Large Maple Branch Broken

[Joe]

I was wondering if the arborists and/or tree lovers in the group had any advice for me.

In massachusetts, we have had some strong windstorms and steady rains over the past few weeks. Last saturday night, I hear a crash and looked out to find that our "leaning maple" had lost a large branch.

question is, what is the prognosis here? The branch took a fairly large chunk of the trunk down with it, so it is obviously weaker at that point than it once was. Is there anything I can do to "clean" the wound and remove the crotch that developed so water and insects dont collect there? Or do I need to take it down? If it falls, there is nothing in its path, and it still appears to have some life left in it, so I would love to save it.

Thanks in advance for the toughts and advice!

Joe

[M.Paul]

Hi Joe, That is a large limb that came down - fortunately the rest of the tree looks good and that damage to the trunk is not as bad as it could have been. From what I remember (when I was a kid working on my parents' orchard) we would cut away the bottom so that water didn't pool. Then we would paint the wound. I think that we just used a glossy white paint, but there's probably something available at your local nursery specifically for this purpose. Good luck. M.Paul