Question
QUESTION: I have a 5 year old Japanese Maple which has been damaged by the weight of the snow. One of the limbs has broken and has caused the trunk to split.  Can we bind this somehow so that I will not split further? Also my husband is hesitant about removing any more snow from the tree.  Should we wait for it to melt further or try to remove some more by hand.

ANSWER: I would let the snow melt on its own and then remove the broken branches and any split areas. The tree should sprout out new growth in the area that was broken off. Cut the broken branches smooth with the trunk or back to good non spilt wood. IF you try to remove the snow you would do more damage to the tree.

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Japanese Red Maple   QUESTION: Thank you for your quick reply.  I have attached a picture so you can see that the trunk has split directly down the middle.  I am not sure how I can cut this back without loosing 1/2 of the tree.

Answer
Oh yes a picture is worth a thousand words. After the snow is off the tree where you can pull the halves together without the weight of the snow holding them apart, bind the two as tight as you can together with small rope wrapped around the stem. Check with your local nursery and see if you can get grafting wax and coat the area with this to hold moisture and keep out fungi. Once the two halves are held together with the small rope drill a hole through the stem and insert a threaded  bolt through the hole--put a large washer on each end of the bolt and tighten the nut so the halves will stay together. After a growing season remove the rope--the tree will grow into the rope and damage the trunk. Hopefully this brace will allow the tree to graft back and re-grow together. The bolts can be left in the tree and the tree will grow over them with no problem. I would put a couple of bolts one near the top say 2 inches down and another 3 inches down from that. 1/4 inch diameter bolts should work--hard to tell the diameter of the trunk. With a little luck the graft will work and the tree will be ok.