New tree options?

[DLK150]

A little over a week ago I took down a split trunk silver maple that was leaning badly toward our house, around 20 degrees. It had some bad frost cracking this past autumn and a good section of the trunk was exposed in multiple places come spring. I was loathe to remove it because we love our trees, but the combination of damage, leaning, and being a somewhat top heavy, weak wooded tree meant it had to go, but I want to replace it. I've been leaning towards one of the red maples.

Our yard currently has two maples on the south side around 40 feet apart, and a large red oak to the west. The crown on the red oak spreads out over the spot where the previous tree was, but fairly high, around 50' up. The tree that was removed was about 40' feet high with a 25'spread, and fit nicely in the spot it was in.

I want to plant the new tree further to the north and a few feet more to the east. This would allow me to plant a tree that would ultimately grow to 50' high with a spread of 40' before it started reaching the height of the oak, although I'm sure it would adapt to the others when the time came. The spot I have in mind would be ~30 feet from any of the other trees. It would be something of an understory.

The spot gets 6-7 hours of sun from April through September. It's around this time that the sun is lower than the crown of the two maples, allowing for 2-3 hours of direct sun after 9 am or so, then dappled sun until late afternoon when it gets some more direct sun as it sets in the west. I guess you would say it's medium soil, somewhat sandy. There's clay about 14-16 inches down.

I would like to plant something that would be a fairly rapid grower, hence the red maple thought. I've been looking at different cultivars, and have multiple available in my area. October Glory, Autumn Blaze(Fremanii, am I correct?), Autumn Flame, and Somerset.

I like the red maples for the potential for color, although I don't know if they would produce with less sun this time of year. It's not a necessity though, and I'm would be open to suggestions. Just about anything with a medium-fast growth rate from 30-50 feet tall with a 20-40 foot spread.(Although I know there is no "set" final size)Deciduous, evergreen, no real preference.

Here is a picture of the yard as is, before I developed enough ambition to move that stump.

Again, I'm open to any suggestions and would appreciate any advice.

 

[NYCHA FORESTER]

Do I see wires going through your yard?

 

[DLK150]

Do I see wires going through your yard?

Yes, those are about 25 feet from the spot I have marked, another reason for planting further north from the original spot. The previous tree had a relatively narrow spread, and didn't interfere with the wires. Hard to tell from that perspective, but they actually run underneath the tree to the left some.

 

[Dadatwins]

I would hesitate to put a maple in the center of the yard because of their potential to surface root. Of course the roots could be covered with mulch but again that would take up the center of the yard. I might opt for a willow oak, or pin oak, not sure if that is OK for your area. but they both have an upright stature with limited surface roots. If you are going with maple stay away from the silver and try a sugar or a red maple. Sugar maple has a pretty orange color in the fall and make a nice contrast. Of course you already seem familiar with the red maple.

 

[Elmore]

How about an Ulmus parvifolia?

 

[DLK150]

I would hesitate to put a maple in the center of the yard because of their potential to surface root. Of course the roots could be covered with mulch but again that would take up the center of the yard. I might opt for a willow oak, or pin oak, not sure if that is OK for your area. but they both have an upright stature with limited surface roots. If you are going with maple stay away from the silver and try a sugar or a red maple. Sugar maple has a pretty orange color in the fall and make a nice contrast. Of course you already seem familiar with the red maple.

I'm not that concerned about the surface roots. Despite the appearance in the picture, there's not much in the way of grass in that part of the yard. When I moved here that whole side was a hard packed wasteland, nothing but dirt. It took me awhile just to get it up to patchy in that area. In the end, I'd rather have trees than grass.

I did consider a pin oak, but going by the USDA plants database(Assuming their data is reliable), our soil is right on the edge of it's ph tolerance, around 6.5. I had it tested several years ago.

I've been reading about the red maple as much as anything else. It seems to fit the bill best as far as growth, shade(Since it won't get full sun all day all year) and ph tolerance. There are so many cultivars, it's been a little much to sift through. The Autumn Blaze was a consideration earlier, but I guess the jury's still out with some people on that one, being a hybrid with silver maple.

I guess it would come down to Autumn Flame, October Glory, Red Sunset or Somerset.

Elmore, I've considered an Elm as well but I'm not sure about availability around here. That may be something to look into as well.

 

[DLK150]

New Question

I want to thank you for your thoughts. I ended up going with a Red Sunset maple. I bought a 7 gallon container from Lowe's yesterday.

I have a new question though. I've planted small trees and shrubs before and am aware of taking care when planting them so the root flare is at ground level. For the first time, I'm not 100% sure of where that is on a plant. It looks to be deeper than the soil level in the container, and I want to ensure it's planted correctly. I took a couple of pictures of it. The arrows denote the level of the soil in the container. I dug around it about 1.5" deep. The small root visible in the picture on the right is about where I dug to.

Does it look as though it would be all right to plant it at the level of soil in the container, or should I plant it a little less deep?

