I start noticing this summer that the leaves of my maple tree look dehydrated. The barks on the main trunk is loosing. I saw a lot of ants on the tree. Please take a look at the pictures. I will greatly appreciated if someone could help me identify the source of the problem and save my tree.
Hi, and welcome to the forum. The leaves look ok for mid-august, I wouldn't worry too much about those. The damage to the stems is more of a worry but it looks to be healing, the example in the first picture especially is healing well and looks as if the new bark will soon enclose the damaged area. Does the damaged bark area face south (or SW or SE)? I suspect sun damage, either from intense summer sun or winter freeze/thaw sun-related injury, not sure what is most likely in your climate. If the tree was limbed up in the last 2-3 years, or some nearby shade tree was removed, this would support that theory. The ants are unlikely to be a problem, unless they are carpenter ants which make their nests in decaying wood. I live in a very different climate to you so will leave more specific advice to others, but hopefully I have given you some ideas to work on. Maybe a picture of the whole tree in situ would be helpful too for more advice.
Maf, thanks for your reply. Yes, the damaged areas face SW. There was a stretch of high-temp (>90 F) weather during the last few weeks, which might deterioate the condition. You said the bark is healing itself. Could you please advise where the new bark is? I want to make sure I wouldn't damage it by accident. Thanks.
In the first picture the brown areas are where the tree is trying to heal itself with new bark and cambium. They have nearly closed the gap over the exposed old wood. The flaking areas are the old, dead bark. In years past the advice was to treat wounds on trees with special paints and sealants, but over the last 20 years or so people have realised that it is best not to seal the wound and just let nature take its course. If the trunk is getting scorched by the afternoon sun it might be a good idea to provide some extra shade from this direction such that the afternoon sun does not directly shine on the trunk of the maple. Usually, if it is allowed to grow naturally, a Japnese Maple will shade its own trunk with leaves, but changes in the local environment may catch it out.
Not normally needed unless your local soil is nutrient deficient. Mulching is always a good idea, looks like you already have that covered. Good luck.
Is it advised to spray the exposed structural wood with any type of preventative insecticide to keep wood eating out?_
Mark, I am not sure. I have never needed to in my environment, but it might be needed in different parts of the world. Here the tree needs to be in very serious decline before it becomes attractive to the wood eaters, and thankfully none of my maples that have had exposed wood issues have been attacked. The arguement against using sealing paint on the wounds is that it would seal in "bad" fungi and bacteria, insects aren't really a consideration in this choice. I tend to think that if an insect can chew on exposed but healthy wood it could probably chew through the bark as well (rotten wood is a different story).
Seldom are the large vertical splits in the outer bark due solely to climatic or environmental caused reasons. Yes, some trees can have a bark split after a thaw when direct sun penetrates into the wood and a split develops. My feeling about this is that the wood had already been weakened by another factor generally pathogen caused which helps precipitate the splitting or actually causes the wood to split. More often it is the latter that a pre-existing condition or weakened state caused the wood to spilt. Unless we know we have an insect issue, it is not advisable to use a contact or a systemic insecticide. On the other hand if we are concerned there may be an insect problem after the wood has split, then it may be prudent to use an insecticide but which one and for which insect? In the olden, less environmentally conscious, days a organo-phosphate such as Lindane was used almost exclusively for wood borers in Conifers, Fruit & Nut trees and Ornamental trees either as a contact, fumigant or as a preventative spray to ward off the attack from borers. It is not so much that in these trees the pathogen causes the trees demise, it is the secondary invader, the borers that actually kill the trees. The problem with the exposed inner wood is that almost any wood boring insect will find the tree. As an example, in a blue weeper Atlantic Cedar, it is not the Pseudomonas syringae that kills the tree, it is once the tree is weakened from the bacterium in the plants system, a wood boring insect finds the tree, drills into the outer bark into the tender inner wood and moves inward into the cambium from there. Once inside the tree the borer activity will lead to shoots that die, branches that later on die and eventually the tree succumbs to the onslaught of the borers. So far no one has expressed any notion of what you can do for this tree right now in hopes of staving off its