I noticed a problem with one of my sequoias in August:
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| Aug 11, 2021 P2.OR8 |
First, I removed the pressure on the trunk by untying the velcro and several days later slowly pulled it off the trunk, trying to remove as little bark as possible.
Here is side-by-side comparison of the area on a sequoia trunk that was affected by a velcro strap. I use two kinds of straps to support young trees by tying them to bamboo sticks. The first kind is flexible, stretchable plastic straps and the second is half inch-wide velcro straps. Plastic straps stretch and eventually break, allowing the trunks to grow. Velcro straps are much less stretchable and strong enough to damage the growing trees. They do not break and instead the tree bark starts to grow around them.
First picture was taken immediately after the velcro strap was removed. It clearly shows the bottleneck created by the strap.
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| Aug 15, 2021 P2.OR8 |
One month later the tree is showing good progress with fixing the damage. Some tree resin can be clearly seen on and around the wound. The area that was previously squeezed by velcro got thicker and the trunk appears to be recovering overall:
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| Sept 15, 2021 P2.OR8 |
