Lauryn

Just to update an arborist came to see it, completely correct that it’s some bark inclusion and co-dominant stems but he thinks with the location it’s in if its height is just managed and kept a bit shorter and thinned out a bit every few years the prognosis is good. Thank you all for helping me know to even ask about pruning and cabling!!

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

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

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

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.

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?

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?