After a week the branches seemed droopy.

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droopy leaves.. or branches.. i dont see any droopy branches ....

its a deciduous tree.. dont be too concerned that it will be losing its leaves in october ...

we prefer to move trees in dormancy ... or when the trees have basically shut down and are in the process of losing leaves.. and we dont care if the leaves fall off ... we prefer not to have to deal or worry about them ...

water when a plant needs water ... this time of year.. the water isnt going to be sucked out of the soil.. like during the heat of summer... so there is probably no reason to be watering every other day ... especially in NE

even though the leaves fall off.. roots can settle in and perhaps grow in the fall ... especially when there are no leaves to maintain ...

on some level.. you are going to have to leave it alone.. let it settle in .... and have some faith ...

NE is rather large.. give us a big city name ...

ken

Thanks for the advice. I’m just north of Boston by a few miles. I believe the soil here is considered loam not clay. Definiteky removed a lot of rocks the size of my fist.

Do I need to do anything about that root that is partially curved around the trunk?

I'd be wanting to cut it off though to the flare just to avoid future issues.

Don’t know if i have the nerve to do that!

ha. I have a line of Yoshino cherry trees lining the front street from 16 years back. I was new at planting trees and ONE tree had a root like that... kinda against the trunk but not wrapping or starting to swirl around it. It's still fine today. I'd at least make sure it's aimed outward when you reset the tree

Well.. I dug it up and replanted it. Before replanting I exposed the flare removing all the medium that the nursery had on there that had all the tiny roots On the surface. I loosened several of the large roots that were below the flare so they were no longer circling the root ball. Then I cut off the small roots that were growing above the flare I still need to prune the root that is crossing the trunk. It was gettingdark and that ine is high wnough that i can do it tomorrow Do I need to seal that with anything? it goes straight down after making that curve. It was dark when I finished so no pics until tomorrow. I thank you all for your responses. Fingers crossed that I did the right thing!

So the root flare is above ground level by a few inches?

No sealing, paints, etc.... those have all been proved to cause more problems then letting mother nature heal it up.

And be sure that when you water you are doing it deeply enough to actually penetrate the soil the full depth of the roots by leaving a hose running on a slow trickle for 30+ minutes or so. To make SURE water is penetrating to the depth of the root ball you may need to dig down a time or two and physically check. Once you know your soil better you won't need to do this but initially it's the best way to learn how to gauge water penetration.

Thank you all so much for your helpful advice. Here are some pics after replanting

flare above ground

Got a better look at that rebel root. I pruned the branch of it that went around and out at ground level but the main part of this large root seems to grow straight down aftwr curving around the trunk. where would i cut it? with a pruning saw?

Next question - should I stake this?