Generally, borers are a death sentence for a tree – these insect pests spend most of their lives inside affected trees, causing a slow decline as they chew through the transport tissues that keep the tree hydrated and nourished. Several years ago something damaged that part of the tree, it could have been a deep freeze, sunscald from erratic winter temperatures or some other cause. Water a stressed tree well, withholding fertilizer until the tree show signs of improvement. Emerald Ash Tree Borer Treatment: Tips On How To Prevent Ash Borer, Peeling Bark On Trees: What To Do For Trees That Have Peeling Bark, Dogwood Bark Peeling Off: Fixing Tree Bark Flaking On Dogwood Trees, Mixed Container With Succulents: Succulents For Thriller, Filler, and Spiller Designs, DIY Herb Carton Planters: Growing Herbs In Milk Cartons, Air Plant Holder Ideas: Make An Air Plant Mount, What Is White Pine Blister Rust: Does Pruning White Pine Blister Rust Help, Making Compost Indoors – How To Compost In The Home, About Beer Plant Food: Tips On Using Beer On Plants And Lawn, Dutch Elm Protection – Is There Treatment For Dutch Elm Disease, Thanksgiving Tradition: Turning Homegrown Pumpkins Into Pie, Growing Thanksgiving Dinner – Must Have Turkey Side Dishes, Interesting Uses For Pecans: What To Do With Pecans, The Bountiful Garden: Bringing The Garden To Thanksgiving. As long as there’s healthy bark underneath the peeling layers, your tree … When present on trees, seeds are dry, oar-shaped samaras. Look for places on the tree’s trunk where there is no bark, the bark is falling off, or the bark is discolored. A D-shaped exit hole is cut through the bark of ash by emerald ash borer. Find more gardening information on Gardening Know How: Keep up to date with all that's happening in and around the garden. Removal is typically your only option. Ash trees typically grow on or near the banks of permanent water sources like streams and ponds. Only Ash trees and Boxelder trees have both opposite branching and compound leaves, but the leaves on Boxelder trees usually only have 3-5 leaflets, not 5-9. Ash borer damage is significant in all species of North American ash trees that become infected. Are you recommending that we leave the tree alone, and water, etc until we see if there is a problem with ash borer? It could be 5 years from now or it could be next spring. I can tell you that the damage that caused the bark peeling you're now seeing is at least 3 or 4 years old. Frost crack or Southwest canker is a form of tree bark damage sometimes found on thin barked trees, visible as vertical fractures on the southerly facing surfaces of tree trunks. Bark splitting occurs due to a variety of environmental factors, such as sharp temperature changes that freeze and thaw water. Once sunburn has occurred, there’s no way to repair it but you can prevent it in the future by being careful to prune out less than a quarter of the living branches of an ash tree during any season. Missing bark (or areas where bark is falling off) usually signals a dead section. It happened about 6 weeks ago after a very cold night. On the whole tree: Affected trees show extensive dieback of shoots, twigs and branches. You can also examine the tree’s bark. CSU recommends only having 3-4" of wood mulch and no physical ring around the edge. On young trees (right), bark is relatively smooth. Sign up for our newsletter. Newly planted trees or young trees are more prone to bark splitting. I'll address the bark peeling first. The bark is splitting but is not brittle at all. Several kinds of bark beetles occur in ash. Bark splits are not likely to be fatal to trees, although they will, … Acute oak decline is a disease of oak trees which has been emerging in England and Wales since the end of the 20th century. Know where your ash trees are located and scout for the pest in June and July as the first step to prevent ash borer from causing serious or deadly damage.