That pic is tiny, and it's hard to tell very much, but that does not look like new damage to me. It looks like a callus is closing both wounds. If this is the case, I would not worry about it. Cause, no clue, can't see enough to make any guesses either.

Arktrees

Ive had similar damage on smooth barked japanese maples before that looked like that. Just one possibility...squirrels got mine. They will leave the rough barked trees alone.My poor acer is way worse than that. And yes, your photo is hard to see real clear.

I am going to take another picture and try to make it more clear. On our camera it is crystal clear, but for some reason, photobucket didnt upload it as clear.

Arktrees,

Hi.

It is not an old injury. It happened over the winter.

If there is in fact callus, then it is an old injury. Callus does not form while a tree is dormant. So the callus would have had to formed last summer/fall at the lastest. It could have been there with the bark covering it until now. All of this is predicated on that there is in fact callus, which I can't be sure of from the picture.

Arktrees

is this a maple.. and why is it not pruned up anyway????

its a tree.. not a shrub .. isnt it..

the common name doesnt help ... if you have planted 20 trees.. i think its time for you to start thinking about learning the latin names ....

ken

ps: in 5 years.. when that tree is 5 inches thick.. or in 10 years.. when it one and a half feet thick.. that little scar will mean nothing ...

when you say: I can't tell you what this tree means to me.

===>>> my first thought is that you are treating it like a child .. rather than a tree .... but to use the analogy.. your child.. skinned its knee.. dont worry about it.. it will heal .... i bet as your new 20 get a move on.. you are going to learn all about the trials and tribulations of tree growing.. and one thing i can assure you .. they will all end up straight and true.. regardless of how or what we have to do to make them such ... its just part of the journey ... try to enjoy the journey.. while you are on it.. and dont burn too much energy on WORRY ... [heck.. its a maple.. run it over with the car a few times.. it will still be 30 feet tall in 10 years ... having already started lifting the sidewalk.. invading the septic .. and killing things under it .... lol]

Here is another picture of the damage. Please take another look. I appreciate all of your comments and advice. If you click on the pic, it will enlarge and show a closer look of the bottom spot, but if you minimize the pic you will see the other spot that is located higher.

If it is indeed a callus, does it affect the overall health and vigor of the tree? Is there anything I can do to help heal it? And what in the world caused it? We have NEVER pruned it. This is our 3rd year of owning it. We have fenced it in ever since we bought it so we know for a fact that animals never got to it. We don't have an issue with squirrels/chipmunks etc out here.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:334742}}

I still can't see it clearly. It is somewhat better, but not enough. I'm guessing, but from the ibucket address, I would say you are taking the pictures with an iphone, and then uploading them from there through some app. Problem with those, is that they often drastically resize the photo down, and that could be what is happening here. I still can't tell about your tree. Maybe when you can, take a close picture of each individual spot on the trunk, and upload those.

As for a callus, if there in fact callus formation, that is the tree closing off the damage and is a good thing. Same thing will happen each time you prune. Tree will close over the wound, and as long as it's complete before rot sets in, the tree will be none the worst for it. You might look up something on the wound healing process of trees. Should help you understand and interpret what is happening.

Arktrees

I agree that the problem is still very difficult to see clearly from your photos but it doesn't look very callused to me....yet. What is the texture in the center of these "wounds" (for lack of a better word)? Is it soft or spongy? Since you consider the problem quite recent - as in over the winter - I'd be concerned about some sort of canker occurring, which are not all that uncommon with various maples.

Ken,

I didnt see your post before posting just now. We admittedly have not pruned it yet. First of all, we don't know how to prune in terms of technique. #2 We also didnt want to take away anything from the tree when it was young and establishing. I hate to admit that it has branches all the way down the trunk. If pruning is a necessity, then I guess we'll call someone to come out and show us what to do.

I hope that a callus is akin to a skinned knee on a child. I wish I knew though how the callus came to be. Ken, do you agree it is a callus?

Don't jump to conclusions that it IS a callus, I can not tell for sure. I tried to make that clear. As for pruning, lots of excellent pruning guides on the net. Do a bit of searching and you will find them. University of Florida has put out some excellent ones. You need to educate yourself a bit, and you will be more confident.

Arktrees

Pruning off of the lower side branches/lower limbs of a rather young tree is not something that should be rushed into. These lower limbs serve a purpose in that they help to develop the trunk properly and stabilize the tree in the ground. Generally these are removed gradually over time as the tree height develops but certainly before they reach 2" in diameter - based on your photos, you have PLENTY of time before you need to consider limbing up or removing the lower branches.

I agree with Arktrees - not convinced yet these are in fact calluses. Need better photos or get a local arborist/tree person to check it out.

Here is a link that might be useful: great guide to training/pruning shade trees

'If it is indeed a callus, does it affect the overall health and vigor of the tree?'

Like arktree says.........if there is callus.......that's a GOOD THING. Callus is the tissue covering a wound when it's healing. When you get a callus, it's like a scar. It protects the underlying tissue.

Myself....I don't think that's callus formation. It's a flap of bark.

