Droughts interact with tree phenology to drive declines in growth. As climate change makes drought more likely in the northeastern United States, it is important to understand how droughts at different times of year will lead to reduced height and diameter growth of trees. To determine how seasonal drought may reduce intra-annual growth, we implemented spring, summer, or fall droughts on 288 containerized saplings of six tree species (Acer rubrum, Betula papyrifera, Prunus serotina, Juniperus virginiana, Pinus strobus, and Thuja occidentalis). We tracked weekly soil moisture, leaf water potential, height, diameter, and survival of all trees before, during, and after each 6-week drought. We found that the tree species that conducted the majority of their height or diameter growth in the spring were most sensitive to spring droughts (B. papyrifera and P. strobus). T. occidentalis also experienced significantly reduced growth from the spring drought but increased growth after the drought ended and achieved total height and diameter growth similar to controls. In contrast, for most species summer droughts halted growth in most species for the remainder of the growing season even after the drought had ended. Fall droughts never impacted growth in the current year. These fine temporal-scale measurements of height and diameter growth suggest that tree response varies among species and is dynamic at intra-annual scales. These relatively rare data on intra-annual height growth sensitivity are important for canopy recruitment of saplings in forest ecosystems. Species-specific sensitivities of intra-annual growth to drought can inform models of forest competition in a changing climate.