Last year, I got a bee in my bonnet that I wanted to plant a mulberry fruit tree in our back yard. Did some research and it looked like it would match our temperature zone. After some search, found a skinny but tall sapling (7ft tall, about 1" diameter, with a dozen small leaves) at a nursery not too far away. Got it home, miraculously without any damage.

Dug a 3’x1.5’ wide hole in a spot. Soil was dense, clumpy, and full of roots and some construction debris (took them all out). It was also on an incline. Chose it since there weren’t any other trees nearby to compete for nutrition. Added organic fertilizer at the bottom, planted the sapling, broke up the soil clumps before putting it back, and added more fertilizer on top.

On subsequent research, this is likely where I went wrong. Should have added loose, gardening soil instead of reusing the clumpy dirt. But I’m a dumbass and really new to this.

Fsst forward. Watered it every day for a month, then twice a week after that. Winter came and all the leaves fell out. We got a fair amount of rain. Now in a dry Spring stretch and I’m back to watering it twice a week. It has twice as many leaves, some fairly large, which is cool.

Thing is, we’re a year out, but the trunk hasn’t grown much in height or girth. I’m wondering if I messed up and should dig it up and re-plant it with fresh potting soil to give the roots more chance to expand? Or if doing so will damage the root structure? It’s also in a reasonably sunny space (good), but also on an incline so a lot of water runs off (bad). I can move it to a more flat space, but that has a lot of shade.

Any suggestions? Replant it with loose soil? Move it to flatter, less sunny space? Or just let it be and see where it goes? Thanks!