 

[Shespen]

It looks like you have dug down to the root collar. I'd plant it just a little high. You probably know this but be sure to water it in well and mulch it. Dont let the mulch touch the stem. Good luck with your tree. I'm sure that it will provide shade for many years.

 

[Dadatwins]

It has been my experience that most of the trees coming from lowes or HD are usually root bound in those small pots. Excess water and restricted growing space will cause the roots to swirl in a circle around in the pot. After planting the roots continue this swirling direction until the tree is girdled. My suggestion is to remove all the dirt inspect the roots and bare root plant the tree. Put the root ball in a bucket of water and carefully remove the dirt, after the dirt is removed make sure the roots are not circular, carefully spread them in opposite directions and plant the tree. Be sure to keep the roots constantly wet. I have seen some research where the bare root tree was placed in a loam soil and the roots are allowed to grow before the actual planting.

 

[BayouTree]

Planting a little high is always better than putting it in too low. I would also remove the cane if you weren't planning on that already. As per the previous post I would inspect the rootball for circling roots. Red maples are pretty notorious for circling roots in container grown trees. Taking care of those problems now will help the tree out alot in the future.

 

[DLK150]

Thanks all. I kind of figured planting it a little high would be the way to go, but it never hurts to ask those with more knowledge.

I always make a point of checking the roots, and have actually planted some container plants almost bare root as Dadatwins mentions when they were circling the container to the point they couldn't be loosened up worth anything. I'll take extra care after hearing that red maples have a propensity for girdling roots when they're purchased in a container.

I have no doubt that the one I removed was planted too deep. It was basically a stick that my wife's nephew got for Arbor Day years ago when he was 8 or so, and they let him plant it by himself. I could see girdling roots at the base, and that was my first clue. There was also some plastic that some of the roots had grown around, and after I got the stump out and blasted some dirt off the roots, I discovered plastic all over the place underneath. Evidently, he had planted it in a plastic bag, and the tree grew through and around it.

Between that and not being cared for through the years, that poor tree probably never had a chance in the long run. Hopefully I can do better by this one.

 

[Woodie]

One other suggestion on top of the other good ones: red maples typically won't do well once the soil gets above 6.5 or so...they tend to get manganese chlorosis. You're right on the border with your soil as it is. Chances are you wouldn't have a lot of problems, but you could go a long way toward making doubly sure of that by amending the existing soil with some elemental sulphur before you plant. It's VERY cheap insurance.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

The trees look like the root flare may be down in the soil quite a distance. Move the soil away and find the flare. That's the height you want to plant at.
The bend you see at grade is the graft union, the flare is below as much as 11".

 

[DLK150]

Well, I got it in the ground with few issues other than a scary encounter with a piece of what I believe was an old steel fence post or a piece of construction debris. Now, I can tell you right where all our lines run and when I hit this, I :censored: . I thought I had hit some secret forgotten line or something. Then after digging found that there were hooks stamped out of the side like a steel fence post. Interesting to imagine how it became so distorted over time as the soil heaved and retreated over the years, crushed and twisted by mother nature.

6 foot diameter hole, complete with tree ring and a couple inches of mulch. The tree ring was an addition I made after our friendly neighborhood squirrels decimated the berm I made around the perimeter of the hole within 2 days while burying the acorns that are now falling liberally from our oak.

The roots hadn't wrapped around extensively and I was able to separate them from the soil and spread them out. I've done this before, and this was the easiest time I've had of it. I've planted shrubs and a couple of ornamental trees where they had a network/mass of fine roots that had a death grip on the root ball, but not this time. I found them quite agreeable to being repositioned.

Mike, there probably wasn't much more than 11" of soil in the pot and some shook loose on the bottom as I loosened/spread the roots. The end result was probably about 8-9 inches of soil left on the bulk of the rootball. For perspective, the tree is only around 3/4" in diameter/caliper 6 inches above the original soil level. The bamboo stake is only around 5/8". I did plant it high and also planted it two inches above ground level so I have some leeway. Since the ground slopes some where I planted it, it's actually higher than that on one side, but I'll check it out tomorrow and also keep an eye on it.

 

[DLK150]

The trees look like the root flare may be down in the soil quite a distance. Move the soil away and find the flare. That's the height you want to plant at.
The bend you see at grade is the graft union, the flare is below as much as 11".

Just to update, I did check it. You were correct about the root flare being below grade. I dug around the base of it with my finger and found the first substantial root about 2.5" down.

I was going to just dig out the mound so it would sit at about the original grade but decided that was halfassing it. I went ahead and raised it up a few inches. (That landscape fork is a handy thing to have around.) It still sits above grade a couple of inches, but now the actual root flare is visible. I did see one small root that looked like it was inclined to go-a-girdling, as well as several at the perimeter of the original root ball near the "new top" that didn't look like they would behave in the future. They've been disciplined.

Thank you again for all the advice and help.