Here's a photo of the damage

That is a big wound. You have the right idea about letting the water run out.

A similar pruning cut on a walnut of mine took 8 years to be encapsulated.

Trouble is no one knows what to seal tree wounds with so whatever you use is a guessing game.

Can ya post a pic?

Huh, ya posted a pic while I was typing.

Big and jagged :(

I will let others hazard a guess at what to use.

This post was edited by toronado3800 on Tue, Jul 30, 13 at 16:59

I disagree with Toronado about sealant being a guessing game. Numerous studies have shown that, in most cases, any type of sealant is contraindicated for situations like this.

There has been previous discussion about using liquid copper fungicide (NOT a sealant) to treat large wounds such as this, but such treatment would need to be done much later (not on the relatively fresh wound).

God already provided for a sealant..

THE TREE ITSELF...

who do you think you are.. to try to out think him and ma nature...

crikey man ... you aint got what it takes to outsmart them..

cut it.. and walk on by ...

ken

ps: if that were my tree.. and it was within in my physical ability to remove it for free.. with my own chainsaw... i would make one basal cut ... and apply RU .. otherwise.. start saving for removal in the future .... when you have to pay for it.. BTW... is it a threat to anything on the property????

So Ken, if this were your tree you would cut it down right now? We do have a chain saw and could do it but for some reason my husband is reluctant to do it. (It's not the size, as he used to work for a tree removal company). I will see if I can talk him into it since I have never liked the tree. You said if we cut it down, to apply RU. May I ask what that is?

I think that it depends on what ultimately caused the limb to come off. If it just split from its own weight and a little wind, I would make a a stop cut several inches below where the peeling stops. If possible I would then rock the limb to get it to fall the rest of the way if not I would cut in off as close to the bottom of the peal as possible. The tree will take care of itself and last for years. If you do not believe that take a walk through the closest woods and see what damage the trees have survived.

If the limb came down as a results of a lightening strike, then regardless of what you do the tree may be lost. We had a limb on a large ash tree that was struck by lightning. The city came out and took the limb down. What was not obvious is the living cells in the bark in nearly the circumference of the truck were fried. In about six months the bark started to separate from the tree. By spring the bark was nearly all loose. We sold the house but I assume it had to be removed.

The tree is used as an icon of strength, not a fragile tropical flower.

It looks to me like there had been a longstanding crack at the junction of branch to tree. It just came down from it's own weight yesterday - no wind, no rain - no lightning.
It is not near anything where it could cause harm when it fell except if I had been cutting grass under it!!!

We have tons of black walnuts, and its amazing how much they can heal themselves. We're not into a whole lot of aesthetics here, so a tree looking like yours wouldn't bother us in the least. I say cut the broken branch off so it drains okay, then talk sweetly to it and let it be.

pattio2, looks like it started with included bark at the top. Just cleaned up a wound from a storm on my lacebark elm that looks like that.

Guys, laugh at me, I'm ready. I agree that petroleum sealants are BS. Paint is crap. I am even a "Shigo" guy! As an experiment I have chopped branches off, waited a couple of days for the wound to dry, and applied linseed oil to the cut. For years - on everything, oaks, redbud, ash, maple, etc. I don't worry about the baldcypress. Truly, AS AN EXPERIMENT. Woundwood or callus has had no problem covering that treatment and there have been no adverse effects or evident rot. I did this as a test so that I could tell all those people asking at the nursery, "I have to treat the cut, what should I use?" and they wouldn't accept "nothing."

So you will say, "Wouldn't have been adverse effects or rot anyway." Ever tried it? After 20 years and 26 trees I have healthy everything, no chemicals, ever.

ken, love ya, man, but God created linseed oil, too, crikey.

True, pruning cuts were branch collar at the right time.

But, I'll keep my boiled linseed oil handy.

hortster

I would not cut it down -- B walnuts have good recovery capabilities. Seen it before.

The broken-off part needs removing carefully tho. Careless removal could strip the trunk bark downward even further -- don't want that.

And no -- no "sealants". Keep the wound open, dry and exposed to the sun/air as much as possible.

ok... listen close ...

first.. i was planting a seed of thought ... if it has to go.. it has to go ... too many posters want the tree.. their own life be damned ....

when that might be.. who knows ...

is it a threat to anything??? .. if so.. it should go ... sooner rather than later..

is it out 5 acres.. heck.. it might stand there for numerous decades ...

oh... RU= round up ... just on the edge of the stump.. the cambian layer ...

but the bottom line.. as these other peeps note.. is that time is variable in trees...

moving fast.. MIGHT mean having a 10 year plan [presuming its not hanging over the house ....]

i see old damage.. i cant look up there.. i dont know if there is internal rot already.. maybe there is.. maybe there isnt...

personally... and presuming its out somewhere safe.. i would enjoy watching it try to heal itself.... but if i could take it down free.. that might be big motivation ...

then to complicate it all.. this might be where i would pay for a professional opinion from a ASA certified tree dude.. to tell me about it in person.. rather than relying on us.. but being a cheapwad... i still might have the chainsaw primed for action ....

i just cant tell you what to do ... with the few facts.. and based on one pic ...

i just hate when some of our friends.. just tell you it will heal .... and there is no other reason to worry ... w/oout discussing other variables....

are we getting closer to helping you understand the issues???

ken

ps: the linseed oil sounds interesting.... i am trying to remember what dad used that on in the 60's .. something around the house.. not trees.. anyway.. my caveats were in regard to what is available in bigboxstore.. and what some idiot hardware man might suggest at great profit to himself.. and not in the trees best interest .....

pps: well.. at least i got them wound up enough to make a great conversation over this.. lol ... sometimes you have to say something really stupid .. to get peeps to join in.. lol....

Thanks for all your advice and suggestions. We haven't decided whether to remove the limb or remove the tree and start over with a maple. As you can see the broken limb involves about 1/3 of the tree and not sure if I will be happy with the way it looks when it is so lopsided.

Sorry, I guess I need to practice posting pictures but you get the idea.

Mind if I try posting the photo again? Hopefully right side up this time.

Wow.........didn't realize from the first pic how much of the tree was gone. Now I'm leaning more toward replacing it, since you say you never really did like it anyway.

Totally agree with Catherinet.

If preserved, it'll recover quickly. And it'll be far larger than any replacement.

If you don't like it, remove it.

Ultimately though, the tree is young (& small) enough that it will quickly outgrow the loss of that limb.

We've decided to clean up the limb as suggested and leave the tree until fall to make the ultimate decision. Not sure if is a walnut trait for weak limbs but this is the third time it has lost a limb. However this was the largest one to date. Just don't know if we leave it and it continues to drop its limbs, I will wish I had replaced it sooner rather than later.
Does this happen to walnut trees in general or just to mine?

pattio,
Probably just an issue associated with this particular tree.
I play around with pecans/hickories and a few walnuts. There are quite a few pecan varieties that are noted for poor branch structure, and require attention, at least during the 'formative' years, to keeping narrow branch angles with included bark removed.
Being in the same family (Juglandaceae), I see no reason to think that individual black walnuts might also have some issues with growth habit, predisposing them to damage like yours.
While it's not necessarily a life-threatining issue to your tree - but maybe to someone passing underneath - I might be inclined to remove it - particularly in light of the fact that this is not the first time it's lost limbs.

This post was edited by lucky_p on Fri, Aug 2, 13 at 11:55