Pics will really help! Josh

Hi firstyear & price403- After a little Googling, it looks like you are right. Yeah, I realize they're not that big of a deal (which is why I haven't worried about them too much), I just like to understand what's going on. Great, now I have Rasperry Crown Borer, and Raspberry Cane Borer! Anyway, thanks for the ID! Hopefully this is also joberry's problem as well. If not, sorry for hijacking the thread! -Glenn

The warmer your winters are, the glossier the leaves. In Texas , Hackberry is a whole different plant in the valley and on the coast from what it looks like in Dallas. They are much taller,. The leaves are darker and glossier. The bark has beautiful light patches and the leaves drape in longer streams off the branches. I have hackberry and it is much smaller and brushier. Leaves are almost scratchy in comparison. You definitely need to move it away from your house. Maybe 20'. It will hurt your foundation. Branches will brush up against your building.

I see a whole lot of things done wrong in the initial planting and also respectively disagree with much of the advice given here making the problem worse. Further more I believe you'll cause more problems digging up and replanting it, including killing the tree. Initial planting, problem 1: The burlap should have been removed, the ball given a water bath with a hose to remove most of the non-native soil from the exterior of the root ball and nudging out the roots and breaking up the ball a little, it won't harm the tree but don't cut them. Problem 2: Adding any non native soil is wrong, especially in clay soil. This will create a bathtub effect where the amended soil will quickly fill with water during a rain only to be held back by the slower draining native soil. (Could of happened from the soil in the root ball when you removed it the first time.) Also when the roots come in contact with the finely textured less aerated native soil they will circle, just as they do in a pot. Leaving the burlap on and adding better soils are myths creating more problems than they fix. I suggest finding out what you're planting the tree in. you've stated it's clay but at what level, light, heavy? The water meter won't tell you how well water percolates down, or the type of soil, and clay isn't bad to have with 20% clay considered the perfect amount. Before doing anything else do a percolation test and grade your soil with these two simple tests. Dig two holes where you did not disturb the soil outside the drip line of the tree. Go a foot down and six inches in diameter, fill with water and let it drain until empty. Then fill the hole up again with water than time how long it takes to percolates down and drain. If it takes more then 4 hours to empty you have a drainage problem, less then 4 hours, so so and 3 hours your drainage is fine. Also take a glass jar and fill it 1/4 full with the dirt from the bottom of the holes you dug. Fill with water, shake well and let stand until clear. It may take a day to a week to clear depending on the clay's particle size. This will show you the ratio of clay to silt and sand. Clay with be the top layer, silt the middle and sand at the bottom. for simplicity anything above 30% clay on the top is considered clay soil and the longer it takes to clear means smaller clay particle size and the worst clay to have. What I recommend at this point depends on the drainage. Good drainage and I would say let the tree be. Establishment will take longer but the roots will eventuality move out of it's artificial safe zone and the tree with be fine. Bad drainage based on the percolation test would require option 2, a berm, but I do not believe it is necessary. Removing the tree will be a challenge of its own. Dogwoods hate to be moved, and you will need to dig 8" to 12" on each side of the tree for every inch in trunk diameter. 1" requires a 16" to24" dig. Yours looks to be about 2" so a 32" to 48" dig is needed and I'm telling you now it isn't easy. You can try to see if the root ball is confined to a tight little safe zone by grabbing the trunk at chest high and moving it side to side. If its root bound it will fill loose, almost like you could pull it out if it hasn't anchored. After a year the roots should have grown at least to the branch spread and in another year twice the distance, also most water/nutrients for a dogwood come from the first 6" in the ground. Is it spongy by the tree when walking on the ground? Dogwoods have sallow roots and why they're so intolerant to drought/lack of water. Do the perk test, do the shake test, but IMO the tree will be fine by next year.