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Tree Damage: Sometimes There Isn't Anything You Can Do!

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Do any of your trees look under the weather?  In most cases, I can identify what problems are from pictures that I receive, but I admit that sometimes I am stumped. Sometimes there are pictures that show a problem and there just isn’t any hope for recovery. Such is the case with the picture below.

Tree recovery

As you can see, this tree has been severely damaged and unfortunately will most likely die.

These could have been the causes of the tree damage:

  1. There was damage when it was moved to the place where it was planted.
  2. Freeze damage
  3. An animal fed on the bark
  4. A combination of several of these factors.
By looking at the base of the tree, you can see that a good deal of scar tissue of callous has formed around the wound as well as the crack that runs up the length of the tree. It is easier to see the callus in the close-up of the damage below. Callus tissue takes time to develop.  I don’t know when this damage occurred, but I can guarantee that it was several years ago and not last year. If a tree is injured, and the tissue isn’t repaired, it will compartmentalize or “wall off” the damaged tissue. Then, it will continue generating new tissue. The healing process doesn’t develop from the inside out, but it does so by growing new tissue, or callus, over the wound. This growth process forms a protective boundary that will prevent further infection or decay from spreading into the new tissue.

Tree recover

In the case of this tree, the damage was so severe that the cambium layer was almost totally eliminated. A good way to describe the cambium layer is to imagine a series of straws, stacked up on each other, end to end. These straws are the phloem and xylem, the structures that move water and nutrients throughout the plant. This tree starved to death over several years. Unfortunately the only choice is to remove the tree and start over. If you are having a problem with your home landscape, contact your local neighborhood Spring-Green professional.