Bark Repair Possible On JM?

Much to my horror, this morning I found that something had stripped the bark from the base of my new 'Shirazz'. The bark was just laying at the base of the tree in two pieces. No teeth marks visible, nothing to indicate which varmint did this. The tree has lost about 20% of the total circumference of the trunk bark in an area just beside the graft union. This is probably not what I should have done but I firmly put the bark back on the trunk, (it was still fresh and damp) and wrapped the base with natural twine to hold it tightly in place. It fit perfectly. However I've never heard of this being successful. Should I just go out and unwrap it and let it heal? There is also now a hardware cloth collar around the trunk up to the first limb to eliminate any further damage. For crying out loud what eats bark in July? I expected to have to rabbit proof it for the winter, but summer?

While not for this forum, does anyone know why a 15 yr old Magnolia "Dr. Merrill" would suddeny get verticillium wilt? It looks like it's going to be fatal. This tree was thriving and had not sustained any root injuries or incursions. I'm going to ask the same on Trees and Shrubs too. The scary part is if I have verticillium wilt in the soil that's the end of any new JM aquisitions. This is not a good day for gardening here.

So sorry to hear of your injuries. I have NO information to offer, just sympathy.

snapple i'm no expert - i think wrapping the old bark will be fine for a while until the tree heals. i had this happen to a bloodgood a couple years back and had no issues. actually kind of like the way the trunk looks now with the bark coming back.

think positive

Sorry Snapple - I don't have any information either but sure do send my sympathy. Wilt is a terrible thing. Hope that your JM heals from it's problem.

You are probably right THAT bark will not heal back .But the other bark in back should eventually sourround the area and it should be fine unless this is the start of more "events" bark should if it heal ..the only downside i see with covering it up is that you could be giving fugal and other moisture diseases a place to roost .. That would be a guess btw ... The current thinking of most "experts" is to not enclose damaged areas of trunk bark for any reason ...you may want to consult your extension service i have wrapped mower damaged stuff and left alone both with no disernable differnce but do see the point of not making a cozy fugal home. The cause of this is a mystery... my really total " guess " is too much moisture and the bark was somehow damaged when you got it but you didn't notice or it was just finely cracked ...not really visable and the amount of rain somehow burst it off... I doubt if critters did this ... if you are like us here it has rained like Noahs ark period for the last 3 months .....

As far as the magnolia I had the same problem last year... mine was likely 20-25 years old large and completly healthy before itr's quick demise ... I don't think mine was vecillium ... I did have some scale critters on it but they are mostly opportunistic to trees in distress as I see it.. Mine is mostly dead with a bunch of new stuff starting in areas on lower branches and trunk and some from roots sproyuting up ...and a few very small leaves at top. My gut instinct is that they may not be very long lived trees and had just reached it's limit or some root problem ......If you want to trade jpegs of each to see if any similarities email me thru D Mail or at the above personal addy ... either way is fine ..David

This message was edited Jul 9, 2008 1:03 PM

Huh! Well the water thing is a definitely possibility. We've had 5" in two weeks. Yesterday we got an inch in 20 min! I would never in a million years have thought it was an excess moiture problem. The soil is well amended with peat and compost to hold moisture in an excessively sandy soil. I guess I succeeded.

Pics of the magnolia are coming. I sure hope you're right on that score too. But, when I cut an affected branch I see discolored cambium and xylem, although not in a perfect ring. It affects only one side of the branch. Like I said - pics coming.

So sorry about your Shirazz! I hope it recovers! I've always heard with tree wounds it's best to leave them uncovered and let them heal themselves, anything you do to seal up the area just makes it more likely to get fungal infections. I'd maybe put up some wire fencing around the tree though to prevent whoever it was from coming back and munching more.

Well, took off the twine two days ago and............drum roll please.........the bark patch looks promising. If it takes I got unbelievably lucky. If it doesn't at least with the twine off the wound has good air circulation, sunlight exposure and can kick off the dead bark when it's ready. But for now the bark patch seems fine.

Now I have to go get a firearm. The local gas utility company says they have to dig a trench through my long border to lay a new house service gas line. Today. No warning. No problem with the line. They are just prophylatically replacing old lines - a new program they just started. This isnt a right-of-way issue. It's right smack up the front yard all the way to the house. There are 18 mature trees, shrubs and conifers plus numerous herbaceous perenniels in that border. Watch CNN or MSNBC. I might make the news. The crew is two doors down and moving my direction at the moment. And Oh yeah, there is a fence in the way too. What the $#@@ are they gonna do to the fence?

good luck with the gas company - good thing you are home.

I'm so sorry about the gas company. HOpe that they were able to work around things. Mature trees are no small obstacle to dig around/under and then there is that fence....

I'll be thinking of you.

