Our landlords had some tree trimmers come to clear the tree branches from hanging over into the street. They ended up cutting a major part of the tree (~1.5 feet in diameter). I feel like they cut at a really bad place. I’m curious:
Can this kill the tree? Will it becomes diseased because this is so large? Should I spray something on it to protect t it (see photo for example)? How long will this take to form a callous? Any other advice?
P.S. I know it’s the landlords problem and they asked for this service but I really love this tree and I hate that this happened.
by kravenmoore21
6 Comments
Oof
No. The cut alone isn’t enough to kill it since it looks like it was a branch, or a separate trunk. Your pictures show your next move! You’ll use that spray and coat that big boy good! It really should be enough. I had a split cherry that lost one of the trunks at the base, and carpenter ants started moving in. I used the stuff in the little glue can, but I coated the hole and sealed the suckers in. Been 4 years since, no issues. General rule is treat tree wounds like people wounds. Cover the raw openings to prevent infection. Brace and bolting broken limbs are like a cast for a broken arm. Scars can be ugly but tell a story.
don’t spray it. best you can do now is let the tree do its own decay response.
it’ll likely rot before it can seal properly, good news is it’ll take a little while. and you might have moved out by then!
It won’t kill the tree unless there are other severe stresses (drought, root damage, etc), but that doesn’t look to be the case. It has definitely reduced the tree’s lifespan. The wound will decay, that decay will weaken the attachment of the other large branch and the main trunk; in all likelihood the tree will become unsafe due to decay caused by this cut. The bark below the cut and some of the roots below the cut may die which would make for more serious decay. There’s nothing you can do to stop the decay. But decay issues are years in the future.
Don’t spray the wound. Sprays can, in some cases, speed up decay by holding a slightly elevated amount of moisture in the wound making it a more suitable environment for decay fungi. I have heard some research scientists say that theoretically, if you’re able to seal the wound with a totally waterproof barrier, that may raise the moisture level enough that decay fungi have difficulty colonizing the wound. But to my knowledge there is no empirical evidence for that, it’s unclear to me what you could use safely as most sealants would have compounds that may be toxic to the tree, and it wouldn’t stop decay totally. Anecdotally wound sealants seem to, at best, make no difference.
It’s hard to say for certain. Large wounds can certainly kill trees. While certainly this is certainly a large wound, my opinion is that they didn’t take it back too far into the collar which is certainly a positive in its favor. It also doesn’t seem to be in majorly adverse health to begin with, which is also a plus in its column.
Don’t waste your time with wound sealer. It hasn’t proven to be effective, and if anything can be detrimental especially sprayed on days after the cut. Because this cut seems to have been done properly and left the branch collar in tact, it should be able to effectively compartmentalize and heal itself over.
All things considered I would let it ride. Unfortunately there’s nothing you can do at this point.
Treat it with Trichoderma to suppress colonization with harmful fungi. It’s not a guarantee, but it increases the chances.