Question

Tri Color Beech   QUESTION: I have a tricolor beech tree in my front yard in northern California purchased several years ago from a local nursery and now 20+ feet tall. On purchase, about 8 feet up from the base of the tree there was a decided "kink" in the growth of the trunk, and a relative lack of branches on one side of the trunk above that point, which has persisted. After waiting in vain for a couple of years for my tree's growth to correct itself and become more symmetrical, I got up on a ladder for a closer look, and found a hole a few millimeters wide with some sunken, discolored bark around it. On the advice of an arborist, I went poking into the hole with a paperclip, trying to crush any borer/insect that might be causing the damage. Now the sunken bark area is 8" tall by 1.5" wide, and there is a second, similar, sunken area of 6"x1", two feet directly above the first (same side of the tree), and the beginings of a third above that. The tree still has far fewer and smaller branches on it's affected side above the original lesion. Can you tell me what the problem is, and what can be done about it?

ANSWER: Looks like it started out from a branch that was taken off and this wound did not heal over well. A decay fungi has gotten into the branch wound and is causing the problem. The Arborist thought it could be a borer that is why he suggested the wire but I do not think that is the problem. Over time a decay fungi will invade the woody cells in the inter trunk and slowly eat away the wood. Decay fungi do not attack the living cells so there is no danger of the tree dying from the decay fungi.

Many tears down the road the tree will become hollow and  IF largo branches begin to break off and these are hollow the tree could become a hazard if it fell. This will be many tears before this might happen. I would in the mean time fertilize the tree with  13-13-13 fertilizer at the rate of 1 lb per inch of trunk diameter scattered around the tree and watered in good . Apply the fertilizer just before a rain storm and you will not need to water it in. Treat now and again in the Fall. This will increase the health of the tree and strengthen the trunk and roots. This will also encourage the tree to put on diameter growth and should allow the trunk to grow over the wound.

Again the decay fungi will not kill the tree but could over a long time cause it to become hollow. Increasing the health is the key to slowing the decay process.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much for your help. I assume from your not mentioning it that there is no antifungal which would help. Is there any reason for the spread of the fungus, in a skipping fashion, up the tree where no cuts have been made? Again, thanks.

Answer
since the fungi are growing deep in the woody part of the tree there is no way to get a fungicide into the area. The only treatment would be increase the health and growth of the tree and the tree will seal off the fungi. The fungi enter at a branch wound either cut or broken off. The upper area is more then likely where a branch was.