Cauterizing bacterial infections

[Stubby]

3 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

You radical thinkers will be breaking out the concrete mixers next!

And then back to " flush cutting "

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Stubby said:

And then back to " flush cutting "

not forgetting  the arbrex

 

40 years ago Santar, a mercury based paint, was used for treating beech bark lesions

[krummholz]

Wondering what this looks like 5 years on? Has the wound occluded fully? Did the canker recur on this particular tree?

 

[treeseer]

krummholz, I believe the last pic shown is 5 years on.  Not speedy callusing, but callusing nonetheless.  If there has been no subsequent bleeding then it's a success in my book.  For the record; the study on walnuts was really brutal--hatchet to "trim" the lesions, and torching until the wood charred.  http://ceglenn.ucanr.edu/files/185675.pdf

 

I use a gentler scraping tool, and stop if the tissue resists, even if it's visibly infected.  the drying from the heat allows infected tissue to compartmentalize more often than not.  So the wound is much smaller.

 

Also, after scraping I favor a rinse with hydrogen peroxide.  Sometimes this adequately dries the tissue without heating.  Tho I've heard great concerns about torching doing damage, in reality this has not been observed, to my knowledge.

"Funny" not haha that after David's video, youtube shows a big HC being felled....if only they had blowtorched instead!

 

This technique desparately needs trialing on any bleeding disease--it works on Armillaria, Phytophthora,....Citizen scientists arise--you have nothing to save but your trees!

[timbernut]

Would’ve been interesting seeing the legions of blowtorch wielding chisel monkeys among the phytophthora infected larch plantations a few years ago

[treeseer]

I agree--the results would have been very interesting.  But when foresters call the wrong tune, the harvest is the only dance there is.