maple Is my maple tree okay/salvagable? I assume this is bark inclusion

[Lauryn]

Hi, I didn’t plant this Norway maple but my dad did about 15 years ago and my dad never exactly cared for the trees beyond planting them. 

 

There’s an area of this tree I don’t see as often because there’s a willow bush in front, but I went there today to remove some grass and noticed all the black marks along the stem. I first assumed wetwood but now I assume this is bark inclusion? I absolutely adore this tree and I’m devastated thinking of anything happening to it. Can this be fixed or helped in any way? 

[daltontrees]

Norway maple is famous for this. Sometimes it ends badly. Looks like it's too late to prune it out. Could be managed with bracing, thinning or reduction, depending a lot on wind exposure.

[Lauryn]

2 hours ago, daltontrees said:

Norway maple is famous for this. Sometimes it ends badly. Looks like it's too late to prune it out. Could be managed with bracing, thinning or reduction, depending a lot on wind exposure.

Thank you for the response!! Such a pity my parents didn’t prune it when it was younger. I was wishfully thinking and hoping even a huge cut at this stage could be feasible. I assume even with cabling it would still just rot and eventually die from the included bark anyway?

[Will C]

With the correct management detailed above it could survive for many years however in my opinion the ongoing cost needs to assessed on an effort/cost vrs reward basis at that is your decision. A picture showing the whole tree and it’s location could help. 

[Lauryn]

Sorry I had actually meant to add photos of the tree overall and forgot. It’s still obviously a young tree and not too close to the house so I’m not concerned about it doing any damage to the house at all luckily so I’m just more upset it’s not in good shape and was really hoping a radical pruning could be possible, it’s my mother’s favourite tree too. 

 

I planted a few sycamore maples, goat willow and apple trees in the field by her house recently so glad I know now at least to watch out for codominant stems and prune when young.

 

 

Edited May 23 by Lauryn
Forgot photo

[Lauryn]

14 minutes ago, Will C said:

With the correct management detailed above it could survive for many years however in my opinion the ongoing cost needs to assessed on an effort/cost vrs reward basis at that is your decision. A picture showing the whole tree and it’s location could help. 

Thank you, I added a photo in a separate reply of the overall tree I completely forgot when I posted this initially. 

[daltontrees]

23 hours ago, Lauryn said:

Thank you for the response!! Such a pity my parents didn’t prune it when it was younger. I was wishfully thinking and hoping even a huge cut at this stage could be feasible. I assume even with cabling it would still just rot and eventually die from the included bark anyway?

It won't rot and die because of the inclusion. The inclusion may split open in the future, leaving a fraction of the tree and a gaping wound that will never heal over.

[Ty Korrigan]

You could always brace it with threaded rod.

Needs a powerful drill and alot of strength to prevent it jamming and the torque ripping it out of your hands.

I've done a few smaller trees like this one yesterday that had developed a split.

 

[Lauryn]

On 25/05/2024 at 21:09, Ty Korrigan said:

You could always brace it with threaded rod.

Needs a powerful drill and alot of strength to prevent it jamming and the torque ripping it out of your hands.

I've done a few smaller trees like this one yesterday that had developed a split.

 

Thank you for the suggestion!! Would this just extend an inevitable failure for my tree or is it a pretty solid option do you think? After checking around the whole trunk I actually think I see at least 2 dominant stems now rather than just the one I spotted initially

[Dan Maynard]

I don't think failure is absolutely inevitable, splits close to the ground tend to be supported by the roots and yours is not too high up. If you can avoid pruning it you'll avoid provoking sprouting, which I think is not so attractive as the natural growth.

 

The other thing to think about is what's going to be there in 10-15 years time, that tree will be so big you're wondering how to manage it. Small trees are cheap, why not plant another one now, do formative pruning over the next 10 years and then you can look at them both and decide what to do - maybe take one of them down.

[Lauryn]

1 hour ago, Dan Maynard said:

I don't think failure is absolutely inevitable, splits close to the ground tend to be supported by the roots and yours is not too high up. If you can avoid pruning it you'll avoid provoking sprouting, which I think is not so attractive as the natural growth.

 

The other thing to think about is what's going to be there in 10-15 years time, that tree will be so big you're wondering how to manage it. Small trees are cheap, why not plant another one now, do formative pruning over the next 10 years and then you can look at them both and decide what to do - maybe take one of them down.

 

Long term is definitely how I’m trying to approach this, this tree is planted in a corner of my parents front garden with the goal of getting really big. They planted an Ash tree in the opposite part of the garden that unfortunately got dieback and collapsed last year so we’re all pretty attached to this Maple at this stage, but I keep wondering about the long term safety/viability of keeping it vs. planting something else even though we really don’t want to have to. 

 

I’m trying to get an arborist to come out and survey it in person but finding someone actually qualified and has the free time to do it has been more difficult than I thought