"Pruning" a sugar maple transplant

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clpgirl Chippewa Lake, OH(Zone 5b) Jun 08, 2009

In the process of digging an azalea from my mother's house a year ago, I noticed a very small volunteer tree within the root ball. Since it was fall, I! had no idea what it was. Stuck it in a garden bed for the winter and now I have a 2 foot tree, identified as a sugar maple by the local nursery. Transplanted beautifully about a week ago into it's permanent location.

Now I am wondering how to handle the multiple branching. Do I chose a leader as I have with other trees? Do I need to do any special cutting back at this point? This tree is in a lawn and I would like to minimize any splitting branches from our lakefront winds in the future if there are actions I can take now to prevent them.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

PS I'm in Ohio, zone 5

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pastime Waterman, IL(Zone 5a) Jun 09, 2009

I would choose a leader and cut the rest. You certainly don't want a multi-stemmed Sugar Maple. If the leader isn't straight, try staking it so you won't have a crooked tree. We had a Crab that lost it's leader in a storm. We took the closest branch to it, gently pulled it up straight and tied it to a metal fence post. 3 years later it has a new leader.

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clpgirl Chippewa Lake, OH(Zone 5b) Jun 09, 2009

Thank you so much! I'm off to purchase staking materials today. Just really didn't want to mess this up since it was a 'gift' from my late mom!

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