BeniKawa Japanese Maple / wind damage causing split & seperation

3 years ago

hello all, last Fall, a rogue very high wind storm here on Whidbey Island torr off a large branch off our beloved BeniKawa Japanese maple ....in an effort to save the break, I reattached it fast, see pics, with the assist of 2 stainless bolts and some plastic wire ties ...fast forward to now: the onber 2/3rd of the trees brinbgth winter red, the reattached part not ....also, the tips of the hwlthy side showing soring bud gowrth, the tips of the reattached part not .....the runk is maintaining the red coral bark color up to the Y of the split, bit it seems the reattach did not take .....could it have to be reatached for an entire Spring & Summer grow season before it takes ? or is the reattached part a goner ? ....here are pics I just took, all insight, help and/or fact appreciated, thank you

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Comments (4)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
3 years ago
IMO, it does not look very promising for the reattached portion. But these trees can sometimes be surprisingly resilient. I'd wait to see what happens when the tree leafs out and make a decision then.
Marco Savarise thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
BillMN-z4a
3 years ago
If the damage was done last Fall, that really hasn't been much time for much healing to occur.

But even given more time and things go well, you'll only have healing of the inner and outer bark layers, the heartwood itself won't heal, so you're looking at a few to several years before the wound is fully encapsulated with enough new layers to bind things together again.

It's hard to tell from the pictures provided but some of those branches look dead and will have to be removed.

If it were mine, I'd wait a while (a season?) and if new branches start growing out from the sides of the trunk below the break and the damaged fork doesn't show good progress overall and the top doesn't fill out good, I might cut the trunk below the wounded fork and let the tree start up again from any of the new, lower branches, if that happens.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 years ago
you will know by mid summer ... and then it will be a whole different batch of questions on how to deal with removing the dead part .. if in fact it is ...

imo... you should have just properly pruned off the damage.. when it happened... instead of drilling holes thru the good part to try to save the bad part ... i understand why you had to try to save it.. been there.. done that... but it usually doenst work out .... so next time.. just properly prune it.. and let the tree grow itself into a new form ...

and most importantly ... next time you buy a tree.. avoid all trees with that kind of bark-included V crotch.. they are inherently weak.. as you found out.. prevention stats at the point of sale ... books have been written on the topic ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=bark-included+V+crotch&iax=images&ia=images

ken
BillMN-z4a
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Upon second examination, I believe after the break, the fork on the right was being held to the tree by only a thin strip of bark. That fork (right side in pictures) also looks mostly dead and has been cut off higher once before.

My first effort would've been to snip that fork off completely and let the healthy side of the tree encapsulate the wound and possibly setting new branches in that area.

Now, hole or no hole, the left side, if left by itself, would have to be splinted and/or staked for a time, to prevent further damage.