My first mailorder maple, a Winter Flame. I was impressed with packaging and the price, I'm happy. This particular tree is about 4ft in height with three quite delicate branches that form very near its base. I'm thinking it needs to be pruned back by at least 50% to encourage branching, but I don't want to make an irreversible mistake. If you care to add your thoughts that would be great. Winter Flame
By the way, my wife jokes that after planting 14 Japanese Maples I now have a beautiful garden of cedar stakes. With 5 dogs I'm afraid my little tree jails are necessary.
With a new mail order tree like this I would be tempted to wait and see if there is any twig dieback over winter, and then reassess the pruning needs in spring. The growth you describe as "delicate" may not harden off 100% before winter, and if the twigs are soft some dieback could occur. A small amount of dieback is not a major problem, but it may mean you are looking at a slightly different shaped tree next spring.
I invariably cut off any very low growing branches to encourage the shape of tree that I prefer However ... it depends on what I see in the tree To my mind, it is a matter of personal choice
