Hi everyone, I’m a gardening novice and got an Acer palmatum “Orange Dream” about a month ago. First couple pics are how it looks currently, and last pic is what it looked like when I first got it. It’s gotten quite top heavy but the trunk doesn’t seem thick enough to hold itself up. Ideally, I’d like it to stand straighter, and it’ll always live in a container because I don’t have ground to plant it in. So I had some questions around staking/trunk thickening:

\- How should I stake it to keep it straight? I read that trees benefit from less support to encourage the trunk to toughen up, but I’m unsure if this applies to Japanese maples, or at least one as young as this one. I had taken off some of the support ties that it came with and it started to slump. 

\- When should I take the stakes off? 

\- Is the pot big enough? I’m unsure if the roots need a different setup to grow properly. 

\- Should I be using fertilizer? The soil drains well and I water daily, but I also read that fertilizer can promote trunk growth. 

\- General question about when I should prune it…I keep seeing others discourage pruning in the first few years, but I don’t know how old this maple is and it seems too tall. 

I know this is a lot, thanks in advance! Also accepting what resources/books are considered reliable. A lot of advice I see online seems generic for trees or specific to bonsai. I just want to let this maple do its thing!

Looking for advice for thin trunk and top heavy maple