relative short term inevitable demise. People may be quick to tell what not to do and never once tell you what you can do other than watch the tree die right before your eyes. I have a problem with these people as it is my desire to see if I can help the tree live for another five years, ten years and even thirty years when the best case scenario from the don't do this or don't do that people is that you can pretty well expect your tree to perish in the next three to five years or even sooner. That is their proverbial remedy to sit idly by and do nothing and let you lose your tree. In other words give you a doctrine of the trees death sentence thinking that this tree will heal itself over time - wishful thinking in my "book", with damage this extensive the chance of this tree having a recovery on its own, let alone a full recovery over time is remote at best. Can happen however but the proverbial odds are very much against it. At this stage with the bark split such as your tree has, you do nothing and the tree dies before you want it to. So, it all comes down to if you want to try your hand at trying to prolong this trees life and if so, you may have to resort to using a tree sealer to help this tree along. Don't accept any opinion from people that have no hands on knowledge on this issue as they simply do not know first hand the benefits of using a tree sealant and have been bought off so to speak from the higher ups that also have no hands on knowledge of tree sealers along with their subjective so-called scientific reasoning. So, from an applied science side of the coin as opposed to a theoretical science side of the coin with no or limited practical application in their backgrounds, it is your choice of do you want to try to rescue this tree or not. That is your dilemma. If you choose not to use a tree sealant then you can help this tree by scraping away all of the loose bark and giving this tree two coats of white latex paint. Cover over from the ground to at least two feet above the current spilt in the wood, all the way around, let the first coat dry and then apply the second coat. What this will do is prevent insect invaders from entering into the exposed inner wood and will aid in the process of compartmentalization of the injured wood. Even if all you do is paint over the area where the split is, you will help this tree and through applied science in the past this has been an altruism for bacterial caused wood splits, prior to a secondary invader entering the scene. I can sum things up this way. How many palmatum type Maples that have had a bark split just under the graft or right above the graft, or in the trunk of the trees have ever recovered on their own? Not enough to give this notion any credence at all. In your case you may luck out since your tree is not a grafted plant, yours is either from a rooted cutting or is a seedling. If this tree had been a grafted tree with the grafted scion portion of the tree intact, certain demise is inevitable. With a rooted cutting or from a seedling your tree has a huge advantage over a grafted tree. Your tree can always send up a new sucker from the base of the tree which may not have the bacterial issue that the older portion of the tree has. This will not be the case from a rootstock sucker however. You have a water and soluble solute transport mechanism in peril right now. It is no wonder that the leaves are starting to show signs of desiccation with some leaf margin burn as the leaves themselves are now weakened and the burn areas will only increase in the leaves relatively soon. When the leaves burn too easily from any kind of sun or wind damage and those leaves do not drop off of the tree quickly and no new vegetative buds form, then you will start to lose wood and when you lose enough wood, the rest of the tree will shut down and the decline is complete when the tree perishes. Yes, you can use a vegetable food to help your tree along. The conundrum is do you risk giving your tree any Nitrogen now this close to Fall and burn the leaves even more which can lead to loss of twig and branch wood or do you wait until Spring to apply a granulated fertilizer, with not less than 10% Nitrogen in its formulation, then when the plant can better utilize this nutrient to aid in pushing out new growth and facilitate injured bark healing. A hard choice as if it were me, where you are located, I'd wait until Spring now but do the painting of the trunks as soon as possible if you want to forego the application of a tree sealant before you paint. I have had success just using a tree sealant without the paint in Maples and I've been doing it for over 40 years. In bark injury cases on many ornamental trees I swear by its usage in the right applicators hands. Jim
Thank you very much, Jim. I am worried about the water transportation system of the tree as well. What kind of tree sealant do you recommend? You said I need to remove all lose barks. Will this cause more bark to loose? I am pretty new with trees. So any suggestion / recommendation, whether practical or not, is welcomed. You guys are very helpful.
