Liquidambar: May 2023 maintenance and cut-paste

Apparently I’ve left this one alone for the better part of a year.

Last winter:

And my next shots are from a clean up in early May this year. As I recall, it started raining while I worked. I’ve no idea why I was doing this outside.

Before, and this is not nearly as much as I expected. Did I forget to fertilize?

After. Mostly trimming some of the outside.

But while working, I noticed some of the rather ugly stumps. This bugged me for a bit, so I got some quality cut paste, which will allegedly help the tree heal over this sort of scarring. Let’s try it out.

Overall, a very spreading top, which I like, but the two main trunks end in very obvious cuts.

Close up of cut one, with the bark die-back. That won’t regrow, so it needs to be carved back.

I assume the dead core won’t regrow, but if the bark grows up to there, that might be Ok?

I struggled a bit to get the paste to stick. Maybe there’s smarter ways, or maybe you shouldn’t do this in winter. But I eventually rolled it in my hands to get it smooth and sticky, and then fitted to the cut.

I’m worried by what looks like a hope in the paste… I assume that area won’t regrow.

Second stump:

More paste this time.

Final result:

Liquidambar: May 2023 maintenance and cut-paste — I like the chance to blend the cut into the flow of the trunk. If I can learn to do this effectively, I can see it being useful.

I did watch a video on cut-paste, but not recently, and it didn’t actually show application of the paste. I’m not sure if I used too much. I’ve just re-watched that video, and still don’t know. Then I watched a couple others, and I think I did fine. Although I left it too long, so that first one has probably rotted out.

Now to wait a year, and check if I need to treat again (cut back again to reactivate, and reapply).