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You must provide your maple with constant moisture and good drainage. The addition of sand, gypsum, fir bark, peat moss or compost to the native soil for tilth may be advisable in heavy or poor soils. Mounding may be necessary in very heavy clay soils. We advise the addition of gypsum in areas with alkaline soil or poor water quality (hard water). In those areas it is also advisable to water heavily once a month in addition to your regular watering schedule, so that salts can be leached out of the soil. Regular watering is essential, since your maple must not dry out or leaf burn or drop will occur. We have found that the inexpensive automatic watering systems pay for themselves many times over. Our friends at DripWorks can help you with design. Send for their catalog for lots of information.
One light application of fertilizer in the spring is usually adequate for maples in the landscape. Maples are not heavy feeders. We find that a good mulching with compost in the fall is all that is required by our maples here. We mulch again in the spring with bark. Mulching protects the roots from hot dry conditions in summer and from freezing in winter.
If you live in a warm-winter area, you may encourage your maple to "color up" for fall by tapering off the amount, not the regularity, of water given at each watering, and being sure not to fertilize with nitrogen after mid-summer.
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