The Best Time to Transplant Sugar Maples

Sugar maples (Acer saccharum) offer brilliant fall colors.

The sugar maple's distinctive leaves and sugar crop make it a well-known member of the Acer family. The same timing rules apply to transplanting sugar maples -- the national tree of Canada -- as to other deciduous trees.

Identification

The sugar maple grows up to 100 feet tall and lives 200 years. The smooth, grey bark of the young tree splits and darkens as it gets older. A deciduous tree, the sugar maple drops leaves in the fall and must be transplanted when dormant.

Presentation

Nurseries offer young sugar maples with bare roots, with a root ball or grown in a container. Bare-root and root-ball maples transplant best in the fall, after leaf-drop, or in the spring, before new leaves open.

Considerations

Container-grown sugar maple trees arrive with their intact root-system, which facilitates transplanting at any time during the year. However, never plant sugar maples in the hot soil of summer or during winter freezes.

References

• Natural Resources Conservation Service: Tree Planting
• Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources: Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)