Dogwood – Repairing Damage

Q: After heavy rain a huge limb fell from a pecan tree on top of a small dogwood splitting it. What do I do now?

A: Wow – this is tough to decide.

I doubt very much if the split-away limb could be bolted back in place and graft itself to the limb from which it split.

And the limb from which it split doesn’t look much better. Its joint with the main trunk will likely fail in a windstorm.

It looks like with both gone it would leave the tree unbalanced to one side…not very attractive.

If you want an attractive tree in that spot I think you need to dig this one out and replace it.

But you could also try bolting the split limbs tightly together and see what happens.Email me in a couple of years with pix if you decide to wait and see.

(scroll past picture to see followup)

I have decided to hope for the best with my dogwood tree…..I duct taped it together!! So far it looks ok! It’s just in the backyard … just to make me happy!