Rewilding My Lot

Back in May 2024, a major wind event caused a significant split in a fork of my young Desert Willow tree. The photo above is from that time. I applied a paste of rooting powder into the split and tied everything together with garden tape and a bandana.

Following are photos of the repair first in May and then in December 2024. You can see how tree growth has stretched the tape.

When I unwrapped the tape to see how the repair was doing, I saw that much of the split has healed closed. This is a picture of the front side.

However, there is still a gap at the top of the split. Here are photos from the top and rear.

The tape wasn’t providing any structural support, so I have not replaced that. The bandana, however, does still have an important role in keeping strain off the fork so I tied that back in place.

While there is still a gap at the top of the split, I feel there is a risk for internal rotting to occur and I do not trust the wound to hold together. So for the foreseeable future, this tree will continue to wear a bandana.