Ailing Acer campestre?

[johnbaz]

Hi all

I've not seen this on Field Maples before, I just pulled this one out, It's around 30" tall, I won it probably fifteen years ago at the club auction, I just noticed black patches on the bark, A bit like the Verticillium but the bark seems to be coming away in small bits asit peels slightly

The foliage looks ok but I have a feeling that if it encircles the trunk then it will die I'm hoping that my other Maples won't catch it but if it is Vericillium, I read it was caught through the soil..


By the way, The bottom branch was (Still is!) thinner than the ones above it so I was letting grow unchecked to thicken up quicker, One day the wife came in from the garden with her gloves and secateurs and said that I'd missed a branch on one of my trees that had grown too long so she cut it off!

It never did thicken any more afterwards!



John..

 

[johnbaz]

I found this pic from 2014 and it had a discolouraytioon back then, I also found a pic from 2009, It looked as though it had started but not gone black

John..

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

We can also see moss creeping up, this means it's probably on the shade side. Dead bark can act as a wick and suck up water from the soil, the water will evaporate from the bark and it will keep drawing water from the soil.
This is probably why it's darker colored than the rest.

Verticulum would have killed it by now, or at least would have shown up on the foliage. Infected parts hardly thicken up, so I would say that if it was infected, it wouldn't have much peeling bark but a mushy soft part instead.