No sure what caused it but there there was a small quarter size section of the bark that was damaged or peeling. So I peeled it offer entirely and it was just the outer later of the bark. I tried to peel most of it to get rid of any area that would collect water. But it was pretty tough, so I grabbed a knife to try to smooth it out as much as I could. Hopefully it will repair itself? I sprayed some colloidal silver on it just in case.
Looks like it could have been mechanical (i.e., something bumped the tree) or maybe an animal nibbling. Eventually bark will grow over it. For future reference, if you get to this within the day it happened, the most effective thing you can do is cover it with a moisture barrier of some sort for a couple of weeks. Say, wrap a couple of layers of plastic film, such as saran, over it. After a couple of weeks an new epiderm will have formed over the cambium and the wrap will no longer be needed. Keep the flap of bark if it is in good condition, but remove it as you did, if it is mangled. With a wound like this, there may well be residual cambium cells on the wood (xylem initials). Promptly arresting moisture loss can keep this alive as well. If so, the wound will 'heal' dramatically faster than otherwise. Wrapping with plastic is simple and easy, but one can use wood glue or plumber's putty to do this. I don't know that colloidal silver does anything.
I had very similar damage to an orange dream, lightly more extensive..it turned out it was likely to have been a wood pigeon..I moved the tree, and noticed this fat wood pigeon coming back repeatedly to the same spot, started chowing through thick dark ivy as it’s sweeter lunch had been removed..a wood pigeon that has feasted repeatedly on ivy is safe from my cooking pot. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough to take the action osoyoung suggests, I would have done.
Hi vbx, I had similar this Spring from vermin. This time on my Iijima Sunago. Found out it was field mice chewing away at the new buds. I covered the lower part of the tree and it is recovering. I dont think we can really imagine what goes on in our garden during the night and early mornings. dicky5ash has made a very good point about his Wood Pigeon,(very destructive birds), they are also fat for a good reason, they eat 'OUR TREES'. Totally agree with Osoyung methods to aid recovery.
Nothing much to worry about IMO. Although there are different schools, I think that protecting the cut is better than not using any kind of paste on a wound. Some bonsai enthusiasts even use aluminium sticking tape, the kind used by plumbers. Spraying a fungicide before is recomended.