ILMT, take a breath, relax, it is healing over. Look at this link, it looks like canker to me. Read about it and stop panicing, look at #5.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cryptosporiopsis Canker

jkll

I don't know what is going on with gardenweb, but I haven't been able to post a response on here all day. A while ago I tried for the umpteenth time and the prior post is all that showed up. I am going to try this one last time and if it doesn't work, then I give up.

*Ok, so my husband just figured out what the problem was. I mentioned Daves Garden in the post and Gardenweb saw that as my posting an ad for them.

Here is my update on the trunk:

Well, I have my answer. As dismal as it is, at least I know what is going on.We had our neighbor stop by, he's a tree farmer, and has a couple hundred acres of trees he sells.

He asked me a lot of questions. I told him I bought this tree from an online nursery, and that when I received it, it had spots all over the leaves. It was not dormant when I got it, it was fully leafed out. I then called the nursery and said I think the tree has leaf spot, but the nursery told me it was not leaf spot, but instead it was their overhead watering, and that it wasn't a fungus or anything. It being my first tree I never questioned them for a minute. I found out the next year that it was in fact anthracnose and after that I picked up every single leaf it ever dropped in the fall and sprayed the tree before the buds opened in spring. I thought that would work and really never gave it another thought. Even yesterday the whole anthrascnose never entered my mind as a possibility.

The tree has 4 cankers. He believes that the anthracnose never left the tree and eventually the cankers showed up. He said the best thing to do is to remove the tree and demand my money back from that nursery for selling me a tree that they knew had anthracnose.

I actually had contacted them when I found out what it was, and they said they weren't aware of any problems with their trees, however, on their Dave's feedback someone was completely irate that their trees arrived with anthracnose. If I remember correctly he was livid that the nursery had not taken them off the website and not notified anyone about the anthracnose.. I am going off of memory as this was a few years ago but I remember it.

Anyway, I'm not calling them and demanding my money back or a new tree. The tree cost us $30, we gave it the best start that we could, we loved it while we had it, and in the end this was all out of our hands in terms of this tree's future.

Thank you for everyone's suggestions and advice.

your second try to post worked in toto ...

and dont mention whats his names garden here.. in any form ...

you rally dont want to know how much money i have lost in trees over the years.. so you lost one.. so be it..

we need a better pic of your maple.. if you want us to se what its doing ...

as gal mentioned.. there is no hurry to prune a babe.. but smaller cuts.. heal faster.. and dont need a saw .. so dont wait forever..

personally.. i would take the lowest this fall.. the next next spring.. etc ...

ken

...remove the tree and demand my money back from the nursery... strange advice for a purchase made three years ago.
My experience with leaf spot on red maples in production is that it is quite common due to daily overhead watering. It should clear up on your tree since you are not watering it every day.
In your OP you stated "it's grown by leaps and bounds" which tells me that the tree is healthy and the cankers will soon completely heal over and no longer be noticeable.

Confusion piling on top of confusion here. First off, the condition known as "anthracnose" is not one specific disease. It could almost be considered a symptom of a host of foliage-affecting pathogens. And "it" has nothing whatever to do with the small, rather insignificant contusions on your red maple's trunk. Furthermore, while anthracnose-style maladies are irksome to us, not the least of which because of the mess of leaves at a time of year when we think leaves shouldn't be falling, it is never fatal. Just irksome!

Ilove, you have a vigorous young tree there that will, with 99% likelihood, go on growing like nothing ever happened. I think you are obsessing over something that in the long run will simply not matter. Trees are not existing on such a hair trigger fine line that they aren't able to handle the little issues that come and go. If they were, you wouldn't see vast acreages of forest in nearly every part of the world.

As to the burning controversy over pruning young trees, of course you can gradually "raise it up" taking just a few little branches a year. Just don't go nuts, and conversely, don't hold off so long that in say, five years, you suddenly need to remove half the living branches on your young tree. Good lord, we prune trees all the time! BTW, if the tree is budding out, it is not a particularly good time to prune. Either wait until mid-summer, or better yet, late winter/early spring.

Do I sound a bit cranky? Well actually I'm ;^)

+oM

I'm a lazy guy, and don't know half as much as the other guys and gals on here. Many of the trees in my yard, some 60+ years old, show evidence of some type of damage. Limb broken off, lightning strike, who knows what else. Yet they're still alive and doing well.

I'd be very tempted to leave the tree alone and keep an eye on it, it might surprise you and grow pretty well. Some treatment options might also help, though I have no experience in this.

Good luck,

vince

vince

Ok, I'll wait and see how it does, and I will. not. obsess over it.

Should I though apply anything on these marks, or wrap them until the final frost? Or just leave them alone?

Leave them alone. No wraps, paints, suaves, snake oil treatments, voodoo. or spells to be cast. Most anything you can put on the wounds will hold moisture and make problems worse. Keep it dry, and exposed. the tree knows what to do with it.

I for one would still like a closer picture of an individual wound to better confirm current conditions. Just a peace of mind thing.

Arktrees

I will agree with Ark-even though I am 99% sure that these spots are of no great consequence, it is still hard to discern just exactly how they look from the pics.

+oM