Red Maple--Disorder or Disease?

[treeseer]

12"dbh 45' Acer rubrum shades condo courtyard, full of High $ shade plants. From afar I saw leaves wilting in center of crown. From beneath I saw blackish look to center stem. Told client that aerial inspection needed as part of consultation. Every major fork was tight w included bark bad. Pic#1 is of highest fork, after I took off dead bark (tore off skin of live bark--whoops!)

6" of dead bark out of ~16" total circ. Bark on nearby stem is furrowed, showing signs of dying. My initial diagnosis was bad genes--bark is dying above inclusion. No callus forming, black streaks of death spreading. Questions:

Have you seen this before in A rubrum?

Could it be a disease along with the disorder?

How to treat? My recommendation was to cut the center stem when I return in winter (to prune girdling roots on A palmatum) and cable the two side stems together. But with every fork, like pic #2, showing trouble, prognosis is poor unless I come up with a better course of treatment.

What would you do? Removal and replacement would mean her courtyard would be in scorching sun for years until a new tree grew up, and no, there is not the budget for a 30' replacement.

anyone remember wulkie's solution for included bark? I never could get a clear picture of what he was trying to suggest.

 

[Treeman14]

I'm more than a little disappointed that an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist would ask how to "heal" a tree.

 

[Treeman14]

Oh, it looks like verticillium wilt. :Eye:

 

[treeseer]

brett, the trunk is spotless; as noted the discolored bark is only at the top and as you know verticillium is soilborne. If the top had discoloration like that from v then the whole tree would be dead or dying. Also v invections typically kill in separate streaks with callusing margins, not one flat spreading sheet as in the pic.

As for "heal", the dictionary says that means "to restore to health, cure, amend" I know that Shigo made a big dichotomy between "heal" and "seal" but for goodness' sake that was 20 years ago and his point was made: I did not say that tissue could be regenerated, did I? And after rereading my post i did not see the word 'heal". Where is it?

OK, any other thoughts, please--the bar has been set lower than a limbo stick for a newt. Sorry for lack of other pictures to show entire tree's condition, but every fork is like the ones shown, and there are no other abnormalities evident.

 

[Ax-man]

Looks like another classic case of the wrong tree in the wrong spot. JMO, here on this, too many Maples like rubrum's, platanoides and in some cases Sugar Maples, are planted on poor growing sites that confine the roots, heat and light reflected from buildings, ect,ect, that they literally grow themselves into a state of stress due to the biomass they have to support from their natural decurrent growth habit and just can't get the job done properly after a given time due to the site their on. This is when opportunistic fungi that cause the cankers your showing to invade and the rest will be a down hill battle with the tree losing, slowly but surely.

I don't think the tree is a total right off, Guy, pics of the leaves look good with some decent growth occuring. I've seen Maples cope with these girdling cankers and still some how mange to survive.

If you think you can do something positive to help the tree, I'd go for it, instead of cutting it down. It doesn't look that far gone.

Larry

 

[treeseer]

Larry the tree is in an open lawn, root system mormal. Cankers seem totally due to bark inclusion and I am stumped. Help!

Waht's weird is, the main reason for the call was black ooze coming out from an old branch wound. It was almost seaed over, minor pocket of decay, no treatment needed. Then I saw all kinds of other stuff in mor evaluable trees; that happens all the time.

 

[Dadatwins]

Looks like tree is girdling itself from included bark at crotch and above the girdle the bark is dying. Poor genetics and not maintained properly as a sapling I think make for a slow high maintainence $$$ death in this species. Cutting out the bad lead and adding cables will only prolong the inevitable. You said the customer does not have funds for replacement, but over time maintaining this tree and hoping for survival and with target house a damage possibility, replacement with better species might be a cost saving in the long run. We can't save 'em all. Just my opinion.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Are the cankers only in crotches?

 

[treeseer]

Are the cankers only in crotches?

Yes the dead spots are only above the tight forks w included bark.

 

[Ax-man]

Guy, is this rubrum the plain Jane species?? or is it one of those clone varieties???

I still think there is more to this than just included bark being the sole cause of this canker. If this were the case, wouldn't it be more common place in this species or other tree species???

Larry

 

[treeseer]

Guy, is this rubrum the plain Jane species?? or is it one of those clone varieties???

Not a cultivar, as far as the client and I know.

I still think there is more to this than just included bark being the sole cause of this canker.

I wonder if it's a cultivar without exceptional color or form, a failed cross-breeding attempt. Would that explain the rarity? I've seen a lot of tight-fork issues in A rubrum but not this kind of bark death above the forks.