I had some awful rabbit attacks on a locust sapling and a 5 year old
apple tree whose trunk was about the
thickness of my upper arm. The rabbits ate all the way around and
about a band width of my hand. I had thought
both were going to die. But the locust started putting green circular
spots where the rabbits had eaten and the
tree is coming back in full force. The apple tree was hit worse by the
rabbits and appears as though the leaves
are coming in full force also.

So what is the deal with cambium and what does it take to kill a tree
by its cambium?

I suppose if someone took a Swede saw and sawed all the way around,
that the tree would still live as it
would bridge that small incision cut. But if one took a chain saw all
the way around to a depth of fingernail
that such would kill the tree.

Anyway expert in cambium layer. Seems like a lot of myths on this
subject.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

"a_plutonium" schreef
So what is the deal with cambium and what does it take to kill a tree
by its cambium?

***
This rather depends. The cambium layer itself is very thin and easily
destroyed. However the tree has some capability to repair the cambium layer.

Basic rule might be: if it is a tree you want killed, then it will take more
than you think to actually kill the tree. If it is a tree you want to keep
then it will be more easily killed than you would have hoped for.
PvR

In article . com,
a_plutonium wrote:
I had some awful rabbit attacks on a locust sapling and a 5 year old
apple tree whose trunk was about the
thickness of my upper arm. The rabbits ate all the way around and
about a band width of my hand. I had thought
both were going to die. But the locust started putting green circular
spots where the rabbits had eaten and the
tree is coming back in full force. The apple tree was hit worse by the
rabbits and appears as though the leaves
are coming in full force also.

Get some tree protectors before next winter.

So what is the deal with cambium and what does it take to kill a tree
by its cambium?

It's not unusual for severely damaged trees like this to start to leaf
in the spring, using resources already present in the branches, but if
the trees are as severely girdled as you describe, the new growth will
soon shrivel and die.

You may be able to save the trees by bridge grafting if you act fast
enough. The trees will probably try to come back from below the damage,
but if this tissue is below the graft you won't get the apples you
expect. For the locust, you can let it put up root sprouts, and clip
off most of them, letting the others develop into trunks.

Good luck!

"a_plutonium" schreef
The rabbits ate all the way around and about a band width of my hand.

***
I should read more carefully. If the cambium has indeed been removed over
such a width there is not much chance of the tree itself repairing the
cambium.

The green leaves themselves don't mean much, as the sap stream upwards goes
through the wood, presumably not eaten into by the rabbits, so that the
leaves do get water. The stream downwards carrying sugar from the leaves to
the roots goes through the bark, which is gone. The roots will be the first
to die (this may take a year or more). Only then the rest of the tree will
die as well.

Trees do have capability to repair the cambium, but this will depend upon
the width to be repaired. A hand's width sounds like a lot.
PvR

P. van Rijckevorsel wrote:
"a_plutonium" schreef
The rabbits ate all the way around and about a band width of my hand.

***
I should read more carefully. If the cambium has indeed been removed over
such a width there is not much chance of the tree itself repairing the
cambium.

The green leaves themselves don't mean much, as the sap stream upwards goes
through the wood, presumably not eaten into by the rabbits, so that the
leaves do get water. The stream downwards carrying sugar from the leaves to
the roots goes through the bark, which is gone. The roots will be the first
to die (this may take a year or more). Only then the rest of the tree will
die as well.

Trees do have capability to repair the cambium, but this will depend upon
the width to be repaired. A hand's width sounds like a lot.
PvR

As the Toronto poster noted that the leaves will shrivel up, happened
to me on a apricot
tree that was only partially eaten by rabbits. And at that time I
thought that perhaps rabbits
have something in their saliva or mouth that infects trees because the
eaten portion was
small yet the tree stunted growth was huge.

In the case of the locust, green spots about the size of my nail head
of cambium came
back and the tree is as if normal.

As for this apple tree, the leaves are doing great, even better than
the same sized tree
next to it. The damage was extensive though. And it appears as though
a tiny sliver the
width of a ball point pen was not eaten by the rabbits as to where two
branches were
in the way, so the rabbits did not girdle the total 360 degrees. So
maybe that one sliver
is enough to save the whole tree.

I will keep monitoring it.

I have a section of a field at another place where I am trying to grow
rows of amur maples for
5 years now. The rabbits there are very dense and last years have
eaten these maples to the ground.
So I put tomato cages wrapped with chicken wire which helps very much.
Those protected
are now 4 feet tall. Those unprotected have been eaten to the ground
and have to put out new
shouts every year.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

wrote:
In article . com,
a_plutonium wrote:
I had some awful rabbit attacks on a locust sapling and a 5 year old
apple tree whose trunk was about the
thickness of my upper arm. The rabbits ate all the way around and
about a band width of my hand. I had thought
both were going to die. But the locust started putting green circular
spots where the rabbits had eaten and the
tree is coming back in full force. The apple tree was hit worse by the
rabbits and appears as though the leaves
are coming in full force also.

Get some tree protectors before next winter.

So what is the deal with cambium and what does it take to kill a tree
by its cambium?

It's not unusual for severely damaged trees like this to start to leaf
in the spring, using resources already present in the branches, but if
the trees are as severely girdled as you describe, the new growth will
soon shrivel and die.

You may be able to save the trees by bridge grafting if you act fast
enough. The trees will probably try to come back from below the damage,
but if this tissue is below the graft you won't get the apples you
expect. For the locust, you can let it put up root sprouts, and clip
off most of them, letting the others develop into trunks.

Good luck!

I promised to check back and report how this apple tree had done. It
was severely
girdled by rabbits and had just a sliiver of bark that was continuous
upward. But it
leafed out as normal and the barren bark trunk turned greenish and is
now as
normal.

So my conclusion is that rabbits rarely kill a plant. They kill things
like my
baby pine trees when they eat off the top leaving nothing but a stalk
with no
needles remaining. That is the only time I have seen rabbits actually
killing a
plant I planted. So I think rabbit damage is bad for nurseries buying
and selling
plant stock, but for the actually killing of plant stock is somewhat
overblown and hype.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies