# How to repair damage to trunk of yearling fruit tree?



## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

Whoops! I accidently gave one of our yearling peach trees a good wack with the weedwacker and now it's missing about a one inch tall strip of bark. This extends around the thin trunk (approx trunk sixe is 3/4 inch in diameter). Is there anything I can do to try to help the poor little tree recover?


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

if you have girdled the entire tree below the cambrium layer, i am afraid there is not much hope for it. even if you have not, it will likely die from disease eventually. unless more research proves me wrong, and you accept that the tree will die, there is one very radical possibility...with little chance of success. you could try harvesting healthy bark from higher up on the tree...like a branch that could be sacrificed, and try a bark transplant. you would have to cut the transplant bark and the bark from the wounded area neatly and fit it together neatly.

so sorry and/or good luck.


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## ceresone (Oct 7, 2005)

It sounds impossible--but I've saved trees like this by wrapping with duct tape--I figured why not try something?


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

The tree cost $10 last year as a bare root. It is still quite small. Not a huge loss if it can't be saved. My DH thinks we should do anything possible to save it; I on the other hand think investing time and resources (water, etc.) into a tree that will likely die permaturely from its increased vulnerability to disease is futile.


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## Tricky Grama (Oct 7, 2006)

You can make a paste out of compost & DE & soft rock phosphate & water & slather it on & hope.

Patty


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## Marcia in MT (May 11, 2002)

If the trunk is entirely girdled, then I agree with Meloc that a bridge graft is really your only hope. Without a connection between the roots and the upper part of the tree, the top will dessicate/starve no matter what you cover the wound with. And research has said for years that we're not supposed to be putting anything on the bare wood of a wound, so as not to trap disease/rot organisms underneath where they will find a cozy home.


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## ceresone (Oct 7, 2005)

Yes, I know what common knowledge is on covering--but my duct tape save a dogwood, a pine, and a apple tree (hubby gets carried away with the DR)
I figured I had nothing to lose by trying.


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