My own experience - no way am I an expert. I agree re the shaping, I have shaped acers for years and they respond really well to it. Normally I've done it in the spring but that's just me. I always water heavily during the summer, not for the usual cultural reasons but because in Japan where I used to live the summers are hot, humid and very very wet, whilst in the winter there is close to zero rainfall. Mine (which have always been either in a pot or in a spot with restricted soil surface area) have always responded well to this, except the time I allowed one to get fatal leafscorch by a combination of sun and wind. I moved the new one to a more sheltered, dappled spot, and bingo.
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