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How long can I leave my tree splits into two trunks and it looks like it's coming apart where they meet before it becomes dangerous?

Escalate to a same-day call if you can see a crack running down out of the notch, if the seam is visibly wider than it used to be, if the two stems have shifted relative to each other, or if you hear cracking in wind — those mean the union is already failing. Absent that, a sound union with included bark can stand for decades and many never fail at all. What moves the clock is weight accumulating at the ends of the stems, the included seam getting deeper every season, and water sitting in the notch rotting it from the inside. The danger is that failure is not gradual — it is a storm event, and central Indiana's straight-line winds and wet spring snow loading are when these let go.

Whether it can still be saved

Usually yes, and usually without removal. On a young tree — stems still under about wrist thickness at the union — an arborist shortens the weaker stem across a couple of prunings (subordination) and the tree re-establishes a single dominant leader on its own. On a mature tree the missing wood cannot be grown back, so the fix is mechanical: a cable or brace rod installed between the stems to limit how far they can spread, plus reduction pruning to take weight and wind-catch off the ends. Cables are hardware, not a cure, and need periodic re-inspection (annually is the common recommendation). Removal is the honest answer when the seam has already cracked open, when decay has hollowed the union, or when the stems are so large and so directly over a house that no hardware can hold the failure load.

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