National Meripilus Network

[Paul Barton]

2 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

I know I keeping harping on but, the work at Burghley with just a good depth (some would say excessive) of chip is impressive in reducing compaction and cheap.

Absolutely - I just wondered if as the airspade was out already it was used for a bit of soil fluffing. 

[Gary Prentice]

2 hours ago, Alinicoll said:

The most basic form of mitigation I can think of in the and most likely to happen in this case is slinging a load of mulch about and seeing what happens. There's plenty of dead Beech in the area to chip

I've not been to Burghley, it would probably be worth a trip.

A little taster.. 

Some of the new avenues that Peter propagated and planted aren't in areas open to the public and neither is the champion Castanea in the thread. But it's a good site generally for some significant trees. 

[Alinicoll]

Finally as promised here are some Resi readings from the tree we air-spaded.

 

The first reading was taken down into the buttress on the westerly side of the tree where the investigation took place.

 

 

 

 

The reading indicates sound wood up to about 14cm degrading rapidly between about 15 - 20cm and then into very degraded wood. A reading taken horizontally into the stem at 50cm indicated only sound wood.

 

 

 

 

The reading taken down into the opposite (easterly) buttress was good to 33cm and then dropped right off into what I can only assume is open cavity or soil.

 

 

The Northerly and southerly buttresses showed reasonably normal readings

 

 

 

 

The last reading may indicate some degradation after 22cm but nothing nearly as significant as to the east and west.

 

In conclusion the decay does not appear to be in the stem, an eccentric decay cone is probably present in the buttresses although it's not out of the question there are two separate colonizations to the east and west. The roots on the easterly side were fairly significantly decayed. The roots to the east also had a lot of Meripilus fruiting bodies so may be similarly degraded. The roots to the north and south will remain a mystery unless we decide to poke about further at some point.

[Marula]

Is there any signs in the crown? Are any of the main anchoring roots affected as of yet? Or is it mainly in the offshoots/laterals?

[Alinicoll]

The crown is a bit thin but not obviously so.

 

Root wise, yes, there was evidence of decayed structural roots including the sinker roots which are a significant part of the support system.

[Nick Connell]

This was a large Beech we took down last week with Meripilus

[David Humphries]

20 hours ago, Nick Connell said:

This was a large Beech we took down last week with Meripilus

Hi Nick, thanks for sharing.

 

Any shots of the base of the trunk before you felled it.

 

Would be interested in seeing if there were any buttress fluting?

[Nick Connell]

This is about the best picture of the trunk

It was a big lump. When we micro drilled the buttress roots there was decay evident especially on the holding side. There were a lot of fruiting bodies which the owner had been picking

[Alinicoll]

Any plans to grind the stump? That would be interesting.