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 Post subject: Stunted Sweet Gum
PostPosted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 5:57 am 
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Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2004 5:52 am
Posts: 4
When I moved into my home, there was a fairly small sweet gum tree, which appeared to have received severe damage to its trunk. The trunk has a large, deep slash approximately two feet long, which is about half way through the trunk. Other than the fact that it is unsightly, the tree appears to look healthy, but is growing very slowly. My question is whether I should do something to the trunk that might help the tree's growth or whether I should replace the tree. Any ideas would be appreciated.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 10:36 am 
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Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2003 11:17 am
Posts: 315
Location: Dallas,TEXAS
The question as to whether or not it would be better to replace the tree or to try to nurture it is really difficult to answer without more information. How much has it grown over the period of time that you've been there would be helpful to know. What type of soil is it in (where do you live)? How old would you guess it is?

I'm assuming that the damaged area of the trunk has already fully healed, so applying tree trunk goop is probably not going to help matters. If it's not healed then goop will help speed that up. The best thing that you can do is to improve the health of the tree and give it the best opportunity to recover.

    Ensure that the root flare is exposed. The trunk should show a flare where it inters the ground. If it goes straight into the ground like a telephone pole then the tree is too low. Excavate soil, gently, until the flare is exposed if necessary.

    Make sure that there aren't any girdling roots. If there are any, then you need to carefully cut them back away from the trunk. Do NOT rip the cut root out of the soil since it will damage other healthy roots. If there are many of them then do a couple of the worst ones initially and leave the rest for next year.

    Apply the full sick tree treatment as outlined at the top of this forum.


Others here might have some other suggestions as well. Good luck with your sweet gum and let us know how it goes!

~Dave


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 Post subject: More information
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:13 am 
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Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2004 5:52 am
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Thanks for your reply. I don't know how to guess the age of the tree, however, there is another tree in the yard, which I think was probably planted at the same time. The other tree is roughly 1-1/2 to 2 times as large as the injured tree. I would say the diameter of the trunk would be somewhere around 3 inches.

The slash into the trunk is quite large and there is about a fifteen inch long piece that sticks sharply up and away from the trunk. Should I do something to wrap the trunk or to otherwise try to moves this piece toward the rest of trunk?

~Nancy


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 Post subject: More information
PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:27 am 
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Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2004 5:52 am
Posts: 4
Thanks for your reply. I don't know how to guess the age of the tree, however, there is another tree in the yard, which I think was probably planted at the same time. The other tree is roughly 1-1/2 to 2 times as large as the injured tree. I would say the diameter of the trunk would be somewhere around 3 inches.

The slash into the trunk is quite large and there is about a fifteen inch long piece that sticks sharply up and away from the trunk. Should I do something to wrap the trunk or to otherwise try to moves this piece toward the rest of trunk?

~Nancy


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