Should this tree recover?

General Gardening
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In 2016, I started several different trees from seed, including some Trident Maple (Acer buergerianum).

The spot that I intended to plant it in had another tree in it, (old, overgrown, male mulberry), so it stayed potted. I’m only now getting the mulberry taken down. The maple has been living in fabric Smart Pots (for air-root pruning) since germination. Last spring (2018), I potted up to a 10 gallon. The first three seasons, it grew 2-3 feet each year.

This season, I have to admit that it’s been somewhat neglected. It’s in the same pot, and because it has a very dense rootball, it seems like as soon as I water it, it’s dry. It has only grown about 6 inches this year, and looks like a “drought stressed” tree would look.

Once the old mulberry is removed, this tree will find its new home in the ground (about 10’ from the stump). The mulberry is going to be gone as of this week, so I’m going to plant it.

I don’t know how the root ball looks, other than assuming it’s very dense. My experience with smart pots is that there’s very little root circling, and they seem to work as advertised.

Under the assumption that I will keep the plant well watered (but not overwatered) for the remainder of the summer, do you feel that I should get an enough root growth this season, to where next spring, I should see at least somewhat a “recovery” in the trees appearance and growth rate? Pics below.

It’s about 9’ tall, 1.5” caliper, and does have a good root flare.

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In the top pic, that’s not “early fall color“, it’s actually some browning of the leaves because the tree fell over on the deck, and the heat reflecting off the deck burned some of the leaves on that side. Hence the green tape holding it to the deck rails.

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I think it should do OK. Get it in the ground as soon as you can, don’t get too heavy handed with fertilizer, keep it well watered. That’s my best guess!

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I would probably babysit it till fall in the pot, watering twice a day. In fall when it looses the leaves I would use a hose on the root ball to wash away the potting mix and unbind the roots, and plant it bare root. By now the roots are pretty much going in circle around walls of plastic pot, if you plant it now, you can’t separate the roots, I don’t think live tree can tolerate bare root transplanting in the middle of hot summer, so you have to plant it as is if you do it now, and it may be not the best for the tree future.

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It will certainly by happier in the ground and have better color next year, but I wouldn’t put too much stock into the growth rate the first year though it will certainly be better than what you are getting now. The bare rooting and root untangle idea above sounds pretty good to me, at least partially since your tree is already stressed. You could place a pot saucer under the fabric pot, that way it would get a bit more water. Or if you do untangle and plant soon, just keep it really well watered this year.

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