So I just planted a multi-graft Asian pear. It was just starting to enjoy my garden when the local bunnies decided it would be funny to girdle it. The leaves up top look a little sad, so I think the tree is stressed. I protected the trunk with hardware cloth. Too late now. I think it will stay alive all season, but I don’t know if it will leaf out next spring. Id rather be proactive instead of playing the waiting game. A few questions:
Will it likely recover on its own (I don’t have material to do a bridge graft)?
If I dig it up and replant it deeper, above the damage, will it grow more roots and bypass the damaged area?
I had a McIntosh apple that got chewed by voles two years ago. It had only about a half inch strip of bark left and I was sure it would die. Two years later it’s still alive though and producing a lot of apples. I think even if there’s a little strip of bark left it can pull through and heal over eventually.
It’s also hard to tell, at least for me, if the cambium layer is destroyed or just the bark. A tree can look girdled but if it was just debarked and the cambium layer is in okay shape it could be fine.
Similar to belowtheterrace, I have an apple tree that was girdled badly around 70% of the trunk which is now doing fine, actually it seems to be thriving. If the girdling goes all the way around the trunk though the tree will most likely die. I had a fully girdled apple tree that hung on for a year, but then died the following spring. My guess is that the exposed cambium couldn’t handle the rough winter weather.
