Lacebark Maple problems

[RGbart978]

Hey team, newbie here. Hopefully this is a forum that can give some advice or point me to somebody who can.... I live in North Texas, just to the north of Dallas. We had a nursery plant several trees for us, very late in Dec 2016. One of the trees, a 65 gallon Lacebark maple, did well the first year. It's currently about 20-25' tall. In roughly April of 2018, after the entire tree flowered, we noticed the leaves only came on the lower half of the tree. They filled out well and the tree seemed healthy, just no leaves on the top half. I left it alone the balance of the summer hoping by this spring it would flower again and fill in. Spring is coming and just the lower half bloomed out. I got on a ladder and found green under the bark of the healthy leaves, just hard brown wood under the non-blooming - starts about 12' up the tree. I can supply pictures but you get the point... I contacted the nursery where I got the tree and they recommended we just replace it (seems like a natural conflict of interest to me... ). My questions are: 1.) once the wood turns hard, I assume the tree is dead in that area? Is there anyway to "restart" the tree with some secret fertilizer? Or is it just a goner? 2.) assuming dead, what to do - I can "top the tree" but it seems it will always have a hole in the middle? will the other live branches actually fill in the area where the main trunk was ( I would guess it's the top 10 feet of the tree with the branches that come out of the trunk above the "dead" line)?

Just for reference, there is an elm and a pistachio on the other side, they both have done fine, especially the pistachio. Just down the line is an old hackberry that is thriving. We also have 2 Broodie Cedars that are doing good. I had water bags on the new trees and watered pretty religiously all through last fall so I don't think it was a water related problem.  

Appreciate any help or opinions anyone might have to offer... Thanks, Bart. 

[Clark]

I don't know lacebark maple but what you describe is common enough in the nursery trade. A 65 gallon, potted tree is large, difficult to handle but provides an "instant tree" for the homeowner. All else being equal, larger potted trees are more likely to experience problems down the road than smaller ones.

The reason for this is the root system of those larger trees have been transplanted 2-4 times. Every time they are transplanted the roots get pruned and then are allowed to grow in the pot where they fill it and then start to encircle it. This creates problems that will come back 2-20 years after planting.

I can't help you too much on what to do with the tree but judicious pruning and training can rectify many problems. 

Next time, if you're given the choice of planting a large or small tree, go with the smaller one.

Clark