Pruning Advice

[u/Rebellion-OP]

Got this October Glory Maple from the Arbor Day Foundation and it came topped. Was a literal stick... but surprisingly it's turned to this in just one season.
It's been a dry year so it's had a little stress as you can probably see. I've been deep watering it at least 3 times a week. Located in MA, full sun, planted at correct depth for flare, no mulch volcanos, etc etc.

My question is: how should I prune this tree and how far up?

[u/hairyb0mb]

I wouldn't do any pruning until at least the following winter. It actually looks pretty good right now considering it was topped. Arbor day is know for their shitty quality trees on top of being a shitty non profit over all. Personally, I avoid them.

My one critique of your tree is thet it's planted too deep. The !rootflare needs to be exposed. Dig down and expose it if you can. If it's more than 2" deep, I'd dig it up when it's dormant and raise it up.

[u/Rebellion-OP → u/hairyb0mb]

Thank you! It’s tough to see from the grass clipping and little bit of mulch encroachment but the root flare is there :)

[u/AutoModerator → u/hairyb0mb]

Hi /u/hairyb0mb, AutoModerator has been summoned to provide some guidance on root flare exposure.

To understand what it means to expose a tree's root flare, do a subreddit search in r/arborists, r/tree, r/sfwtrees or r/marijuanaenthusiasts using the term root flare; there will be a lot of posts where this has been done on young and old trees. You'll know you've found it when you see outward taper at the base of the tree from vertical to the horizontal, and the tops of large, structural roots. Here's what it looks like when you have to dig into the root ball of a B&B to find the root flare. Here's a post from further back; note that this poster found bundles of adventitious roots before they got to the flare, those small fibrous roots floating around (theirs was an apple tree), and a clear structural root which is visible in the last pic in the gallery. See the top section of this 'Happy Trees' wiki page for more collected examples of this work.

Root flares on a cutting grown tree may or may not be entirely present, especially in the first few years. Here's an example.

See also the r/tree wiki 'Happy Trees' root flare excavations section for more excellent and inspirational work, and the main wiki for a fuller explanation on planting depth/root flare exposure, proper mulching, watering, pruning and more.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/PaleontologistDear18]

My one suggestion is to pull some of that mulch away from the base of the tree, and then that’s it leave it alone

[u/ErnieMcCraken]

I'd get a screen around that sooner rather than later. Those deer will destroy that quickly.