Chestnut What should I do.

[Skelly]

3 years ago I bought 2 Dunstan Chestnuts. They had already leafed out and the leaves were falling off.
I brought home and watered and they leafed out again that same year.

I planted them in that fall and one of them must have put on a little growth spurt cause the bark cracked. (Not just on south side)
I’ve just kept an eye on it and some of it has calloused and looked ok well ok at best.
The splitting was in threee large sections that you can see in photo.

I have also let a low limb grow that is roughly 6-8” above ground. Just in case...

My question is would you take a gamble and let it continue to heal and see what happens or go ahead and trim below any damage and just start over.?

Thanks

S

 

[Native Hunter]

I think you have some more time to make that decision and don't have to make it now. That appears to be healing well. I've seen chestnuts damaged worse than that heal well. I would give it two more years and then evaluate. If it heals well in that time, the low limbs will still be small enough to prune off. If not, you can cut away and haven't lost much time.

 

[yoderjac]

I find that chestnuts are very hard to graft (at least for me). They tend to respond to the injury of grafting by putting up new growth from the root system rather than pushing the graft. So, I would expect that if you cut below the injury you will get a similar response. I agree with Steve, I'd wait and watch.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Also, it is hard to tell from the photo what caused the injury. It seems like a spindly tree. Is it possible the injury was caused by wind pushing it into the cage?

 

[Skelly]

I’m not exactly sure what caused the damage.hitting the cage was not the culprit though.

At the time of planting I used a method I read from your post (if my memory serves me correct). I cris-crossed some wire at the top of the cage to allow the tree to move but not get close to the cage edge.
Neither of the trees I have planted put on a lot of growth. This year has been the most so far.

 

[Skelly]

I think you have some more time to make that decision and don't have to make it now. That appears to be healing well. I've seen chestnuts damaged worse than that heal well. I would give it two more years and then evaluate. If it heals well in that time, the low limbs will still be small enough to prune off. If not, you can cut away and haven't lost much time.

Thanks. My hope that it will continue to heal up.

 

[BlueSpruceOutfitters]

That looks a lot like when the cicadas hit here and laid eggs in all my trees. They all have healed up nicely now.

 

[yoderjac]

That looks a lot like when the cicadas hit here and laid eggs in all my trees. They all have healed up nicely now.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[H20fwler]

Whatever caused the damage I would put some TreeKote or similar on it to help it heal and protect it and maybe add little more solid bracing on the tree. Heavy wind or stupid coon could snap off years’ worth of young growth.