Quote:
Originally Posted by Jungle Jake
Hi All,
I live in a rented house which until recently had a lovely 12ft Elderflower tree growing at the bottom of the garden - that was until the landlord decided that it was overgrown and needed to be pruned. Fair enough I thought, until to my horror when I came home from work one day last week to find the tree has been chopped back to nothing more than a stump.
The tree is now 'leaking' what I presume to be watery sap (quite copiusly) from the trunk/branches where it has been cut. I'm unsure what I should do as I have read somewhere that a tree 'sealant' should be painted on the tree to stop it bleeding and defend against disease - though the RHS website states they no longer advise using sealants or bandaging, so I don't know whether I should just leave the tree to heal naturally, but I am worried that if don't do anything it might die.
Please help.
Jungle Jake
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Hi Jungle Jake,
Sorry to hear about the loss of your elder tree! Elder is a pretty tough plant though, and i suspect it will probably start to regrow from the stump, despite it being butchered like that. The sap should stop rising over the next few days, and in time new buds will start to appear and grow. Luckily, the weather at the moment is so cool, the plant is unlikely to be too stressed by this, but if it warms up you can also give it some water and a feed of a nitrogen based fertiliser to help out. Any new growth won't flower or fruit this year as it flowers on last years wood. Seems a very unnecessary thing to do to a tree that is at the end of the garden - i only hope your landlord is as zealous with all aspects of property maintenance!