I have problems with some of my palmatum bark splitting in zone 5 here in Illinois. I have come to the conclusion that for me it is a combination of freeze/thaw. I'm thinking I should wrap the trunks in the winter. I kind of visualize it happening in early spring when the sap starts flowing. Maples hardy to our area are the first (other than willows) to show growth/bloom in the spring, plus that is the danger time when deer, squirrels, chipmunks, etc. will nibble on the newest growth of any in pots I sit our or any that aren't protected with a wrapping of some kind. Then while the maples' sap starts flowing on a warm, early spring day, warm sun shining on the trunk, we get zapped with a 10 degree F. night. The splits do seem to heal on their own. I am always amazed at how resistant they can be to some things. One in particular is my A. palm. 'Inabe shidare' one of my favorites. It has a split that has healed just fine and the tree looks really healthy and full, now the branches cover the affected area. I don't know if it will affect the longterm health or not. It's surely a weakened area. Kay
First off, thanks to all that did not post several of the online links that want to pretend that a major crack of this magnitude will cover over on its own. Isn't going to happen in warm and dry climates. Even my own state Cooperative Extension has people posting articles with references far removed from California stating that tree sealants and even painting of the trunks has no value at all. It makes me wonder have any of these people ever tried to care for a distressed tree of their own. Utopian let the tree care for itself banter will not work in certain situations. Weakened trees or poorly pruned trees do have a tendency to be attacked by a pathogen or insect that can and usually does require immediate attention, if we want to try to rescue and perhaps save the tree. Years ago some of us in the field of Fruit and Nut trees were quick to recommend painting of the trucks to prevent sun burn, prevent cracks and fissures we might see from bacterial and fungal infection. Several pruning books used to prescribe painting of the trunks and limbs to suppress Bacterial gummosis, Ceratocystis canker, even Fireblight from damaging a tree in a weakened state. We have to remember that it is very unusual for a soil borne pathogen to infect an already healthy tree or for an insect to come in and infest a healthy tree. With fungal and bacterial agents already in the tree from propagation techniques, we already have an issue within the tree that does not take much from a secondary invading organism to wreak havoc on the tree. We do have some Fruit and Nut trees, as well as some Maples, that do have a real propensity to be infested by a more virulent organism after the tree starts to show some effects from over pruning, decline due to lack of moisture and nutrient flow, but most of all we have some invaders such as Shallow bark canker and Deep bark canker that can enter the tree from a pruning cut. Sure we may see some covering over the cut remnant but we also can see fissures develop inside the center of the cut that do not get covered over. Those exposed fissures can become an entry point for a fungal and bacterial agent to enter the tree. Shallow bark canker in Walnuts or in Silver Maple does not happen all on its own. Even arborist pruned trees around here have led to shallow bark infection in Silver Maple. Even city arborist monitored Elms have been hit by insects carrying Dutch Elm disease soon after the trees were pruned. In this case it was better to not prune them at all but try to restore some vigor in those trees as was recommended by some others that felt the pruning of them would lead to other problem issues later. Those that felt that way prior to the pruning were in effect correct. Those trees that were subjected to a pruning spray on all of the pruning cuts did not experience any of the disease issues later that the pruned trees later on had. It is also true in areas that have some issues with Shallow bark canker in Walnuts and Silver Maple that usage of a pruning paint also warded off attack from a secondary and in the case of some Silver Maples a tertiary invader. Many people I've come across have been rather fascinated at what goes on with the wood after application of a tree sealant. All I have to do is show them in person, after a year to let them see for themselves how the wood has healed underneath the sealant. What many people would suspect because a “quack” told them so, did not readily happen that the sealant causes a drying in the wood. That is generally not the case as we prevent the wood from drying and other fissures from developing in most cases when the sealant is applied to injured wood. What happens in this case of this Maple with the wood exposed to the elements. We will see more fissures develop inside the large wound areas. With the advent of the new fissures, we see more inward wood deterioration that leads to an issue to water and solute transport flow inside the already in peril phloem. When we force the phloem to heal itself we also see more top growth die out as the phloem in repair has to slough off some of the top growth to expend more energy to heal itself. When we see this in the trunk, much more so than in the upper limbs of the tree, we can pretty well expect that much of the top growth to be sloughed off until the phloem is either repaired or feels that it is no longer impaired. Until then we have some issues within the tree. In olden day studies it was advised to fertilize these trees heavily in the Spring with a nitrate form of Nitrogen to help push out new growth. Still is used with trees that are suffering from Anthracnose fungus as well as Dogwood blight in areas with trees