My 4year old Apple tree has a section of bark missing ,about 4inches wide around the circumference of the tree about half way up th trunk the stem under the missing bark looks dry and cracked . What has happened to it , it has been producing Apple’s for the last 2 years
It is likely that a rabbit (on top of the deep snow earlier) or a deer has eaten the bark off the tree. If it is removed all the way around the trunk, it will not grow above that. You can cut it at the top of the remaining bark and retrain a new trunk from shoots that start below that…this is quite a setback. This is why young fruit and other trees should have their trunks wrapped in the fall for the winter to protect them…more on that HERE. Once they’re older and have the rough bark of a mature tree they won’t need to be wrapped but this is 10+ years in the future.