Hello I recently had an aloe bainessii tree moved to a new location. Unfortunately, there was an issue during the transplanting and a piece of the bark got injured.

I am hoping the tree will survive and heal since the wound does not girdle the branch.

Should I just let nature takes its course?

I am in San Diego so we don't have rain for another three months so I am hoping this will be plenty of time to heal?

Would spraying an antifungal/antibacerial in the area help or just cause more harm then good?

Any help regarding this matter is appreciated. Thank you.

I would leave it alone and monitor it - I think it will just callous over and be fine, but obviously you want to make sure that is what is happening. If you start seeing this spot growing bigger it may be worth applying some anti fungal/antibacterial/insecticide, but right now it does not look like it will need it.

I had to move a much smaller A. dichotoma this spring and the base got damaged quite a bit worse. I won't know till the Fall if the move will be successful - it is trying to survive through the summer while not quite rooted in very well, but if it does not make it, I am pretty sure it will not be because of the damage to the trunk.

Thank you for the information.

I will wait and keep monitoring as you suggest.

I do hope your dichotoma makes it. Those are great aloe trees.

Thanks and yep they are very nice. It has a ways to go before I'd call it a tree... started it from a tiny 4" seedling. I had to leave a 20 ft Aloe 'Hercules' behind, too big and too pricey to move. Fortunately, those grow really quickly so this Fall I am looking to get a new one at the new place...

I love watching them grow up. Usually I do the same thing. I also have a 7 ft Hercules that I got as a 5 gallon about 3 years ago. They sure do grow up fast... Can't wait until its 20 ft like yours was that must have been an amazing plant. Did you ever see yours bloom? I have read they can but not that often.

As far as the bainessii I'm hoping to see it get to 20-30 ft some day... so I wanted to get a head start.

Bainsii laughs in the face of damage, not even mealy can slow this one down.

It never bloomed, but it did branch twice, was one of those really hard to walk away from plants, but such is life.

Well 6 months in now. I still have not done anything and have been letting nature do its thing. The coloring appears to just be natural weathering so far.

The exposed section also seems to still be alive, is this possible? as parts of it seems to be creating new bark. I did not expect this to happen.

A little behind on things these days but here is the shot from August 2020:




Still seems ok.

Feb 2021:




New cracks seem to keep appearing from the area that I thought might be dead? Maybe its still alive underneath? I'm, not sure if a new layer of bark will grow across the whole area or not?

Seems un affected though, that branch has split into three heads and each is growing quite nicely.

As the plant ages the more vertical 'cracks' in the bark are just progressive bark formation on the plant. I'd consider that pretty much a normal development. I am sure it is associated with the trunk fattening up some.

Very nice plant! It is officially not a plant I can grow here - it gets too hot - but I am trying it one more time in one of the shadiest spots in my yard. If it surprises me and takes off it will become problematic, but I suspect it will not ever get to that stage.

Here is the latest. Still looks good. Does still seem to be expanding from the inside?

Actually I think its finally established now two years in. Its really growing well this year. Lots of new leaves.

Looking awesome!

I think as the trunk gets thicker the spot will appear to lag behind as there is little there that is growing with the rest of the trunk. I would suspect that over time it will actually get smaller as the bark around the hole expands.

Nice! Thanks for the followup pics.

Here is the latest. Its come a long way from the original injury. Maybe in another year or so it will be totally refilled in like it was never there?

It will probably heal over. It will just take some time.

It looks great to me. Like it has character but not an actual injury.