Is there a tree doctor in the house?

[woollypigs]

We got a little tree, sycamore, in a pot. Which one of our foster dogs took a liking to.

He trimmed a fair bit of bark off, the little bugger. Even manage to chew a brach off at the bottom. At the moment the tree looks nice a green and still producing shoots off the top and new leaves around the stump/branch.

The scar is about foot and a half long/high and halfway around the inch and a but thich trunk.

It suffered from some greefiles and other stuff, which I washed away with washing up liquid and a few good sprays with the hose. I also gave it a bit of top soil and chicken poop.

Here is a picture, hopefully the link works, doing this from my phone.

https://goo.gl/photos/EazTTCRSuqGvgZq1A

Is there a way to help it out? I know loss off bark is bad for the tree. Though it looks OK and happy growing new stuff.

[Si_Co]

IANATD but its really really hard to kill sycamores, they'll survive just about anything you can throw at them. I've been trying to kill two in my garden for three years now and am contemplating resorting to nasty chemicals but they're in amongst other stuff.

Leave it, it'll be fine.

[caerau]

If you're going to plant it out, make sure it's a LONG way from your foundations.  Sycamore's are quite famous for undermining foundations in time, they have a very big root spread.  And yeah, unless you burn it, chop it in half or dunk the bucket in sulphuric acid for a few weeks you're unlikely to kill it.

[woollypigs]

Yes I did hear that they are a kinda a weed. I can't remember the "posh" word for it, my friend used, I just know it ment we-kill it-ed

Good to hear as I really like this tree, it spawned four small ones too, about four inches tall now they are. Well they came from the same big grown up one that this one came from. So my small woodland, that I always wanted, is doing well

ATM they are going to live in pots, unless I come into money and can invest in land to transplant my woodland too.

Our woodland is now six sycamores, two unknown trees and a cherry tree. I'm sawing up to a forest

[caerau]

Sounds like the damage has caused a little coppice growth


If you want to get snazzy, you could carefully, in the winter, take it out of the pot and remove its tap root.  It looks just about the right size (maybe verging on the too big, but probably not) to create a bonsai.  I has got a book about making bonsai deciduous trees somewhere but have never ended up trying it.


Probably something with littler leaves would be more appropriate but if you keep in that pot it will not go so well for it in the end otherwise I suspect.  Yeah, too small a pot for it is likely to be one way to kill it in the long run.

[woollypigs]

Ah that was my first idea when I spotted the wee ones. But my friend who got a few bonsai's under his belt. Told me that sycamores are not too keen on the idea. So therefore a woodland.

[Ruthie]

I spent a lot of time as a countryside warden taking out Sycamore.  They displace the native species of tree.  We were trying to encourage oak, and to some extent ash.

They are a lovely tree though, it'd be interesting to see a bonsai specimen.  Some bonsai woodlands are incredibly beautiful.

[caerau]

I just googled around a bit - you *can* bonsai sycamore but it's not really the top choice - actually it's on a hall of shame for being a bad one to do it with one link I looked at.

[Exit Stage Left]

It looks more like a Norway Maple to me, and it's too big for that pot already.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_platanoides

[twiddler]

I also think it may probably be a Norway Maple rather than a Sycamore (Sycamore's tend to have a 'toothed' edge), it's also a non-native but generally less invasive so perhaps you don't have to worry about being kind to it!  I think the pot is fine, as commercially, trees two and three times that size come in pots smaller than that.

In answer to what you can do for it, probably you don't need to do too much, if you just wait and watch you'll probably see it gradually callus over the wound, and if it's of any relevance, guerilla forestry may be a good tactic whilst you save up to buy your land - just remember right plant, right place. 

[woollypigs]

I'll tell our gardener that she is on the wrong donkey. Because that is the leaf. Peli's mum is going to be surprised when I tell her that.

Ah, invasive that is the fancy word I couldn't remember

[Ian H]

All you need now is a stuffed Norwegian Blue parrot perched in it.

[Ruthie]

Sycamore is a type of maple, isn't it?  Check out this red maple bonsai. 

red maple exhibit bonsai, NY Botanical Garden by cpopenoe, on Flickr

[woollypigs]

Wow, I don't think my green fingers can master that.

[jsabine]

IANATD but its really really hard to kill sycamores, they'll survive just about anything you can throw at them. I've been trying to kill two in my garden for three years now and am contemplating resorting to nasty chemicals but they're in amongst other stuff.

I ignored a wee clump of four or six in my garden until they'd got to about 20 feet tall. Brought the buggers down with a bowsaw, and gave anything that came up round the stumps a glyphosate spa. Two years on, I think they're getting the hint - I've only spotted one decent shoot this year, which is now looking a little the worse for wear after a tender, loving spraying.

[caerau]

The trick with getting rid of small stumps is to kill them - then burn them.  I can't remember what it is, but there is stuff you can buy where you drill vertical holes in the stump and fill it with the stuff.  This contains both a weedkiller and some sort of napalm type stuff that soaks in so later on it burns effectively.


If you have a big tree stump you'll need to get a man with a tractor and crane in.

[caerau]

Still a damn site easier than getting rid of bloody dandelions though     

[jsabine]

The trick with getting rid of small stumps is to kill them - then burn them.  I can't remember what it is, but there is stuff you can buy where you drill vertical holes in the stump and fill it with the stuff.  This contains both a weedkiller and some sort of napalm type stuff that soaks in so later on it burns effectively.

Yep. SBK (Scrub and Brush and Killer) is the stuff I've been too lazy to get hold of so far. Not sure if that does the burny thing too.

If you have a big tree stump you'll need to get a man with a tractor and crane in.

Fortunately, the sycamores didn't get to that stage. The palm next to our neighbour's back wall might be another matter - and with a London garden, I think getting a tractor in might be a little tricky. Ho hum.

[caerau]

Best thing to do with a large tree stump is to convert into a feature, a nice seat or a stand for a gnome or some such.  Not worth the hassle of getting rid really unless you want to spend the extensive cash required.

[woollypigs]

As I read "drill vertical holes in the stump" I was sooo hoping the next part of the sentence was TNT, but no

My grandfather used to drill a few holes into the stumps. Not sure if it filled it with anything at all. But I can remember playing with my Lego on the stumps and the minifigs just fitted into the holes. And then like magic a year or two later I couldn't play the same game as the stump had gone walkies.

[caerau]

Yeah, it wasn't a quick process.  My experience of that is also as a child watching my dad do it and it was certainly over a period of some time.


TNT does sound more fun - might even get big stumps out like that 

[spindrift]

He trimmed a fair bit of bark off

I've nothing useful to add except it sounds like the bark's worse for his bite, here all week, try the veal.

[caerau]

The tree however appears not to be feeling too ruff. 

[Vince]

SBK used to contain Agent Orange