I confess it, I strangled a fruit tree by tying it to its post with some nylon string and forgetting about it. When I remembered, this spring, the string was embedded into the tree. In fact it was so deeply embedded I couldn't get it all out. This presumably explains why the tree has been rather lacking in vigour the last three years or so. (I strangled another tree in the same manner, but it didn't get so deeply embedded, and it is looking pretty well now I have released it.) I have seen trees looking perfectly well with barbed wire fences passing through them - in these cases does the cambium when it obtains contact the far side of an obstruction it meets?

Will the tree manage to heal this strangulation and reinvigorate - it isn't noticeably more vigorous yet?

I notice that the tree has sent out a few new shoots from below the strangulation. The lower trunk is heavily shaded so they aren't wondrously vigorous at the moment. Should I encourage them and aim to remove the rest of the tree above the strangulation over the next few years?

If it matters, it is a real quince, Cydonia oblonga (no, not a Japanese quince).