Holly, no problem on the thread hijack... we're all working toward the same goal here :) Now that I've gone back and read every message in Al's "Trees in Containers" threads, I realize I probably should have posted there in the first place. Blake, thanks for all your help. I appreciate the advice, and what you've suggested seems to be consistent with everything else I've read. That being said, I'm in a better position than Holly to experiment, give that I have 6 (soon to be 9) trees to nurture (or torture). Like Holly, I received these recently via mail order. I purchased the young trees recently because I have a 7' Sango Kaku that I believe is infected with Pseudomonas. I decided that, in the event I end up watching my tree suffer a slow death, I'll comfort myself by taking care of some younger Acers that may one day earn the job of replacing my Sango Kaku. Since I've ordered the trees, I have come to realize that there is a lot more to caring for them than I originally anticipated. There is an amazing amount of helpful information in this forum alone. I appreciate all the time everyone here has spent building such a large wealth of information, and hope to someday contribute some useful experiences of my own. As my brain is always in sponge mode, I've been trying to understand more and more about tree growth, container gardening, soils, etc. In the interest of furthering that understanding, I decided to select a candidate (victim) to move into the gritty mix. I'll likely be moving the rest into the 5-1-1 mix or something similar as was suggested. I am, however, a visual learner, so I decided the best way to learn my lesson was to subject one of these poor young trees to what I'll describe as a partial "repot". About 24 hours ago I moved the Trompenburg into a larger pot with gritty mix and a wick. I took it out of its current pot, and carefully removed around 75% of the soil from the root ball by repeatedly dunking it in a bucket of water and poking it away with a small screwdriver. The roots had done a pretty good job of filling up the original container. I didn't prune them, nor did I mess with them much other than to untangle them a bit. My hope was that by minimizing any damage to them, I might make this "repot" a bit more successful. I watered thoroughly then poured on another gallon of water that had some Mycorrhizae and superthrive mixed in. My plan is to root prune and do a full repot next year if the tree survives this ordeal. I plan on observing it and hopefully learning from this experience. I consider it a training exercise to prepare for the disaster scenario where I may some day be forced to repot a tree that is in leaf. Please let me know if you think there is something I should have done differently (given my fabricated disaster scenario). I've included some pictures below of the 6 trees: Trompenburg, Sister Ghost, Seiru, Olsen's Frosted Strawberry, Kogane Sakae, Japanese Sunrise. These were taken just a few minutes ago. Most of the trees are still stretching out after their exciting adventure with the fine men and women of the US postal service. Thanks again for all your help. -Chris

Haven't been on here for ages! Nice to read you all again. I have both a columnar crab and a Japanese Tree Lilac. I'm thinking of moving my JTL this year because I think it's too close to my evergreens. It hasn't been performing well at all. And the crab was actually a mistake - as I'd wanted a regular one. I didn't notice it's growth pattern until it was too late. Both are spectacular though, for small areas. It's just I've got big areas to fill.

As you can see, I'm in even a colder zone...I have had a Japanese Maple planted directly in the ground for 5 years, it has always come back like a charm. Very slow grower, but I don't mind because it's just off my front stoop...someday, perhaps it will shade the stoop gracefully, but I'm in no hurry. I do have hostas growing in its territory, but then, my whole front yard is maple tree territory, as I have 4 HUGE maples across my property. Unknowingly, I planted a hosta garden all the way across the front of the house, right under and just off the maple dripline. The hostas directly at the dripline did diminish on about the 5th year, as did some lilies. However, the ones 8 feet from the dripline are doing just fine. I'm not moving the garden or changing it. I just keep putting young ones in there and watering. When I have my garden plant sales (to pay for this habit), I pull the med sized hostas right out of that bed for the folks. It works pretty well, actually. I guess you could just call it my nursery! And a pretty one, at that!

Thanks gardengal48 for the info! I had a look at the 2018 prices for JM at a large nursery half an hour away from me. Yikes! I hadn't looked at JM prices in ages. Now I wish I had picked up another $6 one. And actually my husband and I (at the same sale) were deciding on whether to purchase a $40 red dissectum JM (named, but don't remember now). It looked really nice. Didn't purchase it because I figured I had a lot of learning to do regarding container trees and didn't want to kill it. Should have snatched it up then and there! It was the only one left. Darn!!! Oh well. But now I am more knowledgeable thanks to you all!