I finally saw what happens when you skip the tree wrap for a year on a new maple

Planted a red maple in my Decatur backyard back in March 2023, left the wrap off to see if it mattered, and by August the trunk had sunscald damage that stunted the whole tree's growth compared to my neighbor's identical one he wrapped from day one, so has anyone else dealt with bark recovery after this kind of mistake?

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan_bailey931mo ago

Got a buddy who did the same thing with a silver maple in his front yard down in Atlanta. Left the wrap off because he thought it looked cleaner and by late summer the bark on the south side was all cracked and peeling like old sunburned skin. He tried slapping on some white latex paint mixed with water to protect it for the next year and did that for two seasons straight. The tree eventually grew over the damaged spots but there's still a gnarly looking scar three years later that reminds him every time he mows the lawn. It's alive and healthy enough now but never caught up size wise to his other trees.

grantp2820d agoMost Upvoted

And that's the thing about these little mistakes, you don't always see the cost right away but it shows up years later in ways you can't fix, @morgan_bailey93. It's like when people skip the primer on a fence or deck, you save an afternoon but trade it for something that never looks or performs quite right again.

alice891mo ago

Oh man, that's rough! I've seen this happen way too many times. The south and west sides of young trees are basically getting blasted by the sun all afternoon and they just can't handle it without some kind of protection. Your buddy's idea with the latex paint was actually a decent save, but the trick is you gotta catch it before the damage sets in. I usually recommend a white tree wrap that breathes a little, not just plastic, and you take it off in spring once the leaves are fully out so it doesn't trap moisture. The scar sounds like classic sunscald where the cambium layer got cooked, and once that bark cracks it's a permanent reminder for sure. As long as the tree is still putting out decent leaves and not dropping branches, he should be fine but that size difference is probably a done deal because it had to spend all its energy healing instead of growing tall.