Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
We seemed to have gotten side-tracked....?
Originally posted by MasterBlaster
I'm serious! I was thinking about driving a rod thru the center, after filling the inside with something firm, yet plyable.
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."Originally posted by Tree Machine
We seemed to have gotten side-tracked....?
Carpenter ants enhance decay and cut into green wood. That qualifies as a pest in my book, so I invite them to leave most trees I see them in.
Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
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.
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.
Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
What criteria did you use to declare fungus the winner?
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.![]()
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.Originally posted by Mike Maas
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. 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.
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.Originally posted by Tree Machine
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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