My poor wisteria!!! What do you think has caused this???

clearing some leaves and grasses from around the base of one of my wisteria....and shocked to find this!!!



I did see a mouse run off when I was clearing the leaves away....do you think it's done it??

 

I've seen badgers do similar damage in my parent's garden, but only to stumps/dead trees, never something healthy and growing. That's incredible!

 

Wow that is some incredible damage!!! . Looks like a stowaway beaver is on the loose!

It's hard to tell for sure but the wood does look sort of rotten in texture, kind of flakey.

 

I wondered if it was ants or similar?! Termites lol.

Can't see it being. A badger as weve got walls all around the garden.

I bet it was the mouse i saw-the dogs have always been interested in that area. And there were like wet wood shavings around it. It was quite a big mouse....def not a rat.

 

I can't see it being a mouse (even a larger than average one).
My first thought was: squirrel.
Either that or some nasty kind of disease.

 

We don't really get squirrels in the garden as were in the middle of farmers fields and theres hardly any trees. There was piles of wood shavings....must be something gnawing it?! Going to nip out before bed and see if i can see anything. Wouldnt be a hoggy would it?(she hopes)

 

Was this growing well last year, and did it flower?

Only it looks to me like it has been dead for a while.

 

Well it had green leaves on when we moved in in July last year and id done the pruning as id been advised. It's even got buds growing on it now. I hope it isn't dead :( it's nearly gnawed all the way through though!!! Can't believe it really.

 

Sorry to say this but although it may have buds on, it's not going to last for long. Even just destruction of the bark, or deeper - the cambian layer will kill many shrubs and trees but your Wisteria's issues go much futher i.e. right to the core (heartwood) - with most of it appearing to have been destroyed already.

It may show signs of life now but the Wisteria will have little in the way of any healing mechanism, so may keel over soon enough, especially if frost hits. It may be a few months before the worst is noticed due to residual energy.

As an example, I've seen branch logs from trees producing leaves months after they were chainsawed into 18 inch lengths.

 

I'm not getting any sense of scale from the pictures.

It looks like it must be a pretty ancient, massive, wisteria.

 

It has to be 8 years old max because that's when the barn was renovated and garden etc made. I'll take a piccy shortly and post.

Safe to say I am gutted. The wisteria were one of my main attractions when buying the house. Luckily there are two more in the garden but I particularly loved the location of this one and was going to sort out a bench to sit there. :( boo hoo

 

Lighting is not so good as its pretty miserable outside!

 

I would try taking cuttings if it does produce any shoots. Good wisterias are often grafted and expensive, so worth an attempt.

 

Will definitely give it a go if I get chance.

 

Right looking at the pics now it appears that what you might have is a collection of stems that were platted or twisted around one another in order to form a standard.
That explains the large girth at a reasonably young age.

Doesn't explain why its rotted off at ground level though.

Just wondering if you might have one stem left that is still alive.