Bark Decaying on Fruitless Mulberry

enimeros

I have a fruitless Mulberry and I just noticed that the surface bark on the two main limbs is starting to rot away, and there are a ton of ants going up and down the trunk. The ants don't seem focused on the decaying portions, so it may be unrelated.

Otherwise, the tree looks great. I want to try and remedy this before it gets too bad. I am in Ramona, CA (North East San Diego County about 1000ft. elevation).

Does this sound like something common I can take care of? I can post pics later.

Thanks in advance!

Eric Frei

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enimeros

I was at work.........

pics are attached

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Eric Frei

That's some serious wounds there.

There is wound wood formation on the edges but it appears over half the circumference is affected, on large structural branches. The formation of wound wood is good, tree has some vigour left.

On the positive side it looks like no targets directly beneath if sections fail.

Those wounds and large exposed heartwood sections are also underneath the branch so sunburn may not be what did it, but perhaps a fire under the tree?

I really think on this one you need a good arborist out there, there will be some pruning, some soil conditioning, mulching, beneficial fungi introduction, maybe cambistat treatment, pruning and maybe even cabling.

The ants .... in my experience they are doing two things.

1. Farming sap suckers so check leaves carefully with magnifying glass
2. Farming secretions of sap from cankers and borer holes etc

So perhaps banding the tree with sticky stuff but not so tight like a tourniquet that it restricts vascular flow. Ants try to go over the sticky band and get stuck, eventually you rid the tree of them.

If there is sap suckers then spray to kill them off too.

The soil treatments etc will increase resources = increase tree defense and vitality. You don't fertilize, we do not want growth at the expense of defense.

The exposed areas need to be sprayed/brushed frequently with antagonistic fungi, tests show you can get up to 3 years value but a treatment every 6 months will help prevent some pathogenic fungi colonizing.

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