jugglerguy/Rob:
Makes you want to go back to school and major in chemistry, doesn't it?
You are getting most of the story here, about half of the time. The chlorosis evident in your photos and in the history of the performance of your tree (bolstered by the one soil test you've taken) can illlustrate pH conditions that are too high for Acer rubrum to absorb certain elemental nutrients necessary for basic plant growth. Iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) are two of these that become unavailable to some plants in soils of higher pH. Of course, there are many plants that grow perfectly well in higher pH soils that need these same nutrients for basic plant function, and they somehow muddle through.
You've also noted existing "wild" maples on your property that are functioning fine. Here's a specimen in surroundings quite alkaline that is doing OK:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/178712/
This leads me to believe that although soil pH may not be optimum, it may not be the only (or even "the") problem. Without more history of this planting, I'll make some general suppositions.
You planted this tree 5 years ago. You water and fertilize regularly. It seems that this tree shouldn't be under any other cultural stresses. I'll ask some questions here, but I'll offer some pointed opinions about what may be contributing to your tree's lack of performance.
•Your tree should have basically smooth bark along the trunk that we can see in the photo. It looks like it may have some irregularities to the bark surface. Post some close up shots of that, and let us see if you might have some insect damage (flatheaded apple tree borers happen to love red maple) creating some difficulty in your tree's circulation system.
•You don't have a mulched zone around the base of this tree. This isn't against the law, but it creates an area of potential damage when continuously managing turf directly adjacent to the tree. If nicked, abraded, whacked, or rammed, the generally thin bark on young red maples offers little resistance to intrusion by the pest mentioned in the previous paragraph.
•You didn't mention the condition in which you purchased and installed your tree. Was it balled and burlapped? In a container? Bare root? What size? I'm going to guess that it was about a 2" caliper B&B tree, which is a rather standard size to buy from a garden center. It looks like your tree is about 4" caliper now, which is reasonable size to get to in 5 years if it was doing all the work itself, and not being doted upon by a concerned owner. With the efforts you've given, it ought to be quite a bit bigger and showing far more vigorous branch growth too.
•You could very well have two different physical problems handicapping your tree. One is planting depth. I don't see a clear flare at the base of the tree, where the trunk meets the turf and soil level. This is still a relatively young tree, but this should still be obvious. If the basal flare is planted below grade, this often ends up being fatal to young trees, if not just a lifelong hindrance to vigor. The only real solution to this is to dig the tree up and replant it. That is a royal pain, as well as severe disruption to your property and an extensive investment in time and effort. There is no guarantee of survival, either, since you will essentially be re-transplanting your tree which is already under obvious stress. You may wish to just buy a new tree instead, if this is indeed part of the current problem.
The level of the basal flare is often hidden in the ball of the B&B tree when purchased, and if the purchaser isn't savvy to this, then the problem is compounded when taken home and planted with the top of the ball even with surrounding grade. This unknowing act stresses the tree further, because it now has a truncated root system in addition to a buried basal flare. Double ouch.
•The second hidden problem you could have is an inadequate or malformed root system, such as girdling roots. This is quite common on maples in general, and red maples specifically. It is not limited to container grown trees, either, but occurs rather regularly to field grown nursery stock. In this condition, the tree has roots that are growing in a circular fashion in close proximity to the trunk of the tree. As the tree's trunk and roots each increase in diameter with age, they inexorably come into contact. The circling root(s) create a barrier (a noose, in effect) to the trunk's ability to expand. This compresses the newest trunk growth layers, where the very important cambium layers of xylem and phloem are trying to transport water and nutrients within the tree. If it isn't immediately apparent to readers here, that's bad. If not corrected, the girdling root essentially chokes the tree to death (choking tree may exhibit chlorotic symptoms) and at minimum creates a very weak point at the site of the girdling, which may lead to sudden breaking when subjected to physical stresses like high winds or ice loads. Look for a trunk that meets the ground without any increase in diameter, akin to a post instead of flaring out into the various buttressing roots.
Here is a happy red maple - no girdling, plenty o' buttressing:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/178711/
It is not unusual for a sickly tree to be victim of multiple causal agents. This tree could be planted too deeply, have girdling roots, be infested with borers, and have soil pH that is out of its normal range. Simply applying various chemicals will only delay an inevitable result if these other insidious possibilities are not investigated. Worse, lots of effort on the chemicals side may create other unnecessary problems, like your lawn's performance in which you obviously have invested quite highly.
An additional round of soil testing would never be a bad thing. I'd suggest you do this over your entire property, so that you have a baseline of information that you can leverage against all kinds of future landscaping endeavors. Soil tests are really cheap investments with regard to payback.
If I am just Chicken Little and your whole red maple sky is not falling, then lowering the soil pH in the entire area that you expect to have this tree's root system exploit is the answer you seek. That means pretty much the whole yard on that side of the house, since red maples are large canopy trees that will reach 75-100' in height and most of that in branch spread. The root system will colonize every bit of that and more. It will also compete vigorously with your turf, once it hits growing stride, through moisture competition and relatively dense shade. Lowering pH is just the opposite of most recommendations for healthy vigorous cool season turf grass performance, too.
If I wanted to do this effectively and economically, I'd get the soil test first. To lower pH long term and low cost, granulated or powdered sulfur would be my first choice and applied with a drop spreader. If you manage your turf already, you are familiar with this apparatus. Additional cost could move you into the range of some of the iron sulfate products, which would supply other nutrients which may be missing. To create some more instant value, the water soluble product formulations are good but ephemeral as noted previously.
If this hasn't been enough of a Fay/Gustav/Hanna/Ike (approaching Katrina-esque) on your parade thus far...consider this last item.
•What is the pH/alkalinity of your water source? Many gardeners subject themselves to repeated failures of planting efforts (especially with ericaceous species) because they do everything else properly, and never check to see that the water they religiously apply to the plants is undoing all their good work. It is truly amazing sometimes what is right under our noses, would t'wer we could but see.
If you are not interested in doing any or all of that, then maybe you should invest in a different species of tree that will perform to your expectations. And please - not a Norway maple. There are probably a dozen species I would recommend first, many on the link provided.
I'm surprised Resin hasn't jumped all over that MI website. It could stand a serious spell check...
