Damaged Maple in Storm-How to save it?

11 years ago

I live in a NE suburb of Detroit, Michigan. We have a 35+ foot tall Maple Tree that was damanged in a recent high wind/tornado(?). I'd like to save this tree as it is still beautiful, provides plenty of shade, and cannot afford to have it taken down. I've read and heard of Tar to seal the wound, pesticided and fungicides, filling the trunk in with cement so the bark has something to heal and grow back over. One tree sepcialist said to remove existing much and rocks, extend the mulch bed to the drip line, then use composted mulch to the dripline, keeping it 6 inches from base of tree, then soaking the dripline area once per week for 1/2 hours. Many conflicting ideas and advise. Anyone know for sure the best way for me to save this tree? Thank you!!

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Comments (5)

famartin
11 years ago
Ugh.

Don't put anything on the wound, you will only make things worse.

Hate to tell ya, but a wound that big is unlikely to heal on its own, certainly not before rot sets in in a big way. The tree itself might live for a good while like that, but eventually it will keel over in a storm.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
I've read and heard of Tar to seal the wound, pesticided and fungicides, filling the trunk in with cement so the bark has something to heal and grow back over.

===>>> nearly everything in that comment is wrong ... some do talk of pesticides and fungicides.. but IMHO maple in MI [livonia bred.. adrian now] ... do not need any of that ...

and your local guy.. really wants to make some money off you ... probably a boat payment.. lol ..

frankly.. its got to go .. i fully understand budget problem .. but plan to be done with it inside 5 years ... if you can actually look at it that long ...

it will not heal.. before the rot starts.. IMHO ...

the problem.. if you care to look it up.. was improper crotch angles leading to included bark [see link] .. which made a weak point .. if you look close at that VEE ... you will see where bark was inside the crotch angle.. and with the storm pressure.. it just failed ... and the branch just above the VEE.. is no better.. and will be the next to fail ... some day in the future ...

this tree is a nightmare.. but again.. think in terms of a tree life span of 60 to 100 years .. and there is no hurry to remove ... UNLESS it is a threat to your home.. which it does NOT appear from this pic..

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: flip to the SEARCH side for info
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Thyme2dig, don't take my comments personally. They are only meant to address your proposal. And, IMO, using hose clamps to attempt to "fix" a broken branch or trunk is completely misguided and has a near-zero chance of working long-term. I hope it works (continues to work) for your tree, but the procedure flies in the face of reason if you consider how trees grow. The wood inside woody plants is dead. It will never every grow back together no matter how you clamp the split together. The ONLY way that the tree has to bind itself back together is if new wood is used to encapsulate the break. For this to have any chance of working on Lyssa's tree, it would require years and years of growth and a significant increase in trunk diameter. As the trunk grows in diameter, the crown of the tree would get larger and heavier. Even in an ideal situation, the area of the break will ALWAYS be much weaker than the rest of the trunk. As the crown grows, more and more stress will be placed on the broken area and chances of failure will increase. When we consider the fact that the trunk will have to put on a significant amount of girth, the deficiency of the hose clamp becomes apparent. If the clamp is tight enough to support the break, circulation in the trees trunk will be cut off and further growth will be impossible. If the clamp is loosened enough to allow growth to occur, it will not sufficiently lock the two sides in place for the outer most (not wood) layers of the trunk to fuse. Also, a loose clamp will likely cause further damage as the tree is moved by wind, rain, pets, etc. Like everyone else above, I think pruning or replacement are the best solutions. I STRONGLY do not suggest trying to save the top of this tree, but, if one was determined to try, there are MUCH better ways to go about it than using hose clamps.
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bengz6westmd
11 years ago
Hard to tell if it's a red or silver maple -- lean toward red. Either way, the wood's not durable. Still, you'd be surprised how quickly scar tissue will form. The rate it will decay is related to how dry or wet the exposed wood will be -- dryer means slowed decay.

Some trimming off of the broken-wood remnants at the very bottom would be a good idea, but careful not to make the edge of the wound worse.
krnuttle
11 years ago
I think I would try to save it with conditions. We had an ash tree about 30" at the base that was hit by lightning. It looked like it had hit the huge branch and broken it off. It then ran down the tree a few feet and jumped to the mail box and literally disintegrated it.

Since it is a clean split with the grain of your tree, I think I would try to save it. However based on my experience with the ash, I would wait a few months before I made any decision. While the initial loss of bark was a couple of inches just where the lightning went down the ash, after I few months I realize that the inner bark was fried, and the bark on half the circumference of the tree was loose and falling off. The tree could not survive with the the loss of half the bark.
denninmi
11 years ago
Well, if it's not a safety hazard, you could certainly experiment with it and see what happens. But to me, that is pretty bad. I'm usually an advocate of trying to save them if they can be saved, but I don't know. Also, with such a major portion of the tree gone, how is the tree cosmetically? Pretty lopsided now I would guess.

I don't know about this one, I think if it were me I'd be on the phone to the tree service and move on.

Damaged Maple in Storm-How to save it?

Comments (5)

famartin

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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