View Single Post
  #3   Report Post  
Old 29-05-2007, 04:42 AM posted to rec.gardens
Kay Lancaster Kay Lancaster is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 481
Default How to keep a pine tree alive

On 28 May 2007 11:34:30 -0700, Andrew Falanga wrote:
I have a fledgling pine in my yard that I got to close to with my weed-
eater. I accidentally ripped some of the bark off at the ground
level.


Ah, I know this as "lawnmower blight".

This tree ~6' tall, perhaps 6' 6" (I say fledgling because I'm
pretty sure it's a ponderosa). What techniques can be used to ensure
the tree doesn't die. Where I live in Idaho, I don't have many trees
in my yard and I don't want to loose this one.


Go take a good look at the damage... are you through the thin cambium
layer under the bark? If you're not through the cambium and it's a small
wound not involving much of a circumference of the tree, I'd leave it
alone. If it's very large or through the cambium, might be a job for
bridge grafts:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/grafting.html
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Ipm/homegrnd/htms/28graft.htm
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/...cts/98-003.htm

In either case, get some mulch around that tree so you don't go
near it again with that weedwhacker, and make especially
sure it goes into the winter deeply watered.

Kay