There is no way a pre-emergent herbicide can distinguish between weeds and what we may consider non-weeds. They are simply all broadleafed plants and the effect should be the same. That's why it is not recommended to use pre-emergents where you will be sowing seeds or allowing self-sown seeds to germinate. I would attempt using Preen or some other pre-emergent before I'd resort to RoundUp, even in clear areas under the tree canopy. There is some evidence that repeated use of RoundUp across a tree's root system can have damaging effects. I realize you may be dealing with a great many seedlings, but I'd recommend manual removal over and above anything else. I deal with freely seeding maples myself and understand what a PITA it is to get rid of them. Raking up the samaras when they fall would be my first step. The less of these that remain on the ground, the less germination that will take place and many fewer seedlings to deal with.

Japanese maples are by nature woodland understory trees so all would prefer at least some shade...typically during the hottest part of the day. Yes, some can and will tolerate full sun but it is not their preference and their performance and appearance is often affected by that. And I would say that excess sun when leafing out is likely the cause of your maple's current appearance. As to a cultivar ID, good luck!! There are just too many and with a similar appearance to be even remotely accurate. Even the JM authorities are reluctant to pin down an ID unless the tree is exhibiting characteristics that may be unique to that cultivar. And this one does not, sorry.

I apologize for the delay in responding to say ”thank you” to those of you that spent time to post helpful comments. I was a little thrown off when I initially came back to my post - and also wasn’t feeling well (was in hospital for a couple days). While I started participating on the interior home design/renovation areas of Houzz about 1 1/2 years ago, I only started reading through posts related to gardening and landscaping for about two weeks. One of the things I really liked about spending time in this new area was how respectful/helpful everyone was - it seemed to be very different than over on the other topics. While there are many helpful/respectful/thoughtful comments posted over there, there are also snarky/overly critical - and sometimes rude - comments posted over there fairly often. Many people are extremely hesitant to post questions - and even more hestitant to post actual photos of their homes/interior rooms/floor plans due to the remarks that are posted. Sometimes I have to take breaks from over there because it can be stressful! And stress is a huge aggravating factor for my health issues. I do have some other questions related to my backyard, but thought I should just start off with the post about my JM in order to see how that went! LOL! ANYWAY - I have just recently been feeling physically able to spend time/effort for anything related to landscaping/gardening (I was actually bedridden for 4 years - which is part of the reason why I was absent from my home for so long). Prior to the weather becoming so HOT, spending time out on my new patio in the morning/early afternoon reading/listening to music was really enjoyable and relaxing. I’ve always loved plants/flowers/trees/nature in general - but do not have any special knowledge in this area. Now that I’ve had work done in my front and back yards (and have been feeling better - except for the past few days), I’d really like to start learning how to take care of my landscaping + additional planters. @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) - I knew that the bed was being watered every morning at around 5 a.m. - I only discovered that it was for a 5 min session the night before I decided to post my dilemma. I wasn’t sure exactly how much to adjust this based upon the fact that the area never received any additional watering before. I am going to use an actual sprinkler in that area - how long should i let it run in order to give it enough of a deep watering? Since the JM reveives eastern sun exposure - what time of day would be best for me to do this? I really was upset when I saw how much of the canopy had been removed. I assumed that some would be removed, and then additional amounts would be removed later as appropriate in order to slowly reduce the size. However, my SO handled this for me as a favor - he hired a professional to do the work (I need to find out what exact ”type” of professional was engaged to do the work). I thought that since the ”wounds” (not sure if that’s the correct terminology) had healed up since it had almost been two years - but since I am new to this, I am just learning. QUESTION - is there any way to determine if it is verticillium wilt? Or do I just have to wait and see?

I have been in the hospital over the past few days - and forgot about this post - until I came home last evening. @L Clark (zone 4 WY) - When I took photos of the twigs (or should I say, ”tried” to take close up photos) - my phone camera kept focusing on things in the background instead of the twigs/potential buds. I will take some more photos. I could bend them - they did not snap/break. I will take some additional photos: 1. I will place a piece of white paper behind the twig/buds so my auto focus won’t decide on its own what should be ”in focus” (I did try by touching the correct portion of the screen that I wanted it to focus on - but it didn’t help much apparently), and 2. I will take a photo from farther away - so, the tree itself can be seen as a whole. @ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 - This house is in a suburb of Kansas City - Leawood, KS (I split time - back here is where my daughters + siblings + nieces nieces/nephews live. I apologize - I should have included my area in order for everyone to know what zone is applicable (I wasn’t feeling well - so, not entirely thinking clearly). I was hoping that no one was going to direct me to make more ”scrapes” - I felt bad for ”injuring” my tree! I’ve had this JM since he was a little baby - planted 26 years ago (never thought I’d still own this house to see him get this old!). I felt bad about making the two scrapes - and only did so because every post I read on here where someone asked about whether their JM was alive/dead, the OP was asked about whether he/she did this in order to take a look underneath the bark. @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) - I will post some additional photos that I included in a post from last summer when I was concerned about how JM was dropping leaves last summer (I think it was late July/early August). I truly appreciate your help/input!