Hello all! This is my first try at starting a thread in this forum so hope you will bear with me. I have a very young Japanese maple, an Eddisbury, that is coming through its first winter in my garden. I planted it in March of 2009. It is about 6 years old. As it came from a very happy home in Somerset (Karen Junker's nursery) where it received slightly less sun than it does in my garden, the odds are that it is having some settling in problems. It did very well all summer and had nice growth. Apart from this newly developed wound it seems in good condition. No dieback, no other problem areas. We have recently had quite a cold snap here (-5C at night) but it gets winter sun pretty much the whole day, and we have had gloriously sunny days of recent ! Is there anything I can do to stop this wound from getting any larger? And should I be protecting my tree from the sun just a bit until it gets a bit stronger? Thank you for your counsel and advice. *If the forum moderators consider this a dupe thread, it certainly is! There are several threads going on bark damage, I posted this question in another older thread. But apparently that is considered poor etiquette in the maple society forum ! The first stickied thread on bark damage seemed inhabited by maple professionals and I felt my little problem rather insignificant by comparison! Bit daunting, the maple society forum, but I'm really hoping someone will have some advice! I love my tree ! -parislights
Hi parislights, from what I can tell from the pictures your maple looks healthy, the buds in particular look full of life. I do not know what caused the vertical wound on the stem, but I believe it is not worth worrying about at this stage. Hopefully during the growing season it will start to heal over and your mind will be put at rest. I have experienced similar but worse vertical splits in the bark of a young Acer palmatum that was in a lot of sun, but I don't know if the sun caused the problem, and the maple itself didn't seem to notice the splits; it continues to grow well and the splits are healing up. As far as I know winter sun is only a problem in areas that experience much colder night temperatures than Paris. My advice at present would be not to do anything other than what you are already doing. (If by chance the wound should become larger then report back and maybe someone more knowledgeable than myself can give you more specific advice.)
Here's something you might try ... see image below. I like wrapping trunks with window screen when planting. Protects from sunburn, allows air to pass through, but also allows some light in so the bark can acclimate. I double wrap and staple. You could wrap single, maybe spiraling, and stapling. I don't think the wound in your tree is worth worrying about. But if it makes you more confident, wrap for a while until the canopy shades the bark more.
Hi PL and welcome to the forum! ;) This is the public part of the maple forum, and we welcome questions just like yours. I hope your love of your tree and maples generally will incite you to join the Maple Society; there are many benefits as well as the newsletter (just received the Spring issue but haven't read yet beyond noticing an exciting upcoming visit to Hergest Croft!) The newsletter also is a great way to see how the maple community is linked internationally. Of course there are many here including some great experts who are not connected to the Maple Society, but to UBC or other academic or nurseries. So, stepping out of the closet as it were, ;) I'll let on that I've seen the tree in question although the wound wasn't there when I visited in January. I think it's not serious; vertical is "the best kind" as it were, and I think it will heal over the summer so that no action is required or desirable. Personally although I hesitate to disagree with MDV, I don't like to interfere with airflow in any way. However since your plant is _extremely_ well drained, I might waffle a little in this case. I know you really want to be reassured about your beloved tree, so perhaps some of our other forum members would kick in a word or so. cheers, -E
Thank you both maf, emery for this welcome and advice as well as MD Vaden! Ill have a think about both of your solutions; comments about this wound...for the moment i think i'll just keep a close eye on the size of that wound and if it gets any bigger I'll certainly come back in here! This second part of the post maybe better off in an Introduce Yourself thread! But here goes anyway! Gee you know when I signed up on this website I thought I was signing up for the Maple Society too !! I'll check into how to do that as i would really like to be a member! I dont have hundreds of maples but they are by far and away my very favorite tree! Ive been doing lots of reading up, from Vertrees et all ! Ive made plans to visit several arboretums in the UK near the Eddisbury area with the folks that accompanied me down to Somerset to pick up my tree last year! I wish I was still traveling to Japan! What I would give to see these in the wild! Having grown up in upstate New York, the fall car journeys throughout New England to see the fall color (Maples for the most part!) are some of my fondest family memories! That and growing up in a renovated schoolhouse where we had 7 100year old + Maples...well I think these trees are firmly anchored in my heart. My UK friends are big maple lovers and have some spectacular ones in the Oxford area! Ive also met through them folks at the RHS who have been very helpful especially when i was looking for the eddisbury! Yes everyone: emery, (his trees) and his family are close friends and gave me the advice bout getting the eddisbury as opposed to the sangokaku! I heartily recommend making an appointment to visit Karen Junkers Nursery in Somerset! What a wonderland it is! Full of absolutely amazing trees! My UK maple friends were well impressed too and we came away with the car full of goodies! -parislights
Hi PL, It may be an idea to remove the dead bark from around the wound so insects don't hide underneath it. Doesn't look serious, nice tree, interesting bark. I checked the Maple Photo gallery and see it's not listed there yet. Maybe you will have some photos to add there later.
Not much in the way of dead bark just yet..;Its a pretty tiny wound! Im going to take the magnifying glass out there to see what that gives in a bit! Yes i too noticed that we were missing some photos of the eddisbury in the photo section and will try to get some on there. Of course every one has seen the photos on Esvelds site from Westonbirt as well as trees at the nursery...But no others on the net that i have been able to locate!! So yes I will be doing my best to keep mine documented and will put up photos as soon as it leafs out and into the summer, fall etc. Being as its an "only" tree it gets quite a bit of my attention. Perhaps a bit too much? I wonder how folks follow 300 specimens! -parislights
Welcome to the forums, parislights. Your Eddisbury looks quite happy, with a very attractive color to the bark. A word of warning - the affinity for maples can grow exponentially. Like you, I started off with one tree, but enjoyed it so much that I ended up getting another the next year. The year after that I got quite a few more, and before I knew it I was a full-blown addict. It becomes quite gratifying to look after and care for a collection of these diverse and alluring trees. They reward the effort of caring for them with their beautiful foliage and forms (though there are the occasional frustrations). But be careful - if you love them, keeping just one can be a hard thing to do! :-)
