Digging out trees this time of year, when they are leafed out, will put considerable stress on the tree and could send them into transplanting shock. Disturbed roots have a hard time supplying what the tree needs at this stage. I'm surprised some of your trees look as good as they do.

Letting roots dry even a little bit, on small trees, could be fatal to the tree or at the least set the tree back to a considerable degree.

I would put some water in my pail so I could set the bare rooted tree roots into the water just as soon as it was out of the ground. And not let the sun shine on the roots at all.

If I couldn't do this earlier in the year, before bud break, I would do it in the Fall, after the leaves turn color, that would be a much better time than now.

Oh, to answer some of your other questions.

Yes, don't put the pots out in too much sun.

After the tree recovers and leaves perk up, putting them in bright shade with an hour or two of sun in the morning & afternoon will be all they can make use of.

Small trees are best kept potted the first year and maybe the second. Once in the ground they will need to be protected from rabbits & mice.

Your watering regiment is right on. Water when things start to dry. You want the pots to have good drainage. The soil in pots can be ordinary native soil, just so drainage is good.

Little red maples (Acer rubrum) are hardy trees and will thrive in various kinds of soil as long as they get water and sun.

Bring your pot and dig the area, in one scoop, big enough to fill the entire pot. You do not want to expose the roots at all. Put in bright shade and water with only water till you see new growth. Then give them a few hours of morning sun a day , gradually increasing the amount of light over a few weeks.

"Bring your pot and dig the area, in one scoop, big enough to fill the entire pot."

Being the OP said he was getting these from a local park, I just assumed he was bare rooting the trees, leaving minimal evidence of his excursions.

Otherwise, yes, taking the whole root ball would be better for the tree.

Yea, that could be an issue! Here in PA the "feds" don't like people taking plant material AT ALL! I read te lower part about "going back to the forest" to get more.

If my previous suggestion is not do-able, bring a quart size fiploc bag with a DAMP (sot sopping wet) paper towel to put the wee ones in. Do not leave the roots exposed to sunlight, and keep them moist. i.e. out of the ground, straight away into the bag; out of the bag, straight away into the pot.

And use potting mix rather than dirt from the sight if you can, it drains better. Now that I think of it filling the pot might create drainage issues with regular dirt in a pot...

thank your feedback guys. I tried reading online about transplanting maples, but all I found was transplanting larger trees, like 5+ feet. I couldn't find much on saplings.

The park is more like a forest really. I don't think it is an issue. That being said, I think I failed miserably with these saplings. Take a look at these pictures. Should I give up on these? I have my sights set on some other saplings.

If you think these stand a chance of living, I'll keep watering them. Otherwise, I will dump them in favor of these, which are actually growing on my property already. Do you guys think I should leave these alone until a later date? Since they are on my property, the roots will only be exposed for a very short period of time.

The parent maple is shown below.

Just looking at your picutures of the leaves, they look like Acer rubrum (red maple). Do you have a picture of the Samaras (maple seeds)?

The specimens you show in the pics will most probably live BUT the better the specimen, the more chances it will survive the winter, push buds in the spring and grow vigorously next year. The weaker ones will take longer to establish if they make it.

What usda zone are you in?

The harshness of winter can determine how you do things, like how to winter your trees. If you are in a zone where the ground freezes and has temperatures below the high 20's F., you probably need to keep your pots inside a cold building that stays 30's and 40's all winter. Doing this will keep the roots from freezing and keep the tree from coming out of dormancy too early in the season. Or you could bury your pots in the ground outside to regulate root temperature.

If you have better specimens in your yard, I would dig those but wait until they are dormant. Again depending on your winter, dig and transplant after leaves turn fall colors. Take as big of a dirt ball as you can and those little trees won't hardly know that they've been moved.

If you have harsh winters, wait until spring, then dig as soon as the soil will permit, before the trees bud out.

Here's a link that will be helpful to you planting your new trees:https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

Thanks for your response Bill. When you say my specimens will likely live, you are referring to the potted saplings? Are they likely to live even if the leaves drop off? How will I know if they are dead or alive? I have no idea what I am looking for.

I'll pull the saplings in the yard out during the fall. Thanks for your help.

I meant the potted saplings. Even with the leaves dropping off, they might live. Can't say for sure but they will be slower to recover than the nicer ones.

You see, those little trees, if watered and in the sun, will be making food for the roots all the way until the go dormant in the fall. The more leaf area each one has, the more reserves of food they can build up. Those with more leaf damage or those that lose their leaves early, won't make as much food to be used next spring to sprout leaves so even if they make it through winter, they will be weaker and slower to recover.

Every time I grow something, it's a learning experience so don't give up. :-)

You might even want to plant them all, just to see, some may make it or they all might. You can decide what to do about it next year when you see the results. That's just part of learning.

Kurt,

Here's a pic of a red maple that was about the size of those on your property a year ago last fall. I put it in a pot for the winter and buried it under the snow outside by the garage. The next spring, I planted it out side and by fall it was about 4 ft tall. It's grown another foot this year and I hope it puts on another foot or two by this fall.

Why don't you buy yourself some nice healthy little maple tree babies instead of stealing them? Karma.

Thought I would update you guys. I guess you were right Bill. About 11 out of 15 have recovered. I read on the internet about root shock and transplant stress, and guessed that was why the leaves wilted. Here is a pic of one of them.

Young specimens are sometimes difficult to identify but the first photo looks to be Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and the saw toothed one resembles Acer rubrum (red).

Looking at the tree photo that you said was the 'parent tree', depending on your location, there is a strong possibility that you have some Acer nigrum (black maple). I'm not that familiar with the species but have read it may inhabit wetter areas than Sugars do.