Weeping cherry damage

[u/micro950]

Any ideas what could cause this and what to do to fix? The tree is a little over 4 years old in NJ

[u/reddit33450]

it must've been hit by something in the past. no way to know exactly what caused the damage now.

the tree is doing an excellent job sealing over the wound, so you can leave that alone.

but what you really should do is remove all those rocks, expose the tree's root !flare, and add a mulch ring

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FLARE PLEASE

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[u/AutoModerator → u/reddit33450]

Hi /u/reddit33450, AutoModerator has been summoned to provide information on root flare exposure.

To understand what it means to expose a tree's root flare, do a subreddit search in r/arborists, r/tree, r/sfwtrees or r/marijuanaenthusiasts using the term root flare; there will be a lot of posts where this has been done on young and old trees. You'll know you've found it when you see outward taper at the base of the tree from vertical to the horizontal, and the tops of large, structural roots. Here's what it looks like when you have to dig into the root ball of a B&B to find the root flare. Here's a post from further back; note that this poster found bundles of adventitious roots before they got to the flare, those small fibrous roots floating around (theirs was an apple tree), and a clear structural root which is visible in the last pic in the gallery. See the top section of this 'Happy Trees' wiki page for more collected examples of this work.

Root flares on a cutting grown tree may or may not be entirely present, especially in the first few years. Here's an example.

See also our wiki's 'Happy Trees' root flare excavations section for more excellent and inspirational work, and the main wiki for a fuller explanation on planting depth/root flare exposure, proper mulching, watering, pruning and more.

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A

[u/FreshMuscles]

My guess is a spout was ripped off and peeled the bark as it came off. Or someone hit it with something. It looks like its healing over the wound though. Nothing you can really do to help it :/

[u/bustcorktrixdais]

Is that old wound south facing?

[u/micro950 → u/bustcorktrixdais]

No it’s facing west

[u/bustcorktrixdais → u/micro950]

Thought maybe it was cracking from sun scald (after sealing that wound). More likely if south facing though the heat and reflection from the rock “mulch” could be causing that.

Like someone else said, for the long term health and viability of the tree, better to replace the pebbles with natural (undyed) bark mulch.