Question
I'm an expert in another category.  I have a young Maple tree, planted when I moved into my present home 6-1/2 years ago.  Last summer I discovered that my FORMER landscaper had injured this tree with a week whacker.  He had already killed my London Plains tree which literally fell over but at the time I had no idea what occurred and he denied having done anything to the tree.  Last summer, when I discovered a gash near the base of the tree on one side, I hired a tree service (could not find an arborist); the guy cabled the tree (present landscaper says cabling was well done, I don't know if this was a good idea or not) and applied an anti-fungal spray on the wound.  I was told on a gardening expert site that such spray should not have been applied so I did not do any further application.  My present landscaper did a deep root feeding with only organic materials and mulched the tree to the drip line, leaving a circle without mulch around the tree base (to keep the sight of injury in the air, rather than buried).  He suggested I water this tree but frankly I feel this is incorrect.  The tree was late in blooming (much later than the voluntary maple nearby) but is in full bloom now and has much new growth.  Can you think of anything I might do to further help this tree? Should I remove the cabling? Should it ever be necessary for me to water this tree?  Thank you for volunteering to help so many people who love their trees.

Answer
If you are talking about cabling as the cables used to brace a tree from the trunk to the ground --I would remove these. Tree bracing is used fro young tree or trees that have been blown over by the wind to straighten them back up and are left on usually only a year. A 6 1/2 tree has a well established root system and does not need the cable bracing for stability. The mulching sounds like it was done ok. Normally a tree this age would not need additional watering unless there was drought period in the weather and then only once a week. It may have been something to do with the fertilization--most folks recommend that a tree be watered right after the fertilizer was applied of the fertilizer was granular.