Spalting: when does it occur?

[Big Beech]

whilst the tree is growing, but under fungal attack? or when the tree is down, fallen timber or logged? how long does it take to get going?

 

I have a customer who had two monstrous beech trees felled (not by me luckily)

he has given me the go ahead to mill some sections. the trees where heavily rotted around the basal area, hence there demise.

should I wait a while for the spalting process, or open up a cut up the trunk and have a look in?

 

thanx,

 

Simon

[Roni Macdonald]

Also interested to know how and when spalting occurs.

[Alycidon]

I have been processing sycamore delivered to me in 2011, most of this is well spalted.

 

A

[Chippy]

Spalting can occur in living trees but more commonly when the tree / log has been cut and left in damp conditions not sure how long it takes to occur naturally but would estimate it to be 6 months to a year.

 

I had some 9" diameter logs that were cut green I put them in a bin with a cover on and left them for a year in a cool garage the results were very good, at first I thought the had rotted but after drying they were ok.

 

Hope this helps

[se7enthdevil]

got told once that for beech at least they felled perfectly good trees and left them in a field in contact with the ground for up to 3 years to let the spalting to do its thing.

[geoff]

Spalting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

This is a fairly accurate brief description of what's going on.

You can spalt your own timber by leaving it in a rotting chip pile or compost heap for a few weeks, then wrap it in polethene/ cling film with a bit of moisture added, after a few months have a look to see how its doing.