maple tree

tamarak

i planted a maple 3 years ago that was 3" at butt and 15" high. the next year i got a boring beatle and the leaves got red spots and the leaves stopped growing. i got a mix to kill the beatle. the next year the tree did ok but did not grow much and the bark split on the west side, i was told it was the sun. i put that black patch stuff on because the wood was showing through. year 3 the bark is falling off in big slabs all away aroung the tree, soon the tree will have no bark from ground to 5' up. the tree is doing great and shows new growth, best its looked since i planted it.
will the tree survive with all the bark falling off, is there anything i can do?

Jon

Eric Frei

Yeah, stop teasing and lets see it.

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Treebeard

Yes pics would help here.

I do a lot of work in maples and see large strips of bark falling off regularly.

The tree will eventually be weakened and some pest or blight will kill it off.
However I've seen 4+ in diameter trees live for quite some time with only an inch wide strip of bark traveling up the trunk.

I might take a pic of one I know of to see if it matches yours.

What part of Idaho are you in? And what elevation?

treeshaveneeds

Treebeard

What kind of maples are these? Manitoba Maple? Silver Maple?

Generally if the bark is completely off all around, and there is no outside tissue joining the roots to the top, the tree has had it.
The bark split is likely from sunscald, and with a new tree, wrap the trunk with burlap in the fall (taking it off in the spring). The idea is that in the winter, on a cold sunny day the bark and wood heat up and expand during the daylight hours. Once the sun sets, the bark shrinks faster than the wood, and the bark splits exposing the wood to cold damage, and insects and spores during the growing season. Eventually the tree will seal the wound and once the diameter of the trunk reaches 10 inches, the sunscald effect is minimal.

It is hard to say what the black stuff was, but most of them contain petroleum distillates. And mostly, it does more for your peace of mind, and making you feel good, and any benefit for the tree. It may well be there is a product that does good, and I hope the member(s) that know of it will share the info.

And I heartily agree, pics would help a whole lot.,

Treebeard

The specific tree I had in mind was either a silver maple or red maple I can't remember right off. The damage occured in the spring and it lasted into the next year with just a tiny strip of intact cambium. It would have actually lived longer but it was so weakened I cut it down to clear space for the adjacent white oak and dogwood. This was an extreme example hwvr. most of the time I see 4in. strips peel off the maples. I actually went for a walk to inspect some of the maples that I knew had damage from years ago and to my surprise some have managed to recover quite well but these were 6+ in. dia. and 30 ft tall or so. Some of the ones that didn't make it and were still standing seemed to develop a type of moss in the crown and lost most of their leaves.

treeshaveneeds

Could the trees that have a 4 inch strip of bark missing have been hit by lightning? Or are we talking a large number of trees in a small area.

I had an experience with a Manitoba Maple. The client wanted to remove the tree, and the attending tree service (in the fall) advised removing all the bark, all around the tree from the base to 2 feet up, and when the tree was obviously dead in the spring, no permit would be required, and the removal could be done with no fuss.
The client was shocked to see the maple fully leaf out in the spring. She fired the initial tree service, and I came in on a consultation to explain why the tree was still alive. I was shocked at the callous treatment of the tree, but also fascinated that a tiny strip of cambial tissue had been formed (from the base or the top - don't know which) connecting the basal bark and the upper bark, and this tiny strip - maybe 1/2 inch wide on a 10 inch diameter stem, was sufficient to supply enough sap to for the leaf buds to open. This cambial tissue had formed on the back side of the tree, away from her view, and since the rest of the tree was drying out and the wood getting discoloured she was understandably dumbfounded. No doubt the tree thought it had one up on her.
Sadly, she still wanted the tree gone. And I took the tree down. BUT I kept the section of stump to show others about the tenacity of Manitoba Maple and that not all tree services feel the same way about trees.


The "moss" that developed. Was this moss or heavy accumulations of lichens. I have seen heavy growths of lichen that suffocate trees, presumably by clogging or covering the lenticels.