Gash in trunk of Maple...please help

andersonee

Hi, I have a large gash in the trunk of my maple tree (I just bought the house and the tree was already damaged). I noticed that the leaves are very thin this year and I'm wondering if I'm going to lose the tree. The bark is actually pulling away from the trunk near the gash. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

andersonee

Sorry, can't get pics to work. Here is a direct link
http://img34.??????????.us/g/tree1l.jpg/

andersonee

ok, apparently treeworld blocks ?????????? and changes it to ???????? haha. What's up with that? How can I embed images?

andersonee

ok I'm dumb. It's im@gesh@ck!!!!

TrevMcRev

How to post| add a picture or file| embed picture

andersonee

Ok...trying this again.

Attached Thumbnails

       

Eric Frei

How high up does that "gash" extend?

Could be lightning strike.

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andersonee

I don't think it's lightning. There is an old rusty screw in the gash (that I just found) that I think is probably the culprit. The screw is towards the top of the gash. The gash itself is about 3 feet long and ends one foot before the first branch.

Can I save the tree?

Eric Frei

Well, maybe.

How can a screw cause such a gash? Maybe something was bolted there?

Anyway, look to see if there is wound wood growing at the edges, that is a good sign.

Check out this video .....

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Brent Ferris

Is the gash on the south side of the tree? Could be a result of sunscald. If the tree is less than 10 inch diameter, wrap the trunk with burlap in the fall (removing in the spring) to minimize the problem being repeated during the winter.

The idea of sunscald is during sunny cold winter days, the sun heats up the bark, and later the wood. Both expand, the wood slower since it is insulated by the bark. When the sun sets, and the temperature drops precipitously, the bark shrinks faster than the wood (again the wood is insulated by the bark) and the bark can split. Wrapping the trunk with burlap gives enough insulation to slow expansion and contraction rates and minimize/eliminate possibility of bark splitting. Once the trunk is over 10 inch diameter, there is usually enough mass that wrapping with burlap is no longer necessary.
Typically the tree grows callus tissue to cover the split, and in due time the "gash" is covered over by bark. THe dead tissue inside the trunk will always remain.

The screw may/may not be of any import, may simply be a coincidence.