Fall planting is a great idea for most trees in any area, many considering it the best time to plant trees. Just within the last few years nurseries have been pushing fall sales for this reason but mostly to get rid of stock that has been picked over and is not in good condition. ( at Davidsans no matter when you buy you will not get substandard trees … I don’t see any time of year a good time to sell trees that are not of great quality and value) .The fall season gives larger and disreputable nurseries a second season of sales and a chance to unload sub substandard trees that haven’t sold and not either have inventory them or throw them away. As long as you aware of these other nursery’s practices you should find fall to be ideal planting time. Allot of times you can get good fall pricing but at a cost of poor quality and unhealthy trees …
I have come to believe fall planting is fine for Japanese Maples too although I personally prefer spring but that now is just a personal preference… the difference in death rate is miniscule and that is only for very far northern growers on the edge of JM growing areas!!! Most of the damage seems to be bark split from southern exposure to bright winter sun… either placement where that sun does no damage or using plastic tree guards ( be sure to remove early spring!!) can keep that from happening .. Bark split comes from winter sun warming the tree sap rising then freezing and popping the bark at night if enough bark splits it will die in spring…, Over the years I have lost very few fall planted trees and almost 100% from this problem …just coming out of pots into the ground .. But with the added precaution of protecting the trunk of fall planted trees that will get direct south sun I am now comfortable with fall planting… and for those in zone 6 or warmer there is no problem with fall planting at all. If you want to fall plant JM’s I am now convinced fall planting is just fine …with the added note that extremely far north zones may want to use some trunk protection. As long as you buy from a quality nursery like Davidsans fall purchasing is just fine for JMs.