Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
We seemed to have gotten side-tracked....?
What can I put in a tree to fill a small cavity?
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MasterBlaster
TreeHouse Elder
Still borrowing working gear i see..........
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
Butt just bare-ly. Before mb's asspirations were known, I remember assking about water being totally evil, and saying "Plunging a saw tip into healthy wood and bark to drain a cavity seems extremely destructive. It may well expand the cavity, which will go deeper, and require draining again. I was totally agreeing with you up to this point, but you've got to better substantiate your decisions to invade healthy wood before you're going to get much agreement."
The ball was in your court when sidetrack happened.
Still waiting to hear about that; ok if there's no good response. I've gotten overzealous in the pursuit of pathogens before too; it's a learning process.
No one bats 1.000; many days I'm happy with a base on balls.
Yin
ArboristSite Member
cOnfused
So carpenter ants are bad for our trees? So I should be concerned about the construction workers climbing up and down my trees ? If so it seems I've got some work to do. I allways thought they only excavate dead wood?
So carpenter ants are bad for our trees? So I should be concerned about the construction workers climbing up and down my trees ? If so it seems I've got some work to do. I allways thought they only excavate dead wood?
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
Yin they are not a serious pest. You have bigger fish to fry; don't worry about any ants.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
I'm sorry, I ducked out for a couple days; I've had an inordinate number of big takedowns in the last week, long days, beaten and pummelled, but in a nice, treeguy-like beaten and pummelled.
Thank you for pullin me back in, Guy.
I like the topic of CODIT and what happens in which species, with which sets of conditions, environmental, tree vigor and wound size and state. Each tree being different, each with its own set of unique 'conditions' sets CODIT into motion with sort of an individual-to-the-tree, no two compartmentalizations quite alike. Like the 'no two snowflakes alike' analogy.
I will address your previous questions regarding pathogen overzealousness, but first we must look at ze pictures.
To to attempt to understand CODIT let's really start at the beginning; the beginning of time, or the beginning of trees. This pic was from a tree 170 million years ago, using an earlier version of the Nikon camera. Trees at the beginning of time needed to create defenses for themselves, which is a neat trick, if you thinks about it, since you stay in the same spot your entire existance and move only when the wind blows,or when there's growth.
Here in this pic, 170 million years ago in the early days of tree history, a caveman hack arborist did some poor pruning. My great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, Grandfather to the 12th power took this picture to show how CODIT begins, and why this lame pruning job will result in the tree never being able to close over, and complete compartmentalization may never fully occur.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
CODIT in the old days
Great Gramps surmised that if a limb on a tree dies, the tree knows it, and will set up barrier walls inside of its own self. An ideal CODIT scenario begins with when a limb dies, the tree routes it's water and nutrient flow around the site.
The successful tree also set in motion callus growth. Callus is undifferentiated plant cells, that transfigure into a cell type, like wood, or cambium. Kinda like our stem cells, sorta. The smart trees evolved to have an area called the branch collar, and callus growth there would be especially vigorous.
The limb dies, water and nutrients are cut off to the basal portion, re-routed around. Time goes on. Callus tissue originating from a ringed zone around the base of the limb, at the limb / trunk, or branch / limb, an area we all know as the branch collar begins it cellular march, slowly, consistently. Softening of the butt-most portion of the limb, just inside the tree's surface, usually happens with the assistance of the primary decomposer, first one on the scene, some specie of fungus.
The weight of the limb causes the limb to seperate from the tree, causing a small, shallow invagination into the tree's surface. The fungus that initiated the softening is now exposed to air. Rainwater tended to flow around, rather than into, the recess. The new callus ring over time closes in on the zone until it meets itself, closure becomes complete.
The fungus had it's food zone limited initially by the tree's internal CODIT wall, callus closure becomes complete, shutting off the defect site from the rest of the world. Compartmentalization, as an evolutionary strategy worked.
Trees that got this figured out early, carried on to become our present-day trees. Trees vs fungus; it's a symbiotic relationship that's existed since the beginning of time, but I'm not sure which came first.
That was an ideal setting. What if the limb or branch does NOT snap off? That back CODIT wall is still going to set up with the re-routing of water and nutrients around it. Callus will still continue to encroach on the stub. This set of hormones and cellular growth and differentiation are programmed into the tree's DNA, and the reaction is set in motion by wounding or death of the branch or limb. Much of the time compartmentalization works. Sometimes it doesn't.
