I have a Japanese Maple that is about 6-8’ tall that has splitting bark at top of trunk. Should I try to pull it off and apply grafting wax and fabric wrap?
Good evening Deborah and welcome to the forum. You have a very old maple there, but all is not lost. IMO you should remove the loose bark as long as it doesn't girdle the branch completely. Looking at the buds, nutrients are still getting to the top. You do not want water getting into the crevices and sitting there, as that will cause disease and rot. Once the loose bark has been removed, do not cover it or apply wax, this can seal in disease. Let it heal naturally. You can already see natural healing on upper branches to the left in your photos. I do also think that your maple could do with a good prune next year before Spring arrives, as there is a lot of crossing branches, but at the moment I would remove any dead wood, as this can be done at any time. In the forefront of your photo there is the chance of a new leader and the old crossing branch can be removed to allow this to grow away from the center of the tree. If it were my tree I would do this at the end of June. Others on the forum may have different opinions, but I think this is the best way forward for your tree. Hope thats of help.
Thank you. Can you be more specific as to which branch to remove? p.s. the house was built in 2003 so I think it was planted then.
Hi Deborah, in photo 2 you have a branch that appears to grow at right angles ( to the left) with two dark red shoots coming from it opposite each other. The shoot to the left I would keep as a new leader and the one to the right discard. The older branch I would remove about two inches above the new leader shoot. This would allow for the tree to be opened up and let more light to penetrate. As you can already see there are a lot of dead twigs inside, this is very often caused by a lack of light getting into the tree. A lot of dissectums suffer from this btw. Maples should be open and airy, not a dense canopy. Too often people create a thick lollypop shape to a maple tree and this does it no good at all. Correct pruning from day one should be the order of the day, but as it appears someone else planted it in 2003, you are playing catch up. It may take a few seasons to bring it into the right shape, but IMO worth the effort. Don't worry about the scaring on branches as this gives it so much character.
I think the cambium died some time ago below those areas of lifted bark. Further, I think the during the last growing season (i.e., in 2020), or even prior seasons, there was some regrowth into these damaged areas which probably lifted the bark from the wood beneath. Winter weather then caused the lifted bark to crack/split so that you now notice it. It clearly has happened before as I've indicated on you first pic. . Simply fick off the bark from these bark cracks and I am pretty sure you will see more of this @Deborah Nansel. As @Acerholic said, this lifted bark serves no good purpose on your tree and may wind up harboring pathogens that will do it serious harm. You do NOT need to apply anything after flicking off the loose bark. This kind of damage is very common in sunny cold winter climates. When the daytime temperatures are below freezing, bright sunlight desiccates the exposed surfaces. Of course this happens even in summer, but then water can be resupplied, unlike when daytime temperatures are below freezing. Dry winter winds can also do this this or can be a contributing factor. I think your possible remedies require less wind/sun exposure in winter. I cannot say how you might accomplish that. Being located on the north side of you house, say could eliminate direct sunlight exposure during winter. This would also need to be a location that is in the lee of the prevailing winter winds, I think. I have no way to know if such a location has suitable summer conditions to have this or another tree to be healthy. ... just my guess.
I have had suffering trees like this in my gardening experience and, tough-love as it may seem, I would consider this a good opportunity to replace it with a healthy young Japanese maple or other tree that would thrive in that location.
