Hi Dsqx, big transplant

I would vote against trying to tilt this tree. If you must think of it as lifting up one end and shoving more dirt in on that side. No need to torture your back and your father's back again. Man, you two planted a 13' tall tree!

Reasons against:

-It is a tree, and a Japanese maple at that. It just is not going to grow straight as an arrow and Japanese maples have a bit of a unique form anyway.

-As you noticed with all the damage last year, Emperor I and all JM's I know are only marginal in zone 5. Transplanting and digging up before winter stresses them further. I wonder if early spring would be better if you decide to do this.

Maybe the high res picture will convince me otherwise. Maybe I am just sorta a hippie with a less formal landscape lol.

Either way, good luck and I am impressed with the work you must have done planting it!

Thanks for the info Toro, it was a back breaker putting this tree in. It was a 600+ lbs root ball. Here is another picture, but from this angle you can't notice the lean.

This post was edited by Dsqx on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 1:04

your pix arent showing ...

a 13 foot JM???

ken