in my time. But in this case-and others like it-it may be helpful to realize the two great factors controlling where and how trees grow; First is phototropism, the tendency for plants to grow towards the light source, which in the great outdoors is, of course, the sun. So, you will see trees along rivers bending way out to grow where there's sunlight. Why don't these trees-trees with actual very "crooked" trunks-fall over? Because of the adjustments they make to gravity. It's unnatural for a tree to not simply grow straight up, so when the first force-phototropism causes them to do so, they have to make adjustments. These adjustments consist of the formation of a different wood type-reaction wood-which for the sake of brevity enables the plant to hold itself up. The second factor you may want to investigate is the way trees grow; If you can, imagine (under the bark) a new tree growing over the "old" tree each growing season, like a kid's toy where one piece nests inside the other. Because of this, new wood layers are under no obligation to retain that squiggle. They will, in time, bury that business deep inside. I'ma leave it there for now or I'll end up writing another book. But hopefully this makes some sense. And best of all for me in this thread-I got to use the word squiggle, repeatedly!