On Jun 11, 11:18?pm, byron wrote:
Virtually all of my trees have bark problems (maple, oak, catalpa,
ash, locust). I planted them about four years ago. The bark is
peeling back, exposing the wood. This occurs only on sun-facing
surfaces (southeast to southwest) so I presume it's sun damage. A
local nursery told me to wrap them with plasitic spiral wrappers, but
these seem to foster insects and spider nests. They can also can bind
and "girdle" the tree. I suppose I could remove them and re-wrap them
every month or so...Are there better ways to deal with this? All of
the crowns look really good, but I'm worried about the trunks. The
wrappers also help inhibit deer gnawing. I think maybe the problem
began when the trunks were weakened by the deer chewing and rendered
more vulnerable to the solar radiation. Any ideas on this multi-
faceted problem would be very much appreciate.

Planted four years ago they were probably young saplings... my guess
is that you planted them too deep (even experienced arborists tend to
commit this mortal sin) and probably mulched right up to the bark
too. I suggest scraping a few inches of soil away from the trunks for
about a four foot circumference... pin down a circle of weed block
cloth and mulch over with large pine bark chips being careful to let
no cloth or chips touch the tree, and check often that the chips don't
migrate as birds and other small animals tend to move the chips. If
any solid matter touches the base of a young tree trunk the bark will
become girdled... so also regularly hand pull any weeds that sprout
near the trunks and keep that area clean, even of small pebbles. If
you have a deer problem then you need to fence the trees until they
grow enough that mature (furrowed) bark begins to form... deer will
definitely eat the tender bark of young trees. As to wrapping, do
this only during winter and only if you live where the ground freezes,
wrapping is mostly to protect young trees from wind burn, but done
incorrectly does more harm then good... use only paper wrap, never
plastic.... plastic traps moisture so that during freezing weather the
trunk will split. If your trees are still leafing then with TLC they
will heal. Next time you plant a tree create a large diameter soil
mound (at least an 8' diameter and 1' high at the center, tapering
off) and plant well above the original depth mark... planting higher
is always better than lower... it's easy to add a bit of top dressing
soil but drainage difficulties can arise from removing excess soil.