Great Gramps surmised that if a limb on a tree dies, the tree knows it, and will set up barrier walls inside of its own self. An ideal CODIT scenario begins with when a limb dies, the tree routes it's water and nutrient flow around the site.
The successful tree also set in motion callus growth. Callus is undifferentiated plant cells, that transfigure into a cell type, like wood, or cambium. Kinda like our stem cells, sorta. The smart trees evolved to have an area called the branch collar, and callus growth there would be especially vigorous.
The limb dies, water and nutrients are cut off to the basal portion, re-routed around. Time goes on. Callus tissue originating from a ringed zone around the base of the limb, at the limb / trunk, or branch / limb, an area we all know as the branch collar begins it cellular march, slowly, consistently. Softening of the butt-most portion of the limb, just inside the tree's surface, usually happens with the assistance of the primary decomposer, first one on the scene, some specie of fungus.
The weight of the limb causes the limb to seperate from the tree, causing a small, shallow invagination into the tree's surface. The fungus that initiated the softening is now exposed to air. Rainwater tended to flow around, rather than into, the recess. The new callus ring over time closes in on the zone until it meets itself, closure becomes complete.
The fungus had it's food zone limited initially by the tree's internal CODIT wall, callus closure becomes complete, shutting off the defect site from the rest of the world. Compartmentalization, as an evolutionary strategy worked.
Trees that got this figured out early, carried on to become our present-day trees. Trees vs fungus; it's a symbiotic relationship that's existed since the beginning of time, but I'm not sure which came first.
That was an ideal setting. What if the limb or branch does NOT snap off? That back CODIT wall is still going to set up with the re-routing of water and nutrients around it. Callus will still continue to encroach on the stub. This set of hormones and cellular growth and differentiation are programmed into the tree's DNA, and the reaction is set in motion by wounding or death of the branch or limb. Much of the time compartmentalization works. Sometimes it doesn't.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
This is for newbie, and non-biology readers, OK?
Callus growth, and vigor, vary from tree to tree. Some are better at it than others. This tree seems quite forgiving, even though the pruning cuts were made a tad too far off the ideal branch collar. The 'compartment, for the rest of the life of the tree will have a blunt-ended cylinder of wood inside it for the rest of its days.
Callus growth, and vigor, vary from tree to tree. Some are better at it than others. This tree seems quite forgiving, even though the pruning cuts were made a tad too far off the ideal branch collar. The 'compartment, for the rest of the life of the tree will have a blunt-ended cylinder of wood inside it for the rest of its days.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
SO, as arborists, we need to work with the billions of years of evolution. Shigo has offered thousands of detailed photos and descriptions to bring the biological phenomenon of CODIT into human words and terms so we can all beter understand it, and as field practitioners, conjoin with the tree to give it the best advantage.
We need to know if CODIT is likely to fully complete its process. If not, we have three choices: Do nothing. Do something. Take the tree down.
Was this tree going to be successful in full compartmentalization?
We need to know if CODIT is likely to fully complete its process. If not, we have three choices: Do nothing. Do something. Take the tree down.
Was this tree going to be successful in full compartmentalization?
MasterBlaster
TreeHouse Elder
Great post, TM. Outstanding!
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
It's over for this tree
Thanks, Butch, and eventually I will offer some actual answers to the original poster's question.
I said, regarding this tree in the next image, "not likely to outrace the fungus". The wound was from a snapoff, which ripped the low limb off the tree, creating a deep recess within the tree. Had the limb just died, the tree would have established an internal codit wall. When a limb is violently ripped out of socket, there is no setting up of an internal CODIT wall. The surface of the new tearoff site often becomes the wall of defense, but the tree is starting the process with an inherent disadvantage.
The newly formed cavity in this pic up-welled, to catch rain water as it flowed down the trunk. The tree owners did the 'do nothing' approach, and here, years later, I can show you the repercussions of that non-treatment stance.
Rot is well into the central core of the tree, moving both up, and down the heartwood. The callus has 'rams horned' around to the interior of the tree and the leading edge of callus growth has grown itself into a spiral dead-end. The race between fungus and tree has taken place. In this instance, the fungus won, the tree is hosed, and the arborist indicates a removal.
