Help! Damaged Specimen Tree

[andy10917]

I have a beautiful 15-year old Weeping Laceleaf Red Japanese Maple - it is the centerpiece of my front yard. A little more than three feet tall, but over 5 feet wide, it is very important to me.

During the storm recently that dumped three feet of very heavy snow on my area, the sheer weight of the snow split one of the main lateral limbs lengthwise. Does anyone have any ideas about how to save the limb? Stainless steel screws, wire-wrap?

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Can you post a picture or two? One up close and one of the entire tree would help.

[MorpheusPA]

Agreed, we need pix. Sometimes limbs will heal themselves. Sometimes not. Only rarely does intervention make sense--we usually make things worse and seal anaerobic decay bacteria into the heartwood.

[andy10917]

It's dusk here now - I'll take pictures in the morning.

[andy10917]

Now that the snow is finally melted, a closer inspection shows that there is no way that I'm going to repair a compound three-way split that will ever handle the weight. It's a loss...

[MorpheusPA]

That's...pretty bad. I think, no matter what you do, you're going to lose that particular branch. Too bad it's a major one, but strapping that back isn't going to work.

I'd cut it off right below the break to give the tree a better chance to survive the damage. Ragged breaks are harder for the tree to heal, and have a lot more surface area for bacteria.

Other than that, don't paint the branch, let it seal naturally. Later on, if an infection starts to set in (keep an eye on it), then you may fiddle.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I'm afraid I agree. That is too bad. I was hoping it was a more upright tree and could be cabled back together.

[Abyss]

Man that sucks. That tree as an ornamental might be a total loss. It's lost its "balance", which happened to mine out back and I've tried for the last 2 years to save it, but it's just not the same tree.

My splitleaf out front I yell at my kids all the time to keep away from it. Bought it for 150 4 years ago, and with the size it is now, the same ones at the nursery were going for 1500

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[andy10917]

Yeah, I know. Late Sunday I did the unthinkable - I took the chainsaw to it at the split location. I'll give it a year to see how it fills in, and then be judge/jury and (if need be) executioner.

15 years. It was Perfect.

[MorpheusPA]

Stinks. I finally lost mine last year (at age 4). Turns out the landscaper buried the knee down 24". Sigh.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[MorpheusPA]

The funeral is Saturday.

[Abyss]

My tree regretfully will not be there, something about not being able to leave town this weekend. Personally I think his roots just run to deep here and he's afraid to leave town. He has requested that I fly the flag above it at half mast though.

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[MorpheusPA]

No, tell your tree it's unnecessary and my tree would have understood perfectly. It's tough to leave town when you have a broken limb, and I wouldn't want him to travel in that condition.

The replacement rhododendron looks great, though...and it's planted appropriately and everything.