No advice, but much sympathy! Poor tree! I LOVE my Aconitifolium, and seeing that wrenches my heart.

Show me a photo of the bark please. Both sides please.

Thanks,

Dax

I had heard that the sap could freeze under the bark and cause significant damage to smaller trees during this nightmare...but I hadn't expected it to look quite like that.

I am a bit suspicious as to whether that was caused by freeze, but I can't think of anything else that could cause that kind of damage (some small critters can eat bark and leave those results, but I wouldn't think that much that quick).

Regardless, I offer my sympathies and I'll keep my fingers crossed as I have a korean maple that has been suffering from cold/heat/overwatering stress. Trees just don't like drastic changes in environmental conditions, and this spring is proving to test their adaptability.

My digital camera is off at prom (loaned it to a friend's son)but I'll try and get better pictures tomorrow or the next day... both sides. Actually, the first picture and the second picture ARE taken from opposite sides of the tree.

The damage appeared in a matter of a few hours--it was fine when I looked at it in the late morning...went to a friend's house, looked at it much later in the day (at dusk, after the heat of the day) and the damage was done. sigh.

I may just wait and see...but aconitifoliums aren't all that easy to come by...and there is a lovely example at the garden center where I work. Of course, the Tamukeyama I've been eyeing for weeks is stunning too...at least I get a "deep discount."

"Hello, my name is Melanie, and I'm a Japanese Maple addict...."

"Hi Melanie" :)

It looks like a small Buck rubbed his antlers on your tree Melanie. Just a guess, because this is not the time of year they usually do that. Doesn't freeze damaged bark stay on the tree for awhile?

I wish to see the strips if you still have them, both sides.

botann's answer makes much more sense to me than freeze damage. One part actually looks like a large vegetable peeler was used, i.e. There's no question in my mind as a matter of fact.

Thanks.

Regards,

Dax

botann--well, it HAS been a few weeks--freeze was Satuday night of Easter weekend...damage appeared Tuesday May 1. That's three weeks (I was working from memory in my OP--always dangerous--I just got out the calendar and counted.)

It's tough to tell from the photographs..but the tree is only about four feet tall...damage is limited to 24" and lower. Would a young buck rub that low? I'm willing to blame almost anything on adolescent males... as the mother of a couple of boys... but this didn't LOOK like the type of damage I've see deer do. For one thing--none of the branches were disturbed. In the past when I've seen deer danmage, it ususally starts no lower that 14" and goes up for at least two feet...and the little branches are all over the ground. Still, it could have been a young 'un de fuzzing new antlers...except it IS rather late...

'Tis a puzzlement.

Actually, I'd almost rather it WAS a deer. I can protenct against deer. I'll encircle the trunk with some chickenwire just in case...and I'll do the same to any other maples that follow me home.

Nice to "see" you, btw!

Off to work at the GC!

melanie

I had thought about the deer problem as well...but the damage they impose is usually more obvious. There are usually shreds and broken twigs like mentioned above, but this appears neatly done. Regardless, I wouldn't rule that out and proper protection should be used.

I can't tell much from the picture you posted, but I am wondering if the bark damage includes striping away the inner bark. I have seen some cases where bark seemed to be stripped off, but the inner bark was intact, at least partially. If that is the case your tree is either OK, or can recover. If you look closely you may be able to tell if the actual sapwood of the tree is exposed.

Are there any marks that might indicate teeth marks? Or some kind of scraping?

In any case, its not deer.

--Spruce

I'll have to agree that deer damage is probably not it. I've never seen a deer rub that low.

It does look like someone took a potato peeler to it. One of my teenage daughter's friends took a knife to one of my Japanese Maples once. Just a long slice up one branch, not near as bad looking as yours. That was eight years ago and the scar is still there. I had a 'talk' with him. Sometimes teenagers need an 'education'.

What other critters do you have wandering around your area?
Rabbits usually eat what they strip off, don't they? I don't have many because of the coyotes so I don't know their damage very well.