Could the tree have been saved if there had there been intervention early on? Mebbe. There are products to facilitate this, and corrective pruning. Another of the tree's natural defenses, which is to respond to wounding is to accelerate crown growth in the remaining areas (amped-up and shared co-dominance).
I feel keeping the site from pooling water is our first aid to the tree. Water housing in a cavity is NOT a benign occurance, except in the best of situations. It is an unnatural occurance that favors the advantage of the fungus.
Thanks, Butch, and eventually I will offer some actual answers to the original poster's question.
I said, regarding this tree in the next image, "not likely to outrace the fungus". The wound was from a snapoff, which ripped the low limb off the tree, creating a deep recess within the tree. Had the limb just died, the tree would have established an internal codit wall. When a limb is violently ripped out of socket, there is no setting up of an internal CODIT wall. The surface of the new tearoff site often becomes the wall of defense, but the tree is starting the process with an inherent disadvantage.
The newly formed cavity in this pic up-welled, to catch rain water as it flowed down the trunk. The tree owners did the 'do nothing' approach, and here, years later, I can show you the repercussions of that non-treatment stance.
Rot is well into the central core of the tree, moving both up, and down the heartwood. The callus has 'rams horned' around to the interior of the tree and the leading edge of callus growth has grown itself into a spiral dead-end. The race between fungus and tree has taken place. In this instance, the fungus won, the tree is hosed, and the arborist indicates a removal.
Could the tree have been saved if there had there been intervention early on? Mebbe. There are products to facilitate this, and corrective pruning. Another of the tree's natural defenses, which is to respond to wounding is to accelerate crown growth in the remaining areas (amped-up and shared co-dominance).
I feel keeping the site from pooling water is our first aid to the tree. Water housing in a cavity is NOT a benign occurance, except in the best of situations. It is an unnatural occurance that favors the advantage of the fungus.
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
Re: It's over for this tree
Most old trees have hollows, and they are not all "hosed".Annual monitoring may be enough to stay on top of a tree like the one in the pic. A lot of careful thought should go into these decisions. ISA's hazard evaluation book has been out for ten years now, showing a system that is easy to follow. $35., cheap.
And you still haven't answered the need to document how water-filled hollows rot so quick that you have to break boundaries to drain them. I have never seen the need to do this. Ball is still in your court.
What criteria did you use to declare fungus the winner? That picture shows a lot of sound wood around a cavity. Even if the hollow was extensive, pruning can lessen the strain on the defect and lessen the risk to a level acceptable to the arborist and the owner.Originally posted by Tree Machine
Rot is well into the central core of the tree, moving both up, and down the heartwood.
How far has it moved? How fast is it moving? When I see cavities like that, it's time for a strength-loss calculation based on % hollow and % sound wood. THe nutshell formula I follow is that a tree that's 2/3 hollow has only lost 1/3 of its strength. What did your measurents show?
The callus has 'rams horned' around to the interior of the tree and the leading edge of callus growth has grown itself into a spiral dead-end.
A rams-horn is bad when it forms on either side of a crack and one side pushes against another. In your picture it looks like woundwood forming around a cavity, not a ram's horn. I don't see any dead end, I don't see any cracking. Remember that woundwood can be at least 40% stronger that regular wood; that has to be factored into your judgment.
The race between fungus and tree has taken place. In this instance, the fungus won, the tree is hosed, and the arborist indicates a removal.
Most old trees have hollows, and they are not all "hosed".Annual monitoring may be enough to stay on top of a tree like the one in the pic. A lot of careful thought should go into these decisions. ISA's hazard evaluation book has been out for ten years now, showing a system that is easy to follow. $35., cheap.
And you still haven't answered the need to document how water-filled hollows rot so quick that you have to break boundaries to drain them. I have never seen the need to do this. Ball is still in your court.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
Re: Re: It's over for this tree
Cavity that held water after every rain, no chance for complete compartmentalization, rot running downward into the core (evident even without a resistograph) fungus running up the core, weakened the next lowest limb which snapped off and fell on the house Minor gutter damage). Spalting at the snapoff site visually evident.
