Is this a structural weakness?

[shillo]

Tried hitting the books to find out how significant this fibre rippling is on the underside of this heavy co dominant stem on a Beech. The bark on the upper surface was normal. From what i could find it didnt sound very significant unless there were cracks on the sides and abnormal on the top side.

 

This stem was slightly taller than the other so i was going to suggest a 2/3m reduction to this stem only plus a cable brace, as it is a tight fork, but not too bad.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

[cerneARB]

Fibre buckling dont look to bad to me.Dont like the comppression fork at all,Whats the target area like?looks like from the angle there is a lot of reaction growth around the buckling area too, have you checked for internal decay?

[armchairarborist]

i thought the fibre buckling gave heavy limbs extra strength

[zx6rob]

do you have any more pics of the union?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

This isnt fibre buckling, its insect damage, always on underside of beech limbs on compression wood, dont know why, but see it lots.

 

Compression folds are very discrete riples in beech.

 

iether way that is a very iffy union and im suprised its still attached, must be well sheltered and at low altitude!

[cerneARB]

do you know what insects cause this condtion hamadryad?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

do you know what insects cause this condtion hamadryad?

 

I dont, ive seen it loads, and im only guessing (an educated assumption from years of observations) but definatley NOT fibre buckling.

 

I will have a dig through my pathology/disease books and see what i can find, its long overdue i worked this out for myself.

 

i will also add an image or two of fibre buckling in fagus:001_cool:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Also worth saying that wood fibres though weaker in compressive strength than tensile, the union isnt as strong as the compressive strength of the wood here i suspect, so for fibre buckling to occur a force that would break the union must happen first, if you read me?

[cerneARB]

cheers mate , would like to know what insects cause it and how and why..is that to many questions?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

cheers mate , would like to know what insects cause it and how and why..is that to many questions?

 

not too many questions at all, I enjoy this kind of thing, cos it forces me to learn something or investigate something further.

 

been digging about and cant find a reference for the specific compression side bark damging insects, but have found a list as long as your arm of beech insects!

 

I think the entomology side of arb has as much potential for reasearch and development as the mycology side, if only there was more hours in the day!