I recently planted a Valentine Cherry sapling, and noticed that there was quite a bit of damage to the bark, which I didn't see until putting it into the ground. A strip near the base of the trunk, about 1/4" to 3/8" wide by about 6" long, was apparently damaged (scraped) at the nursery, and the bark is peeling back at the edges of the scrape. The sapling is about 5' tall, and the trunk is about 1/2" in diameter. I'm guessing that the damage is not too recent based on the color and texture of the scraped area, and the tree seems healthy with lots of new growth. Should I do something to protect or repair that damaged area, or will the tree recover on its own? Thanks, Bob
A lot depends on how deep the scrape is as to whether it will heal properly and not have the bark continue to peel away. It used to be that I would get out some of the tree seal and a putty knife and lightly cover over the area and wait for it to heal for most any tree, fruiting or ornamental. Today, I'll use the tree seal only if there is bleeding going on from a fresh injury or are sap deposits that are showing from an old injury. Cherries, both flowering and fruiting forms, do get their trunks dinged up in growing grounds and in nurseries. If the wound is not bleeding then I'd just go in with a white latex paint and cover over the scrape and then paint the trunk a little more than half of the trunk down. If your tree is 5' tall then my starting point for the paint will roughly be 3 feet high and paint the entire trunk from that spot downward all the way down to the ground. What you risk if you do not paint this trunk and cover over the scrape is that you can leave an infection point entryway for a secondary invader to like a fungus disease or a borer to come in and really hurt and perhaps kill this tree. The paint serves to protect the tree from secondary invasion and in about 2 years if the scrape area is still showing signs of bark peel, then paint the trunk again. I paint our trunks on my home garden Fruit and Nut trees every three years and for my trees with them all having some degree of bacterial canker in their systems, I will not see much evidence of gummosis in their trunks, never see the effects of Armillaria root rot when we paint over the graft unions and the paint is still the best preventative for trunk invading borers of anything on the market. I would prefer an oil-based white paint but it is not so easy any more to find the old standard paint with the linseed oil in it. Jim