I could have come to bat for the tree, which I will most often do. However, sometimes you have to look at is as polishing the brass on a sinking ship. I could have pruned the tree and it would have lived on in spite of its own self, as trees will most often do, given the chance, but that is in no way corrective to the meat of the problem.
When a cavity is this big and this deep, and the tree is not particularly valued by the owners, I will indicate a takedown. Yes, there's plenty of sound wood, and it's not likely to fall over. But sometimes I prune and fill and futz with the tree, and it can cost more than taking the tree down. This was one of those cases. These were my criteria. I don't like taking down living trees. I revel in correcting problems that, left unchecked, would develop into bigger problems. That's, in large part, why I find tree care so gratifying.
Cavity that held water after every rain, no chance for complete compartmentalization, rot running downward into the core (evident even without a resistograph) fungus running up the core, weakened the next lowest limb which snapped off and fell on the house Minor gutter damage). Spalting at the snapoff site visually evident.
I could have come to bat for the tree, which I will most often do. However, sometimes you have to look at is as polishing the brass on a sinking ship. I could have pruned the tree and it would have lived on in spite of its own self, as trees will most often do, given the chance, but that is in no way corrective to the meat of the problem.
When a cavity is this big and this deep, and the tree is not particularly valued by the owners, I will indicate a takedown. Yes, there's plenty of sound wood, and it's not likely to fall over. But sometimes I prune and fill and futz with the tree, and it can cost more than taking the tree down. This was one of those cases. These were my criteria. I don't like taking down living trees. I revel in correcting problems that, left unchecked, would develop into bigger problems. That's, in large part, why I find tree care so gratifying.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
Draining a cavity
I guess I would ask how you document that water-filled cavities are OK to let go and do nothing about....
I base that on past experience in, if you will, tree necropsy. During any tree takedown, I look at the crosscut section through a compromised area. I'll aim to crosscut through a cavitied area, just so I can see CODIT from the inside. I look at the stuff, I study the patterns. I can see inside what I can't see from the outside and I remember the stuff so I can better 'see' into the next tree without having to cut into it.
Most tree cutters, I imagine, just cut the tree down. I study the thing as I take it apart. Call it compulsive learning, but I regularly take the opportunity to let my eyes scan the crosscut sections, thinking back to the likely inception of the wound site, extrapolating beyond to what it might progress to if the tree were left standing, and the cavity unattended. I look at the interaction of fungus, and insects and moisture and surmise what could have been done, early-on, to prevent that which has progressed to the currrent state of decomposition inside the tree.
In most cases, the tree had a limb or stem rip out va natural forces, and no defensive CODIT wall was able to form and stop invaders. To worsen this state, pool some water in the wound site. This will accelerate decomposition every time as it's giving the fungus the advantage by meeting its requirements for life; non-living wood, water, and oxygen.
Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
And you still haven't answered the need to document how water-filled hollows rot so quick that you have to break boundaries to drain them. I have never seen the need to do this. Ball is still in your court.
I guess I would ask how you document that water-filled cavities are OK to let go and do nothing about....
I base that on past experience in, if you will, tree necropsy. During any tree takedown, I look at the crosscut section through a compromised area. I'll aim to crosscut through a cavitied area, just so I can see CODIT from the inside. I look at the stuff, I study the patterns. I can see inside what I can't see from the outside and I remember the stuff so I can better 'see' into the next tree without having to cut into it.
Most tree cutters, I imagine, just cut the tree down. I study the thing as I take it apart. Call it compulsive learning, but I regularly take the opportunity to let my eyes scan the crosscut sections, thinking back to the likely inception of the wound site, extrapolating beyond to what it might progress to if the tree were left standing, and the cavity unattended. I look at the interaction of fungus, and insects and moisture and surmise what could have been done, early-on, to prevent that which has progressed to the currrent state of decomposition inside the tree.
In most cases, the tree had a limb or stem rip out va natural forces, and no defensive CODIT wall was able to form and stop invaders. To worsen this state, pool some water in the wound site. This will accelerate decomposition every time as it's giving the fungus the advantage by meeting its requirements for life; non-living wood, water, and oxygen.
Kneejerk Bombas
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I disagree with almost every one of your conclusions, TM.
