doubt it..

can you pull back the soil and find out how deep the root flare is???

ken

Doubt I can save it, or doubt that it's a fungus?

I should have time tomorrow morning, what should I look for?

It might be sap leaking from the tree

i doubt it will survive long ... in tree years ...

all the food produced by the leaves.. needs to move down to the roots.. and all the water the roots suck up needs to be transported to the leaves... the vascular system ...

when there is a failure at the junction of the two systems ... then you have big problems ...

if the vascular system of half of the circumference of the trunk is destroyed .. indicated by what you see.. then you have reduced the vascular ability of the tree by 50% ...

i suspect you will start seeing canopy decline.. and probably suckers galore coming from under ground.. especially if this is a grafted tree ...

how long this all takes.. is ruled by tree time... could be a year.. could be 5 years ...

if it was planted too deep... that could be a cause of this issue ... among many other reasons ...

there is nothing to do.. for it.. IMHO ... well .. one thing.. go buy another tree.. and plant it .. and then watch this one as long as you can.. just out of curiosity ... and when and if it dies... and you put it out of your misery.. you already have a replacement planted.. and ready to entertain you ...

good luck .. and if you pull the soil back [a little archeology] and snap us a pic.. we can see if we can glean any further info for you ...

ken

^ It may be. I'm about to head out there and pull all that rock back, put down mulch and cut off any more of the white stuff I see.

That last post was towards Huggorn, didn't see yours Ken. Alright, here are some more pictures. After digging into the exterior white stuff, it definitely seems like it's sap. But why?

-- Don't know why it's not letting me post my other pictures but here they are. What should I do now? Put back some dirt and mulch? It's probably going to rain again today, but then we should have some dry weather if that matters.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n35/trilogy6/IMG_7942_zpsfe15437c.jpg

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n35/trilogy6/IMG_7943_zps28ae6d0b.jpg

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n35/trilogy6/IMG_7946_zps93308182.jpg

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n35/trilogy6/IMG_7945_zps851586ed.jpg

This post was edited by E511 on Mon, Apr 7, 14 at 10:44

Does anyone NOT agree it's gummosis? E511, if it comes off like a piece of caulk and is stretchy it is congealing sap. Why? It's a symptom and not a disease. Please elaborate on all that damage at the base of your tree in the last photo. Did you cause it exposing the area under the soil line, or did you find it that way? Gummosis is common to fruit growers and is often a tree's response (even at a cellular level) to insults from anything from bark beetles to lawn mowers, weed whips, bark splits from sunscalds, to rodent damage. Rabbits especially will damage young wood near the ground using the bark tissues as a food source and it's often hidden under the snow cover and the wounds obvious in spring. Depending on the severity of the wounds, and whether they become infected with pathogens or certain fungii, and how extensive they are, the tree can recover and isn't necessarily a dead man walking. The bottom picture looks pretty ominous, however.

Yes, the picture in my last post was me pulling back the dirt to make sure everything looked good under there.

Gummosis makes sense to me after reading about it more earlier. The only thing we would have done to it was getting too close with the weed whacker. And the only thing that has me questioning gummosis is the large ... chunk? missing in this picture. Sorry, I don't know any terms!

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n35/trilogy6/IMG_7946_zps93308182.jpg

Is there any way to tell if it is any kind of bug? I looked for "saw dust like material" when I was excavating earlier and saw none. Anything else?

Is there anything I can do to help fix this damage and increase chances of it surviving?

Thanks for all the help guys!

That is a lot of damage over that area. It looks like physical damage to me. Note for future, please..........trees should have the grass removed around them so that a weed whip or mower gets nowhere near them. "Mulching" with pebbles will not discourage weeds and your only alternatives for weed removal are by hand, or with herbicides. Bark or wood chip mulches are better or suitable shallow rooted ground covers or pine straw. If it were mine, I'd simply replace the soil, water it back down, trim off any suckering by hand and see where she goes this spring or summer,.and hope that it heals over watching to see if it stays clean of rot. It won't heal overnight and could go either way. I've had worse pull through and lost a couple with less severe insults.

Sounds like a plan, I'll keep an eye on it and remove any rot I see. Should I remove the sap as well, or is the sap helpful?

I'd just put it back the way I found it, water it in to settle the soil and leave it alone to heal.......or not. I lost more tissue than that when a hawthorn tree split .........told my spouse not to bother trying to save it and wrote it off. He ignored me, it pulled through and healed over. However up until now I've not noticed any indication of rot. If it does, it's going to be history. There are others on this forum more qualified than I am to hazard a guess. If it is a 'beloved' tree as you say.........it's worth a bit for a wait see, unless someone else is seeing something I'm not.

The only thing we would have done to it was getting too close with the weed whacker. And the only thing that has me questioning gummosis is the large ...

==>>> gummosis.. and the interior disease.. happen no matter what.. it endemic to the family of trees ... though it may have been weedwhip damage ... it could have been nothing on your part related to damage ... they just get it.. and ooze it out ...

it looks like it was planted at least 4 inches too deep.. trunk are supposed to live their lives dry ... when they get buried.. and they stay dampish ..... stuff happens.. its call telephone poling...

and it 'looks' like i see potting media in there [the red soil versus the black stuff]... i would not be surprised if you told us you bought it potted.. and planted at the depth it was in the pot.. so it was already problematic then ... it just took this long to 'show' ...

i am lazy.. i didnt open all your links... use the HTML code.. and they would have all popped up in your post for us lazy folks ...

if you decide to plant a new one.. or any tree.. come back for planting instructions ...

ken

Cherries are beautiful, but they're all prone to various issues such as this.

The only flowering cherry that has been problem free for me has been Prunus subhirtella, but that might just be luck. Usually I get 10 good years, max.

Thanks for the info guys! I'll be keeping an eye on it to see what it does. Dug out some of the dirt that was lower on the trunk and mulched with wood mulch. Probably would have done that in the first place when I planted it three years ago, but came home one day to find the husband did the rock for me, did not want to discourage more surprises! ;)