ill maple

[Mike]

have a maple with bark peeling from a substantial portion of trunk. The trunk is about 2 foot diameter, bark is dead and separating from the tree about a quarter the way around, and about 3 foot high at the base.

what would have caused this dammage?? insect? desease? cold?
can this be prevented?

can this tree be saved? if so how?

 

[Deere John]

I can think of two abiotic problems that you may have Mike

First is sun scauld, cause in the spring by the sun warming (and bringing from dormancy) the cambium tissue. The tissue is damaged by a flash freeze such as found when a low pressure with warm sunshine moves out to make way for a cold high. Frost cracks are caused by the same mechanism. Is the dead bark generally facing south - 1/4 way around the trunk? Frost cracks?

The other would come from bark striping as a result of poor pruning practices. The tree is not able to seal the ripped wound as fast as the wound is drying, and the damaged area spreads. I have seen this on maple, and worse on ash.

There are some neucrosis diseases of maple that cause areas of the bark to die, but they usually stick the bark to the truck tightly, and do not cause it to sluff off.

If these don't sound close, more info would be useful.

 

[Mike]

dammage is on east side of trunk near the ground.
peeling may not be the appropriate term, but the bark has separated from the tree. the wood behind the bark appears dead. some insect dammage is evident, this may be old dammage just becoming apparent this spring..

Some months ago i took some dead portions out of a neighbors maple. the neighbor's maple has dead and separating bark on the west side. this particular tree is about 3.5 foot diameter, overall health is poor. i attributed the dead bark to "old age" but this may be something similar.

mike

 

[Treeman14]

I've seen maples with root damage that eventually works its way up the trunk. Maple trees are not good at stopping the spread of decay when the bark is injured. I would carefully remove all dead bark to expose the wood underneath. I emphasize "carefully" because you do not want to remove or damage any living tissue. Removal of the dead bark will reduce the liklihood of insects making a home under the bark and causing more damage. It will also allow the area to dry out and it will be easier for callous growth to eventually close the wound.
The most common causes for this type of injury are weedeaters cutting into the bark, lawn mowers hitting surface roots, improper pruning, or digging near the trunk.

 

[didgeridoo]

dying maple

If there is a sticky ooze from the wound it is likely to have a bacterial infection. This is probably not the cause of the wound. It sounds mechanical/human due to the large area of bark. This is not the end. It will affect the health of your tree however, My advice is to leave it alson, and let it heal. consult an arborist, and consider a mycorrizae treatment. Unfortunately, without seeing the tree I can only give general advice.

 

[Mike]

thanks

mike