You paint a horrible picture with your predictions ablout what a small pocket of decay will do to a tree. In one of your posts you showed this photo and wrote that CODIT will never occour. Wrong. It already has. The stub is walled off. All four walls are in place. What you see is a cosmetic pimple that is in no way a health issue for the tree. In time, the tree will grow around it and observers may not even know it was there. Please don't tell me you removed this tree.
CODIT is initiated by injuries to a tree. It's not just slow death of a limb that triggers it. Most arborist think barriers are stronger when the limb naturally dies and there is more time for these barriers to be set up, but both ways, it's set up.
To me a cavity with pooling water is no more of a problem than one with out, perhaps even less of one because it excludes boring insects. To say the environment inside a cavity is unfavorable to wood decay fungus if you keep pooling water out, shows a lack of understanding of fungus. Wood decay fugus don't do their best in totally saturated conditions.
You also showed a picture of some old stub cuts. Then you told us there would be cylinders of dead wood inside the tree forever. SO WHAT! This picture exemplifies why there's nothing wrong with a small stub cut. It's much better than nicking the collar trying to do a perfect "Shigo cut". Look how perfectly the tree has grown over the cuts.
You paint a horrible picture with your predictions ablout what a small pocket of decay will do to a tree. In one of your posts you showed this photo and wrote that CODIT will never occour. Wrong. It already has. The stub is walled off. All four walls are in place. What you see is a cosmetic pimple that is in no way a health issue for the tree. In time, the tree will grow around it and observers may not even know it was there. Please don't tell me you removed this tree.
CODIT is initiated by injuries to a tree. It's not just slow death of a limb that triggers it. Most arborist think barriers are stronger when the limb naturally dies and there is more time for these barriers to be set up, but both ways, it's set up.
To me a cavity with pooling water is no more of a problem than one with out, perhaps even less of one because it excludes boring insects. To say the environment inside a cavity is unfavorable to wood decay fungus if you keep pooling water out, shows a lack of understanding of fungus. Wood decay fugus don't do their best in totally saturated conditions.
You also showed a picture of some old stub cuts. Then you told us there would be cylinders of dead wood inside the tree forever. SO WHAT! This picture exemplifies why there's nothing wrong with a small stub cut. It's much better than nicking the collar trying to do a perfect "Shigo cut". Look how perfectly the tree has grown over the cuts.
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
Yes, not enough O2. the cross-section picture showed good codit on the right, and some advancing fungal enzyme activity on the left. But who knows how fast it's advancing? Who knows whether codit will form there too? That's what root invigoration is all about; you try to make a healthier tree so it will have more resources to form walls with. Then reexamine a year or so later.
TM it's great to dissect, but it's difficult to learn all on your own without plugging into published experience. Read Shigo's Modern Arb, p. 160-1: "Remember, water does not cause rot!...When a cavity is filled with water, decay will not spread." Frankly these absolute statements are probably not 100% true, but after reading them I would be REAL cautious about breaking boundaries to drain water.
The race between fungus and tree involves the tree growing new support to replace the rot. If you aren't observing over time, and measuring, and going to work on the tree's team by mitigating by root work and pruning etc., you can't tell that the tree has lost the race. Until then, the checkered flag and the chainsaw should be stowed away.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
You're a tough crowd. Thank you.
The previous picture, the cross section of the cavity, this tree has a core of decomposed material all the way to the roots, as well as upward a ways. Water pooled in there regularly. The cavity grew. Is this successful compartmentalization?
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Mike, I think your undies are bunched on this one. On the crabapple shots with the pimples, no, I did not take down that tree. I did nothing but photograph the protrubances as a testimonial to how a tree can successfully compartmentalize over a man-made wound, even when it was improperly done. I did not re-cut the cuts properly, there was no reason to do that. The tree got a nice pruning, though. My comment about the wound site housing a piece of dead wood for the rest of its days, true. Never stated that it was a bad thing, just that it is what it is. My comment is the same as yours,"so what?" So, nothing. Just an observation, nothing more. I'd like you to retract your 'Painting a horrible picture' as I did nothing of the sort. Your impression or perception was that I painted a horrible picture. Read the post again. The white lines I included simply to show where a proper cut should have been, more for the benefit of newbies.
The previous picture, the cross section of the cavity, this tree has a core of decomposed material all the way to the roots, as well as upward a ways. Water pooled in there regularly. The cavity grew. Is this successful compartmentalization?
