Hi, I have a maple which I planted 6 years ago. It was a good size maple to begin with. Early this spring, I noticed some of the leaves had brown, dead edges, which I attributed to possible frost ( we had a weird spring that went from extreme heat to cold). Later, I noticed the bark got long (2foot) splits, vertically, then they crossed over to each other horizontally, and fairly large sections of bark have completely seperated form the tree. Any ideas? Anything I might do to help? Thank You, Sue Reamer

Sue - There are several things that cause cracks in the trunks of maples. One is frost cracks/sun scald - which actually happens in winter when the sun hits one side of the frozen trunk and warms it up faster than the rest of the trunk, causing the sap to expand and crack it. This happens to thin barked, younger trees fairly often. Another cause can be mechanical - lawn mowers and weed wackers smacking into them just once too often. Of course, lightening can do it also, when traveling down the trunk and into the ground. There are also cankers - sunken dead areas under the bark, which are usually fungal. Check with your local extension for more help at: Grand Traverse County Extension 520 West Front Street, Suite A Traverse City, Michigan 49684-2208 United States

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