Remove all the lose bark, use a sharp razor (utility knife with new blade in it) to cut back to where the bark is still well attached. When your done the bark should be well attached to the tree at all points. You generally do not want to use any type of protector or sealant.

It also looks like it may be buried too deep. The flare at the base of the tree should (needs to be for the trees health) be visible.

See this photo:

http://greenscapesgardencenter.com/images/planting%20depth.gif

If it is in fact too deep, carefully dig out the extra dirt to properly expose the flare. If there are any roots that appear to be circling around the base of the flare, take a photo and post, these may need to be removed

Remove a 3'-4' circle of grass from around the tree and replace it with mulch.

Go ahead and trim off that dead branch that is about 3' high. Snip out any other completely dead branches, I see at least one.

I would say it is a northern red oak, I planted one in my front yard this year.

I think it will recover well if you follow these directions.

Water it only when the top couple inches of soil dries out, if your not sure if it needs water or not, dig down a couple inches with your fingers and see if it is dry. Over watering this tree in this soil will eventually kill it.

Jamie

In addition to jamie's good advice, this looks to be caused from frost cracking. Not sure wrapping it will do anything now...

Very common mis-planing occurrence. And you'll want to keep the grass away from the bole.

Dan

Tree is some kind of oak.

2" might be a bit deep for the soil to be allowed to become quite dry, much rooting of trees occurs just below the soil surface. On a damp heavy soil nearly superficial rooting is even more likely. Drying out of small feeder roots will not help the tree at all.

I'm 'pretty' sure that the first two pictures of the fresh damage are older and the two frost cracks are shown healing nicely on their own in the lower images. If that is the case, put the razor blades away!!

The fact that there is no top growth is not unusual at all, if this is a recently planted tree. Trees, if left to grow at their own pace during establishment (which is the right way to go), will concentrate on root development first....THEN the top growth will begin to happen.

Thanks for all the helpful comments!

I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for in trying to expose the flare/root collar. I dug down a bit until I started getting a lot of fine roots, from the tree, I guessed.

{{gwi:429930}}

Do I need to go further? Am I looking to hit bigger tree roots rather than just fine to grass-sized roots?

Thanks again!

Paul

It looks like your right about there. The main thing you looking for is to have that flare at the bottom of the tree exposed. A tree should never look like a straight stick going into the earth, you always want to be able to see that flare. I can't see for sure if the flare is visible on all side, but if your not quite there yet, your close.

Example of a good visible root flare on a mature tree, it is much more difficult to see the flare on young trees, but it is there. This tree is also properly mulched - without deep mulch being piled against the tree.

{{gwi:429931}}

I'm including some additional info and photos of girdling roots. It is a bit more than you need to know for your tree at the moment, but it is a great thing to keep in mind for future care of your trees.

This tree was buried too deep and I am in the process of extracting it, but it shows you about what the flare should look like:

{{gwi:429932}}

Notice the girdling root, you want to avoid these - they commonly happen when trees are buried too deeply (but at times in some species of trees, I was told by a isa certified arborist that it seems to happen anyway, even with proper planting). I plan to remove the root from this birch and I think it will be fine.

This is what happens later on to many trees when the girdling roots are not corrected; it is too late for this tree, the tree is going to die from the girdling root (it is not raised up anymore as the tree has grown into it, but you can see where the outline is from the root that girdled the tree, it goes left to right in the center of the photo):

{{gwi:429933}}

(how do I know that someone is going to reply to this and say good riddance.....)

I wonder why deep planting would cause circling. I don't wonder why so many trees and shrubs that have been left in pots too long at some point in the sequence from propagation to installation in the final planting site have deformed roots.

I know I read something recently again that talked about a connection between deep planting and girdled roots, I'll see if I can find it.

A lot of them very well may have the problem started in the pot, then the problem literally gets buried, until years or decades later that it kills the tree.

A site that talks about the causes of girdling roots, including planting too deep.

Here is a link that might be useful: Girdling roots Causes

That's one hell of a link. Thanks.

Dax

I spent some time and continued digging to see what the first real roots were doing. My untrained eye spots three larger roots and two more maybe half the diameter of the largest ones. Two of the largest roots seem to be coming out directly away from the tree, visible going to the right and toward the bottom in the first photo below. The third of the largest roots and both of the next smaller ones are significantly circling the tree. They can be seen clearly in the second photo below. They all start at about the 6:00 position in the second photo, and one smaller root heads counter-clockwise while the large root and the other smaller root head clockwise.

{{gwi:429934}}

{{gwi:429935}}

{{gwi:429936}}

Does this look like something I can salvage? Or am I better off to remove this tree and replace it with a properly planted tree?

I wouldn't remove the entire tree just yet. If you can, gently tease out the girdling roots, dig trenches outward from the tree, and lay them in. If you find they aren't flexible enough to bend, cut them off close to the base. Then, see what it does next year. I've seen trees recover nicely from worse root loss if properly mulched and watered correctly. Worst case scenario, you lose the tree and need to replace it anyway.

Good work on digging it out. There is no damage to the tree from the circling roots.

I don't think you will lose the tree. Here is what I would do. Fill that all in with mulch right now. Keep it watered properly this fall. Once it drops it's leaves, pull away the mulch, and do as nick suggested, untangle / cut as necessary to get rid of those 2 main circling roots. Make sure any cuts you make are clean, done with a sharp tool. Then push a little dirt back in around the root, and put the mulch back in place. You can use mulch for most of that space that is exposed right now, I would just put some dirt at the lowest parts.

Water it properly in the spring (don't over water it). Do not fertilize it. You can give it some quality root stimulator in the spring if you feel like you need to give it something, but it isn't going to do much anything on a tree this size.

The tree may grow slowly next year, while the roots heal, but If you remove the roots after the leaves drop this fall, I think it will recover.

Nothing goes higher than right about where the red lines are, no dirt, no mulch (as you can now see, it was buried too deep):

{{gwi:429937}}

Also go ahead and make a 3'-4' circle with no grass and only 3" deep of mulch (2' on each side of tree). No edging necessary, just dig down a little bit, make a little trench, fill it with mulch to the same height as the grass, then you can just mow up flush with the mulch - no weed wacking necessary.

Should be about 1 hour of work this fall with what should be quite a good chance of saving this tree.

Good Luck, Let us know how it goes.

Jamie