==
==
Mike, I think your undies are bunched on this one. On the crabapple shots with the pimples, no, I did not take down that tree. I did nothing but photograph the protrubances as a testimonial to how a tree can successfully compartmentalize over a man-made wound, even when it was improperly done. I did not re-cut the cuts properly, there was no reason to do that. The tree got a nice pruning, though. My comment about the wound site housing a piece of dead wood for the rest of its days, true. Never stated that it was a bad thing, just that it is what it is. My comment is the same as yours,"so what?" So, nothing. Just an observation, nothing more. I'd like you to retract your 'Painting a horrible picture' as I did nothing of the sort. Your impression or perception was that I painted a horrible picture. Read the post again. The white lines I included simply to show where a proper cut should have been, more for the benefit of newbies.
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
I think so. The walls that prevent lateral movement of decay are the important ones. Vertical movement of decay is a minor issue in terms of strength loss. Water pooling I hope you will eventually agree is a minor or even a non-issue.
Glad to be a tough crowd. This stuff is very important. Valuable trees should be cut down only as a last resort. I agree with you, it's all about biology, but biology is a very complicated subject. Let's learn it together.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
Have you ever crosscut a trunk and noticed at the very center, that often there are cracks eminating outward for a small distance from the center? It's very common and I'd have to say, normal. However, if a limb is ripped off in a storm, opening a cavity into the tree, and it holds water, if the water finds its way to the central cracks it's going to percolate downward because water has this sort of relationship with gravity. If water can go there, fungus can go there and begin the process of decomposition.
In fact, fungus can go where water can't, that is, uphill, up the tree, and can digest it's way across the plants cell walls, as well as travel up and down the tubules.
True that fungus does not do well in a saturated condition. Two notes here, though; only the bottom of the cavity is saturated, leaving the rest of it just nice and perpetually moist. Point # 2 all higher fungi run through the wood as a mycelial body, a contiguous network of filaments called hyphae that grow and elongate. One section of this body can be submerged, or cut off from oxygen completely, but it is the body of the network that sustains all distant parts of that body.
Water does not cause rot. OK, fair enough. Can't contest that. But water and wood, and any fungal spore that germinates there will cause rot. Unless the tree sets up effective CODIT walls to prevent the progress, fungus will get in there and do it's job as nature intended. If water entering the cavity reaches the cracks at the central core of the tree, so will the fungus. In an instance such as this, advantage fungus. We've all seen hollowed-out tree. This is one of the ways it can start, A slow, progressive degenerative condition that once set into motion is practically impossible to stop. It's now internal to the tree, and we can't 'see' the process, except maybe through a resistograph measurement, or upon necropsy.
Keeping abscesses dry is key in allowing the tree to set up CODIT walls before a fungus begins its enzymatic march into the core of the tree, because that's where it wants to be, cool, dark and moist. Understanding fungus, and its basic needs and growth behaviors is important in our roles as stewards of the tree community.
In fact, fungus can go where water can't, that is, uphill, up the tree, and can digest it's way across the plants cell walls, as well as travel up and down the tubules.
True that fungus does not do well in a saturated condition. Two notes here, though; only the bottom of the cavity is saturated, leaving the rest of it just nice and perpetually moist. Point # 2 all higher fungi run through the wood as a mycelial body, a contiguous network of filaments called hyphae that grow and elongate. One section of this body can be submerged, or cut off from oxygen completely, but it is the body of the network that sustains all distant parts of that body.
Water does not cause rot. OK, fair enough. Can't contest that. But water and wood, and any fungal spore that germinates there will cause rot. Unless the tree sets up effective CODIT walls to prevent the progress, fungus will get in there and do it's job as nature intended. If water entering the cavity reaches the cracks at the central core of the tree, so will the fungus. In an instance such as this, advantage fungus. We've all seen hollowed-out tree. This is one of the ways it can start, A slow, progressive degenerative condition that once set into motion is practically impossible to stop. It's now internal to the tree, and we can't 'see' the process, except maybe through a resistograph measurement, or upon necropsy.
Keeping abscesses dry is key in allowing the tree to set up CODIT walls before a fungus begins its enzymatic march into the core of the tree, because that's where it wants to be, cool, dark and moist. Understanding fungus, and its basic needs and growth behaviors is important in our roles as stewards of the tree community.
