Old Growth Red Maple Too Deep

[treeseer]

Expert Work!

Nice Job, Nate!

Dryads saddle, Polyporus squamosus, is known as a slow white rotter, which keeps flexibility but loses strength in the wood. as long as it grows on the outside...

Bark has been collecting spores of a lot of fungi for years, so you are inoculating the soil with mycorrhizae with medium when you shred it into mulch.

If you see dead branches from the tree, cut a sharp end into them and stab/hammer them where that struggling turf is, deep into the moist earth.

Broadcast fert in October, out by dripline.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Nice Job, Nate!

Dryads saddle, Polyporus squamosus, is known as a slow white rotter, which keeps flexibility but loses strength in the wood. as long as it grows on the outside...

Bark has been collecting spores of a lot of fungi for years, so you are inoculating the soil with mycorrhizae with medium when you shred it into mulch.

If you see dead branches from the tree, cut a sharp end into them and stab/hammer them where that struggling turf is, deep into the moist earth.

Broadcast fert in October, out by dripline.

Thanks, yes it is definitely growing on the outside the hole is closing up and you can see micro cracks everywhere the trunk is expanding.

Fertilize twice a year? I don't understand the hammering part.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Sweet September

Seeing how I was told to do root work during September here it is:

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

So now on the OPPOSITE side (the "healthy" side) there is a HUGE fruiting body! This broke out of what was a solid no hole side, underneath the now broken knub where the limb fell off that had the chain inside. Which by the way has shown no signs of healing, there are no new sprouts coming out near the break so I think I should make that cut this summer? If you look closely to the lower left you can see the original mushroom I had been posting pictures of previously on the backside

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

This was the same spot 2 years ago, a black tar looking area that someone thought was some old tree spray (outdated technology)

I hope this fungi is doing good and helping, basically the way I understand it is as long as the outer layer expands at the same rate as the fungi hollows the deadwood the structure won't change, and that the fungi will stop at the live wood layer eating only white-rot?

 

[treeseer]

This was the same spot 2 years ago, a black tar looking area

Great job on the before-and-after!

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Thank you, I have about 500 pictures of this tree lol so it's just a matter of finding the right ones and cropping them.

What do you think of the bark condition? I realize the first photo was taken on a damp day but still, in 2 years it appears to have thickened up it's bark now that sun shines directly on it instead of the vines that used to cover it eating up all the light (that and small trees) The ridges in the bark seem to have filled in a bit they do not appear as deep, I think the trunk is expanding. When I say ridges I am referring to the flower shape if viewed from above, sort of like live wood vains. The tree has practically grown a whole new trunk around it's rotting heartwood in the shape of those columns.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

I found these old pictures, from the 2008 ice storm that knocked out our power for 4 days. It is what destroyed the tree, check out the canopy. Also this is way before any work, so the trunk is enclosed in small trees and vines:

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

So this is pretty interesting, this is an opening from approximately 15 month's ago:

Here it is today, look at the reddish swollen "column" on the right side of the opening!

May be hard for you to see but that "column" is clearly swollen all the way as it wraps around the base (bulging out on left):

Here we go again, new black spots I bet we shall see fruiting bodies next year. But that is okay because clearly it is compartmenting just fine, the fungi seems to be doing beneficial deadwood cleaning:

Now it's been at least a year since that limb came down, with no signs of sprouts. Should I make an execution now and clean up that snap?

I cleared a bunch of trees next door in my grandfathers backyard, I now have a new angle/view of the tree: