Bad cambium tear - to seal or not to seal?

R.Boreal

Attached are some pics of a (???????) tree in SE Pennsylvania, USA. I have tried to ID but am having a problem. Overall height is about 25-30ft, very round, broad and dense crown. Looks pretty mature overall.

I am aware of the current trend to not seal pruning wounds, just let the collar seal itself within a few seasons. But a limb fell and tore a hugh chunk out of the side of the trunk. Wound is about 12-14" long, 6" wide and a good 1" or so deep at some points. And good crikey Christmas I did take several pictures of the tear, trunk and overall specimen but I may have accidentally overwritten them... whatever. But the one pic shows the top of an old wound, very similar, that healed itself. So maybe that answers my question.

Since this damage is severe to an otherwise healthy tree, I wanted to confirm, do nothing at all? Do something? (Other than maybe pruning add'l limbs that are prone to the same type of failure.)

Thanks mates and sheilas.

Miko

Attached Thumbnails

   

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dcarter

My first impression was Georgia Basswood (telia georgiana) but upon closer look at the round leaves it's most likely not. May be cottonwood, or it may be a flowering variety of crabapple but it's a pretty large one if so. Leaves look similar, off top of my head I can't recall what their fruiting bodies look like (too many years since Dendrology class.) I noticed one leaf looks pointed but a couple look round. Can you tell us, are the mature leaves round or pointed? By the way, if it were basswood it would be the largest specimen in the universe.

As for the wound, I would say leave it. IMO, if it's an inch deep it's most likely past the cambium over the majority of the wound site. Otherwise, try to keep it dry (don't wrap it with anything) but don't let water collect and sit on it for any period of time.

Eric Frei

Looks like lots of included bark branch unions, likely more may fail similarly.

Some pruning to reduce length and weight of those other limbs will help prevent another tear out, try to prune to a better form (meaning one that doesn't grow out laterally).

As far as the wound goes, 2 things will happen.

Fungi will colonize the site and microbes/borers/bugs etc may also attack the site.

A strategy to keep fungi out is coating with trichoderma .... but the bugs? Trouble is stuff like neem oil or even euc oil kills off trichoderma so you'll have to figure out something for the bugs (if there's any). Borers are usually the larvae of bugs and moths so perhaps sticky strips near the wound might trap catch the bug .... but it's a long term thing eh. Imagine changing sticky stips for 5 years etc or painting the wound every 3 motnhs with trichoderma, that's why in most cases people do not bother.

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R.Boreal

The leaves definitely all have pointed tips. The reason I can't be sure of the species is cause the overall tree is the wrong height for all the specimens that match the leaves. Cottonwood is 70-100ft tree, and BTW, so is basswood. Whaddya mean, largest specimen? You mean smallest, right? My books say basswood is typically 50-70ft. Also the basswood leaves in my reference pics have sharp toothed edges, and these are all rounded, very gently serrated. So I don't know. I looked at alder - still not sure. Thanks for your notes on treatment. As Eric says, definitely have to take some weight off those lateral branches to keep this from happening again

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cte539

Bradford Callery Pear
Pyrus calleriania 'Bradford'
Municipal guys call this tree the over time tree becouse of its tendency to split out during snow and ice storms.
Tree is full of tight crotches
Will survive with out treatment. If anything, bark trace around the wound.
Paul

R.Boreal

Hey, thanks Clifton! I grew up in Totowa and went to Montclair U.

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dcarter

cte539, Nice call on the Pear. I read that, got up and looked out my kitchen window at a Bradford Pear in my neighbor's yard and thought, "Duh, of course!"