I'm still here, there just been a wholeeeee lot of life in the way the last couple weeks. bdrusse, This looks pretty normal to me for a first year spring planted maple tree in the open. I see this allot in the area on Red and Sugar maples. It varies some with cultivar (i.e. Legacy seems to adjust a bit better than some of the others), but that is just a gross generalization. We have two Sugar Maples. One Commemoration and the other Fall Fiesta. The Commemoration was planted toward late spring, and eventually developed substantial leaf burn. Eventually I ended up use gallon jugs (about 1.5 gallons of water) with a pin size hole to water slowly every other day through the worst and driest part of summer. That prevented the burn from getting any worse, and the following year, it was fine with normal size leaves. The Fall Fiesta was planted in the fall. The following growing season leaves were near normal size, was some very moderate growth, and no burn occurred during summer. All of which is to say your tree looks about as expected for the circumstances for the amount of time it had to grow roots before leafing. It simply can not support more until there is an increase in root mass. IMHO the burn you are seeing is due to the hot and windy days we have had for the last month, and not enough root mass as of yet. Our Sugar Maples have been frosted almost every year (I live in a cold spot) to as low as 21-22 degrees, and have not suffered apparent freeze damage, so I don't think that was the problem. Just keep taking good care of it, and it should be fine next season. And in way of FYI, don't expect fall color this year, and you probable won't have allot next either. It takes a few years after planting for them to develop something like color. Three years for our Commemoration, and last year our Fiesta appeared as though it would have, but high very dry winds destroyed the show. Also be aware there is one flush of growth a year in the spring. Mine start in mid-April, and shoot elongation is done by 3-4 weeks, thought the leaves aren't yet fully mature. Lastly, leaf size varies with cultivar. The leaves of our Fiesta are significantly larger than the Commemoration. Do you know if and what cultivar you bought? Almost looks like Commemoration to me, but it's only a guess. Arktrees

Thanks mntg! That's nice to know. I just happened to run across one of my friends that particular day and he offered that we go over to his dads old place and look for a tree. The larger trees were starting to turn colors but the smaller ones, under that canopy, weren't. I realized by the way the leaves wilted a few days after transplanting, without any color change, that I possibly could lose this tree. Then because I had trouble with some of my other trees getting planted too deep, I disturbed this one again last spring by raising it a few inches in the hole. That starch testing is interesting. I've read that sugars can also be tested for sugar content of the sap so you can know how good of a syrup maker it will be. But this tree is just for a specimen in my back yard so nbd. There was no sign of any new buds coming onto this tree after the spring buds leafed out. Makes me wonder if Sugar maples make their buds in the fall for the following year. I read some scientific explanation of how certain trees decide the year before, how much they will grow the following year but can't remember what it's called right now. There were some of the buds that swelled and then withered, like the tree decided what it could support and what it couldn't. I didn't fertilize it at all until early summer, thinking I could coax extra leaves to flush but not a sign of an extra bud or any further growth. Your winter last season sound similar to what we had around Wadena. A fair amount of snow that disappeared by January. One thing is for certain, this has been one tough tree. :-) The leaves are leathery and dark green. Hopefully it's all down hill from here. Now if a squirrel with a sweet tooth doesn't take a liking to it, it should be okay. Edit: I have a silty sand soil btw.

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 - I realllllly would love to see them in color this year...I'm hoping to take another trip to the nursery to visit the trees again before they come to our house :-). Is that weird? LOL. I literally feel like I searched EVERYWHERE for these trees...I had landscapers calling growers in a bunch of states, and I called more nurseries than I can count in our surrounding states as well. I had no idea this cultivar would be so challenging to find! That is very helpful information about the fertilizer. I had a feeling it may not be necessary (and may do more harm than good), but wanted to ask here since everyone here knows so much more about this than I do! I want to make sure I don't inadvertently do more harm than good to these beauties! We'd prefer to have something where we don't have to manually water each tree, given that there are 10 trees...so leaving the hose on a slow trickle for a long time per tree would take a very long time! The trees will absolutely be mulched as soon as they are planted...I'm hoping this also helps give them a good start. Would I need to water them through the fall? Or mostly only in spring/summer if it's hot and dry? Our soil is definitely not sandy...this much I know. It definitely has clay content, but I wouldn't say it's solely clay or anything like that. I'll try your perk test idea and see what I come up with! And thank you for your link - another one I will bookmark and keep as a reference! :-)

Sorry but all I see are a couple of sun scorch spots or maybe some wind damage which is quite typical for transplants that haven't been properly hardened off first. Any drooping or leaves dropping are most likely just simple transplant shock, again very common. The only other possible explanation I can think of would involve pest damage but you would see those. Overall they look like ok transplants to me. Dave