Dear Lela,

as you said, May is not the best time to move saplings, it would have been better to wait for a period of vegetative rest, like autumn; but now the transplant has been done, let’s try to keep these plants alive. Fortunately, May 2013 was very cool and humid, and therefore your plants shouldn’t have suffered too much from transport, especially if you have tried to keep most of the roots; usually in spring the plants are in full vegetative growth, and suck water and mineral salts from the soil that contribute to the work done by the foliage, to produce new shoots, future flowers and future fruits; if the water supply to the plants can be kept constant, even an explant done in a dangerous period can be successful. As you suggest, the best way to try to alleviate the problems of newly repotted plants is certainly to prune the crown: the leaves tend to lose a lot of humidity on hot days, due to transpiration, so a plant with fewer leaves will tend to suffer less. for any water shortages. So yes, a good general pruning, thinning the crown well, and shortening the longer branches, can certainly help; in addition to this, also trying not to ruin the root system when the planets are removed from the ground is even more important, but since this has already been done, you can not help but be satisfied with the roots you have available. It would also be advisable to avoid placing the pots, for the moment, in full sun for many hours a day: first let the plants recover, and show that they have taken root in the pots by producing new shoots; only after that you can move them to full sun, where they can stay for the rest of the year. Watering certainly plays a fundamental role: even if your plants, under normal conditions, can withstand even long periods of drought, immediately after transplanting, and especially if grown in pots, you cannot let them remain dry for long, because now as now they have no defense against vegetative stresses. In the same way, make sure that no parasites arrive, because even against them your plants are not able to fight: consider them as if they were recovering after a long illness, and try to cure them in the best possible way.