that are readily susceptible to infection. Even is used in areas for Elms that may or may not come into contact with Dutch Elm disease. We have precedence in other trees in the methodology of using nitrate Nitrogen to help ward off further infection by pushing out new growth and in so doing help restore vigor into the tree. I never wrote that we should not fertilize our palmatum type Maples What I did was caution how much Nitrogen we want to apply, what form of Nitrogen we think will help us and when are we better off to apply the form of Nitrogen we want to help push out new top growth. Let me give you an idea how this all works. We may see some sun damaged leaves after the Spring leaf out but how much of the successive flushes of new growth are affected by sun, wind and salt burn? Not nearly as much as the old Spring growth. Yes, some top growth limb damaged areas can heal on their own and be, for the most part, covered over enough to fool us into thinking the limb is okay when we see new undershoots develop from near the healed areas. I am not saying that this cannot happen and in cooler areas than ours we may see some new vigorous shoots emanate from those split areas. The whole game changes in the palmatum type Maples when we have trunk cracks, eroded areas along the base of the tree at or near the soil line. We can eventually prune out the limb splits and even the branch splits and cracks but when the trunks become damaged we are being silly thinking that these trees will eventually become healthy again once vigor has been restored in their systems. All we have is a weakened area that will in time prevent top growth vigor from sustaining the tree for the long term, all the while the root systems curtail their root shoot initiation due to the flow blockage down from the tree. The graft is the most tender area on the tree. Since we do not see nearly as much seamless grafting of the two woods any more, all we do see is an infection point where the two woods have not merged to become one. Yes, we may see a healing over for a while but when we crack that graft union open and look inside the wood we felt had healed we see something from those two woods we did not anticipate at all. We call this graft incompatibility and we may not see it in our palmatum type Maples for upwards of 20 years but when the supposed healed areas do not merge internally to become one wood we will see our irreversible decline start in the tree and can kill a tree rather quickly and then blame Verticillium wilt for the causal effect of the trees demise. Send me a private message for recommendation of a tree sealant. If you can locate an outdoor oil-based white paint it will be a better choice than the white latex paint. Either way wear protective hand cover, gloves, when applying either paint and/or a tree sealant. Jim
hznova, you have the whole range of advice here. Don't forget to let me/us know what you do and how it turns out. mr.shep, you seem to have done some study on this! Have you done any comparative tests on the sealant? Just something semi-scientific like "I went into the woods and wounded 50 maples, treated 25, they outperformed those not treated"? Forgive my skeptical/argumentative nature. It is difficult to ask questions politely in type. Someplace in the middle is where I fall on most things. I get my shots but I don't sign up for any new vaccine until I see it tested on the general public. Human medical science is full of plenty of missteps even over the modern era. You mentioned grafting. It is a very valid defense of the point of view that tree wounds can benefit from sealant. Splicing together two pieces of wood from different trees is ONE HECK of a wound to heal. Can't help but remember having all that grafting paste on my fingers. Obviously someone did a study that proves in that case sealant helps.
I have followed Jim's advice with regard to sealants on wounds fo various sizes, up to a couple that hare probably a bit smaller than the one in question, and I have not been let down. I have used sealants on canker-type lesions low on trunks and smaller, possibly non-pathogenic type damage in other areas of the plant, with great success. For canker-type lesions applying a copper, sulfer, or antifungal spray as a single ingredient or multi-ingredient process and removing and even smoothing dead and damaged wood, has worked well for me. After the wound is as dry as possible I have used readily available black wound sealants without the white paint. I usually applied two coats of sealant, and left it until the sealant faded away 2-3 years later. On smaller wounds, the damage is typically no longer recognizable and on the larger wounds the completeness of the compartmentalization is much great and cleaner than if left untreated. In trees that I have not cared to treat or that had clear disease problems, where I decided to let them go, near all have perished, been invaded by wood-eating insects, or are still in decline. I my experience, only the smallest wounds (usually those not originally linked to a pathogenic cause) heal themselves. Sometimes we see "yearly regression" of wounds that fool us into thinking things have improved, but this is typically only a passing respite for a resurgence of the problem when conditions are again ripe or the plant can no longer keep it at bay. Honesty, in a pinch, if I spot a wound that I have missed, and it is worrisome, I will seal it without any preparation just to be done with it. No problems with that either. My point being, that I have never regretted using a sealer or been concerned that it made things worse, and in all the case that I can remember in Japanese maples, the plant has lived longer or is still living where it certainly would have perished without intervention.
