Can a maple be alive with no leaves?

Kazoo

The place I get my soil had a bad batch this year. Evidenced by my previous maple woes and an elm that wasn't ..."normal."

As chance would have it, that was the soil I put my air-layer maple in. So.... after the initial bout of leaf dropping when I switched from plastic and moss to actual planting in soil, it seemed to show some signs of regeneration...UNTIL...that cloggy wet bad soil (assumption) slowed it down.

To get it out of that crummy soil, I got another batch mixed that is working well on the trees I had to transplant (and slosh and wash to get the muck off)

When I moved the air layer (which I did NOT want to do) it has now begun losing more leaves. I'm a bit worried. The petioles left after the leaf drop ...look... healthy. It has a couple of weakish looking NEW leaves. But some of the limbs are COMPLETELY void of leaves.

I intend to let it do what it does and see what occurs in spring of next year. The GOOD part is that when I had to change the soil, the roots from the layer had penetrated to the sides of the pot. I changed soil as GENTLY as possible, leaving any clinging to the more delicate roots exactly as it was. Just a move to a better draining mix.

Question: Can a maple limb be alive with no leaves? Can a maple have a TERRIBLE year and make a comeback the following year? What kind of odds?

Question 2: Since it is now seemingly not using the initial moisture from the 2nd repot, how can I dry that soil out? Can I put such a distressed plant in the sun? Not all day, but more than it has had?

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

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