Diagnosis and prognosis of the development of wood decay in urban trees- discussion

[janey]

TBH, I come from a background of surveying countless thousands of small to medium street trees and the need for anything other than a thorough VTA doesn't just doesn't really occur that often. Although I have used various DD devices over the years, I don't use them enough to be able to argue their pros and cons. I will have to leave that to those more experienced than I .

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Janey, imagine your street tree has been hit by a car with a huge surface wound, often there is little decay behind such scars, and it wouldnt be cost effective to picus/thermo/resistagraph them all, so you whip out your borer and do a shallow drill just to confirm, cheap easy and a solid sample for the residual strength tests and for the record.

 

seems obvious to me?

[monkeypuzzle22]

I agree with janey in the fact that i would imagine most people on here do not really use an increment borer or many other DD tools. I work in consultancy and base most my findings around the Mattheck method of VTA. On certain trees, notably in high target areas or to which a tree has a signifcant major structural defect, we may carry ouyt further tests to support our evidence when suggesting suitable management prescriptions. Therefore i can't comment to much on the pro's/con's of the IB.

 

I think the sealant idea is a good one, we often talk about a chainsaw that as it cuts sprays a sealant over the wound, providing almost immeadiate protection (trying to watch the inuendos) against fungal spores/colonisation etc.

 

However, most fungi are leitant and exist within the tree from day one (Endophytic) and come out of dormancy predominently when the tree is a weakened state and when the conditions are correct i.e. temperature and moisture etc.

 

So would it work??

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

The ideas of sealing a barrier zone during a drill, and sealing a cut surface are very different and no it wouldnt work, we (our industry) have proved that already.

 

But to seal a borer hole, is really only about stopping (potential) penetration of a narrow band of the barrier zone in the vertical plane.

[William]

The ideas of sealing a barrier zone during a drill, and sealing a cut surface are very different and no it wouldnt work, we (our industry) have proved that already.

 

But to seal a borer hole, is really only about stopping (potential) penetration of a narrow band of the barrier zone in the vertical plane.

 

Trying to get my head around this. Are you suggesting that by creating a borehole there is a greater potential for fungal decay spores etc to colonise a tree via the vertical barrier than an open pruning wound? Don't all pruning wounds whether borehole or pruning saw create a potential entry, and the vertical barrier is present where any cambium/phloem/xylem is cut:confused1:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

when i say the vertical plain, what i should have said was to bore through the barrier, rather than give the impression i meant the vertical barrier that is wall 1 the tyloses