Our driveway is lined with red maples (northern fire), they were planted 5 years ago and have done very well. 2 winters ago we removed the white plastic rodent guard and the following spring 50% of them experienced southwestern bark split. Most have healed pretty well but one went down in a storm - snapped off at the top of the bark split area. And this spring 2 others suffered another severe bark split - the splits are a whopping 2-3 feet in length and the amount of bark lifted away spans 180-270 degrees around the trunk! (Trucks are about 4" diam). I didn't trim this back due to the degree of bark loss but catapillars and earwigs are massing under the bark (I have treated for bores 3 weeks ago, just in case). We have had a 3-4 week drought here with temps 30-32 often. Now these 2 trees are showing stress - they are not as green as the others, the leaves are starting to turn red/brown and folding back on their stems (inverted L), and the newest leaves are shrivelling. Questions: 1. should I re-stake to prevent more snapping? 2. should I trim back all the lifted bark? 3. If yes to #2, are the trees at increased risk to drought due to water loss from the large areas without bark? 4. Are these 2 trees dying? Recommendations to salvage? Insect sprays? Trunk wraps? watering? fertilizer? 5. should I wrap trunks over winter to prevent more damage until they are bigger? if yes, with what? 6. Is there hope????? Thank you!
Hopefully they will sprout below the damaged areas. Maybe it would help to grow some kind of evergreen shrub to shade the trunks from the winter sun on the remaining trees.
I would trim the bark back with a very sharp pruning knife. If it's lifted all the way around, I'm afraid the parts above is anyway will die, which will probably warrent taking it out. No fertilizer, no water changes. If the trees are very dry and need water, give them infrequent (each 15 days) very deep watering. No wraps. Hard to answer about the staking. My guess is the best bet is to gradually let the tree move free of the stake, if it's taking a lot of wind. In the best of cases the tree will be stronger without a stake, but that of course is not always possible. HTH -E
If a young tree is debarked 180 around the circumference and 2 feet long - is there a high likelihood of the tree dying or can they recover?
They can recover. My experience is that the amount around the trunk is much more important than the vertical length. After you cut off the lifted part, you can judge whether the tree is recovering by how well the edges heal. I have a young A. rufinerve (perhaps 6-7 ft high, but still perhaps 2 inches circumference, that was badly damaged by deer this spring. There is a long, maybe 200 degree cut on one side, then, just overlapping it, another begins on the other side for another vertical foot. The section where they meet there are only small vertical bark sections of perhaps 30 degrees each. Yet the tree seems to be healing well and there is no loss of foliage in the upper section.
I think they are toast. One you get to 180 degree of bark loss it is very difficult to recover from. Further one has snapped indicating a decay problem (which is likely in all). Leaves turning brown/red may indicate simply a lack of water from girdling or perhaps veticillium wilt. Since you are in Niagara check with the Niagara School of Hoticulture about a local arborist or simply look in the phone book. Andrew Hordyk of Arborwood Tree Service in St. Catherines may be able to help.
