Damage to Apple Tree

[reuel]

Hello All,

I am new here. I have an handful of young fruit trees I planted on my property. Recently my young apple (Grimes Golden 2 y/o) was damaged by landscaper (see pic). Tree is approx 1.5"-2.0" inches in diameter. Is there anything I can/ should do to help it out? I cleaned up the ragged edges.

[MES111]

@reuel

For now just let it be. The area will dry out and start to scab/bark over.

Good thing it did not get girdled all the way around

Mike

[marknmt]

It’ll be fine just as it is. Your tree is nice and healthy and will grow over that in a few seasons. I would not paint it or spray it of anything. Trees know how to handle that sort of thing.

[reuel]

Thank you @MES111 and @marknmt for your help! Of all my trees its the one that is doing the best, so I got really worried about it dying.

[Robert]

I have tons of trees that were savagely attacked by buck rubs with far more damage and they all survived. Your damage is minor and in a couple years will not be visible.

[maineorchard]

I echo everyone…nice clean injury (and not too deep) and healthy looking tree.

[drusket]

I think it will heal better if coated with the blood of the negligent landscaper…kidding…

[PomGranny]

Whew! Relieved to hear this. Same here . . . the bucks just about completely skinned my poor Harko Nectarine. I put wire ‘chimneys’ around all of my stone fruits and apples after that. But, they are a pain - interfering with weeding and removing suckers.

[PomGranny]

Drusket - I’m with you! They do so much damage, racing around. I try to give the trees a wide ‘cleared’ area - outside their drip lines. And leave them straight paths between trees, to zip down . . . but it doesn’t seem to help.
One guy completely tore out one of my little grape vines - with plenty of space to skirt it. He never even made an attempt to stick it back in the ground. I just hope that they don’t ‘destroy and not give a damn’. I decided to believe that he didn’t realize that he pulled it up. And gave him a pass.

Other people that do the mowing - ‘Can’t live with em . . . Can’t live without em’.

[drusket]

Yep, it seems inevitable. I agree it is always accident and exuberance in getting the job done. This past fall my bushhog cutter ran over a 5 ft tall persimmon I’d grafted leaving it scraped and bent to the ground and leveled a 3 ft fig, no trace of it even left. Both had been mowed around and marked by two long pieces of vivid orange caution tape. Amazingly both survived and are doing well. Glad the consensus is that Reuel’s tree will survive and hopefully prosper. As always, growing things is a lesson in risk, loss, and hope springs eternal.