It does not look to me like rabbit damage but NO those waskewy wabbits oft times just slice off branches and leave them ...I guess sort of like a taste test (many tree they trry including JM's but don't eat ...just ruin) ...youll find a nice smooth angular sliced nubbin with the branch or whole tree totally intact lying under the cut branch or trunk (whole tree only if it's small enough tree jackalopes haven't been around in years ;>) ) I honestly have NEVER seen a rabit actually eat what they snip as far as trees!!...they are nasty, thoughtless creatures fuzzy yes desirable NO ...but I don't think they have... or for that matter any other critters have.. the skill to "skin" a tree like that ..David

The real question is...will this tree make it? I've fenced it off, just to be sure...

To date--no leaf drop. In fact, it has unfurled some new leaves. I've uploaded additional pics of the damage... I took them as I walked around my little tree:
1)
{{gwi:1039885}}
2)

conifers--Here are two pics of the bark peelings...I'm afraid they've dried and curled. I'd hate to think someone took a vegetable peeler to my tree...

Would a vegetable peeler have loosened the bark at the edges of where it has popped off? Because it appears to be loose there in a couple of spots...

ANYHOO...what's done is done. I think I'm going to "wait and see." And hope for the best. I'm choosing to believe that the fact that my tree is still putting out new growth is a positive sign.

Brought home a wee (though pricey!)'Beni Hime' today...he's going to live in a pot on one of my stone walls. Oh, it's a dangerous thing to work in a GC. Sometimes I think they should just pay me in plants... Pics tomorrow. (In a different post!)

'Tamukeyama' will probably follow me home after my next paycheck!

melanie

If thats all the "intact" bark that you have I doubt it will live for long ...may survive this summer or until late summer doubtful it will by next spring...if 1/2 or even less was left intact all the way up it would probabably heal..but that is not the case you have but a small strip...my prognosis is don't get your hopes up..I hope I am wrong but it would be a miracle if it lives just as the cause will remain a mystery... If all our trees lived we would have a jungle accross America...some make it some don't...thats life and for those of us whio have lived through this latest spring debacle we all are or will be experienced learning to cope with loosing at least a couple JM's. At least that's the case with me... David

That tree will always be succeptible to pests/disease now and/or a short-lived life. I'd probably keep it in a pot and trimmed. Thanks a lot for posting the pictures. I'd say that no matter what, it was mechanically damaged. The strips are too perfect, the bark has not peeled back or dried out which would cause brittle curved pieces (cambium connected to bark), so frost-damage may be ruled out.

Dax

That looks like deer rubbings to me, but I don't think that bucks have antlers this time of year. Unfortunately, I think your tree is toast, but only time will tell.

For some reason, out of all of 20 Japanese maples, Acontifolium is the only one that deer have munched on. We have a lot of deer in my neighborhood and they create havoc in my yard. Twice they have eaten branch tips off my Acontifolium, but they've never bothered other JMs in the area, including Garnet, Viridis, Red Dragon, Crimson Queen, Bloodgood, etc.

Dax--

Well, the one long piece of bark that I found HAS curled significantly--that's why I'm holding it in the one picture. and the small pieces are all curled a bit...but it doesn't really matter. Dig it up and keep it in a pot? I'll consider that...though why would that make it easier to keep alive? I'm relatively new to JM's...

Sounds like I may be shovel pruning the tree. Actually, the new ones at work have a nicer form than the one I bought last fall... hmmmm.... perhaps, if one of them is still there after my NEXT pay cycle (post Tamukeyama)I'll bring one home...)

dawgie--
I spray all my young and/or tasty plants with one of two sprays, at least once a month, oftener if I have new growth. I alternate between Treeguard and I Must Garden. Allows me to have roses, hydrangeas, hostas, pansies, etc. I generally plant only NON-tasty things, but some things I've just GOT to have.

i dont think its going to make it, but if you have any JMs that arent named then you could do a graft