I would expect they will find a way thru with the least effort and hassel.. I would assume unless your trees are kisssing cousins or are so intersperced they should be fine ... Two things most workers and folks in general don't like ...too much work or top much hassle.I guess if they are planted on a right of way you may have problems but the chances are they will work out something with you. As with treees over powerlines and stuff planted close to roads being expanded there is little you can do if it's a legal right of way. It is always something to consider when siting valuable trees...but as I said they will likely try to work something out with you ...David

These are not in the right-of-way. It's the line from the street to the meter at the side of the house. They didn't get to me yesterday. It will be sometime this afternoon and I've tried to talk to them about the digging but it's not going too well. All they'll say is they will "see what they can do"!!! If it was in the right of way I'd have no argument. But I don't plant anything in the right-of-way. Never have. This is right straight up the front yard from the street to the house. I never believed a utility could tear up private property where ever they liked with no care or compensation.

Not being a legal beagle but I do have a bit of law background ... It likely depends onn any easement they have ...or your local utility regulations .. I would call the ags( attorney general) office of your state and ask who regulates that utility and call them for the rules and regs .. of course you do not have much time but I am sure if you refuse to let them on your property today they will bypass and give you time to check . They may very well have a legal right ... many of these things are never adjudicated cause of cost . when i bought my neighbors house and replatted the property keeping an acre and selling off the the house on a seperate acre....the state changed the 40 foot easement from center of road to 80 feet an additional 40 feet of right of way cause it was a feeder road with possible four lane potential that will NEVER EVER happen at least in my lifetime ... They did so with NO compensation ...it was about a 1/4 acre maybe a bit less accross the front of the property . and yes I have to mow and take care iof it .. an't that the pits...My attorney said if anyonne took that to the supreeme ct it would be ruled illegal but that would take 100's of thousands of $$ and years of time . so the program stands taking your land w/o compensation but not care or maintenance of it..David

This utility company stuff disturbs me.

But can someone explain to me what the "right of way" refers to? How would a homeowner know which parts of their plot are part of it?

There are really two things to look for right of ways and easements ... Both can cause problems. They should be listed in your legal description of your house at the county courthouse clerks dept. a at least thats the case here...the clerks office should help you find both easements and right of ways for your address also if you had a survey done at some time either when you purchased your house or ltr they would pick those up and they should show up on on that or be listed on the legal on the the plat of survey. I think this situation sounds a bit odd and I wouldn't be too worried that it would happen to you most utilities are pretty sensitive about public opinion especially these days with deregulation and high prices.Of course trees over power lines are fair game and their cutting although they look butchered is highly perferable to loosing your electricity for a day in mid winter or summer. But that is not the same as this situation and as I said it sounds a bit odd. David

As an elected official with 12+ yrs. of experience, right-of-way issues usually (but not always) deal with lot frontage along a street. Whatever entitity maintains the street has legal title to a strip of property along the side of the pavement. Every property owner should have a survey done to determine their rightful lot lines. It's very important if you ever put up a fence or if a neighbor puts up a fence and you aren't sure where the lot lines lay. If you put something, accidentally or otherwise, in the right-of-way the governing entity can remove it with no compensation. Here the state (Public Utilties Commission of Ohio) recently issued a ruling that gas service lines, running from the main line to each individual home are the responsibility of the gas company to maintain and repair. Before that, if the homeowner had a leak in their individual service line the home owner was responsible for repairs. So.........the gas company decided to replace all service lines of a certain age - replacing iron pipe with plastic and hanging new meters and moving all meters outside. My poor next door neighbor on the west had a hole jackhammered in his basement wall to bring the meter outside.

Which brings me to the conclusion of my saga. Our old gas service line was cast iron pipe. It was one contiguous piece from street to house. That enabled the utility co. to feed the replacement line inside the old line. The new line didn't snag on any compression fittings. No digging, except at the street connection and the meter connection, was necessary to run the new line. The alternative would have been a trench 2' deep right down the middle of a long 50' established border of shrubs, trees and herbaceous perennials. I questioned their right to do this and even read my deed, of which I have a copy, for utility company rights and easements and could find no language permitting this work. If I had insisted on stopping them I was advised that they would not supply me with gas until my service line met their new standards! I don't know about you but we like hot showers here and the hot water tank is gas. So - game over with one in the win column for the utility company.

The utility company can bore under ground with a compressed air digger. They go under driveways and under street pavement and will try to bore through you property when they can. But it doesn't always track in the right direction if the borer meets an obstacle like a big tree root or anything else that might be buried. My neighbor to the east had this problem. Their old service line wasn't good enough for the new line to be threaded through it. The borer ran into too many underground impediments. So their entire yard was trenched through plantings and underground pool lines and I don't know what all else. It looks like a war zone.

If you line in Ohio in an older neighborhood your local natural gas utility company is coming for you!