Pic from the other side.

Pic of the dogwood.

I have seen people use tug straps to squeeze cracked branches back together, I guess it's worth a try.

Here is a link that might be useful: Straps

"Once the ice was gone it rebounded to its normal position."

The "tug straps" could only be used (if they were to really help anything) to get the tree back together until a permanent/semi-permanent solution was applied. They could not be left in place. In this case since the branch had already returned to it's normal position, I don't see any benefit in using the straps.

First, there is no really great solution for the problem. You can't just glue a tree back together, and the wound will never grow back together. If you keep the damaged trunk, the best you can hope for is for the wound to stay reasonably clean and be covered over with new growth before rot starts in. Future stress may reopen the wound.

My advice, based on what I can see in the pictures, is to remove the damaged trunk. I don't like the many-trunked look, anyway. But, if you believe you just have to keep that trunk, the damaged area will need to be supported so that the wound can be covered over and new growth can, at least partially, restrengthen the area. I would suggest proper bolting. Some might suggest that there is really no such thing as "proper" bolting, because the solution is not "perfect", however, it might keep the trunk together for many years. Again, I would recommend removing the trunk at just above ground level.

Can you explain what you mean exactly when you say proper bolting? We talking about drilling in a couple stainless steel bolts and clamping down the split?

Yes. If you went that way, you'd need to do stainless steel hardware, get the appropriate size hardware, seat the washers correctly (directly against xylem and probably with the outside of the washer approximately lined up with the cambium layer - hope that makes sense), and the hardware installed at the proper location to provide maximum support.

Ok. If I decipher correctly, remove the bark for seating the washers (use one on the nut and head). That would make sense. Thanks for the help. Seems simple enough. Have a few months to decide, but I may give this a try.

Any other ideas folks?

I like gray dogwoods -- the flower & fruit clusters are attractive and important to bees & birds.

As far as the damage, I had similar damage to Osage orange, and it has mostly recovered. But it is an unusually tough species. So I don't know. Might simply wait & see...

no

properly prune it out..

once it leafs.. you will not see the loss .. especially in regard to the last pic ...

its been a heck of a couple weeks here in adrian mi ... this aint nothing compared to some of my damage ...

with no insult to the root system .... there is no reason that it can not fill in any open spots.. by fall ...

depending on what type of dogwood.. i would be more concerned with the multiple days near -20 .... than this rather minor pruning concern ...

prune it properly.. and be done with it ...

though i didnt think

one usually doesnt think to REJUVENATION PRUNE a dogwood.. but the shape of yours would lend itself to pruning under this method...

google that term for youtube and guidance ...

do it right.. and forget about all these voodoo remedies ... you will spend hours and many dollars.. and most likely.. end up failing.. next time you have the next ice/heavy snow storm ...

a $10 invest in a good pruning saw.. and cut that branch out.. as close to the ground as you can get down in there .. no trimming at height ... get in there ....

good luck .. go blue or green at your discretion ...

ken

I'd prune that branch down to the ground or just cut it back to what looks like another healthy lateral branch in picture three.

I bleed green my friend. That's been the bright spot I've been able to cling on to through this run of weather.

Good point on the pruning. This dogwood vigorously sends up suckers (as you can see in the photo between the fences). I can certainly see them filling in that canopy in a couple years.

Getting off topic here, but...we were very fortunate and had minimal storm damage and somehow did not lose power. We live in Lansing proper and our sub was planted with sugar maples and silver maples back in the 50's. A lot of the silver maples were ravaged, but the sugar maples (like the ones in my yard) held up very well. The ornamental pears in our area looked like someone hit the self destruct button.

Just to discuss, I don't think this is practicle....

Would something like bridge grafting be a possibility? It would involve opening the wounds, doing a few grafts and bolting it together.

Personally I vote for pruning it back but if the chance of infection is minimal the bridge graft might be an interesting experiment.

Bridge grafts are not for situations like in this thread and would not be useful.

I think everyone agrees to remove the trunk. Mario, is the picture above not giving us a good sense of how removal will change the form? Actually, as I hinted at before, I'd be tempted to remove a few more while I was at it.

We use this dogwood as cover for our recycling cart in the warm months. Its arching habit screens it well. We don't have a garage or large shed to stash it in.

That said, the pic does give a good idea of how the crown would be effected by removal. But this branch provides a majority of the screening. Losing this branch means we will lose our recycling cart cover for several years. Which is why I'm considering options to possibly salvage it.