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Ask a Gardening QuestionGardening Questions & Answers: Plant ProblemsHelp! Something ate my apple tree …

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Help! Something ate my apple tree from the inside

#1 · 6th April 2025, 11:00 pm

Hi everyone, my heart is in shambles, something made a horizontal hole in my gorgeous mini golden spur tree and then proceeded to make tunnels up and down the trunk. I've tried to fill it with a sealant to some degree, but I don't know if this can help it at all. The tree is so beautiful and bears lovely apples every single year that are so tasty. I really don't know what to do. Shall I leave it to see if it survives (it's just about to start flowering), or shall I try to save it by cutting it down below the level of the damage (there are only 2 very small branches below the point where I guess the tunnel ends at the bottom end)?

Thanks

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#2 · 8th April 2025, 12:34 pm

Hi @danaya

Thanks for your question. Oh, what a shame that you've ended up with a situation where you're trying to seal off a tree's wound or hole. I wish you'd gotten in touch sooner. If anything, this sealant is more likely to kill or poison the tree than any wildlife or insect burrowing into its trunk.

Many things will make their home in plants, trees and shrubs by pecking holes or burrowing. However, most won't kill the tree. Please hold off any more chemical treatments or sealants, as you run the risk of poisoning or suffocating the tree, which is far worse! I never advise sealing any wounds on trees from pruning or damage. Sealants cause more problems than they solve, and plants/trees will happily seal their own wounds, whereas paints and sealants leave them open and stop them from lignifying and sealing properly.

As for cutting back beneath the cut, there is no need; the tree looks healthy and like it will recover, especially if it's in leaf. Cutting any apple tree back hard will spur on sideways growth, not vertical growth, and therefore it may end up in a mangled, deformed shape and hard to both manage and harvest with branches dragging on the ground.

I'd I were you, I'd leave the tree well alone and just make sure it's well watered in any heat waves this year. Fingers crossed that your fruit tree survives.

All the best

Lee Garden Ninja

#3 · 9th April 2025, 8:25 am

Thanks for your reply. I used Provanto Arbrex Heal and Seal, which has natural resin as the active ingredient. I really hope it's not going to disturb the tree too much. I also tried reaching inside with a wire, as I've been told it's effective in the early stages of infestation with the goat moth larvae (the wire went 15cm up and 10cm down the trunk, so the larvae made about 25cm long tunnel in the central part of it, I only poured some sealant down in the lower part of it). Do you think the tree can survive my lack of understanding about sealants?

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Lee Burkhill

Lee Burkhill, known as the Garden Ninja, is an award-winning garden designer and horticulturist with over 30 years of gardening experience and 15 years as a professional garden designer. A qualified RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) professional, Lee specialises in sustainable garden design and practical horticultural advice. He designs and presents on BBC1’s Garden Rescue and in leading gardening publications. Lee combines three decades of hands-on gardening knowledge with professional design qualifications to help gardeners create beautiful, functional outdoor spaces.

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