Fibre buckling or soft rot in an Ash?

[anthony mills]

Hello all, first post here, and it's a request for assistance in ID, please. I was asked [as a Tree Warden] to look at an Ash, the enquirer thought it might be Chalara [or Hymenocyphus now], until I sent her some info. But when I went there I saw a tree with what looked like fibre buckling like I've never seen. I wondered about Inonotus [as a soft rot] but it's way down the stem and not at the top. There is some exudate but this has clearly been going on for decades. No visible FB's. Some white dusting all down one side of the tree. Clearly dead on one side at the base. Wish I'd taken a hammer, took a glass instead to look for tiny white fungi on the petioles...

This must be characteristic of some particular fungal activity, surely, but which one, please? The modification of the bark looks almost like that with Fistulina, and extends way up to above the upper crown break.

I tried to make a case for reduction to within falling distance of the neighbours house and retaining at least some of such an extraordinary example of buckling, but the [newish] owner was not impressed and seemingly just wanted my presence to justify a decision to fell, not my original advice to have some investigation of the internal state of the wood, a situation I've no doubt you are familiar with... Whoever put those fence posts in deserves to be tied to one and left there!

[tree79]

Hi here,

welcome to arbtalk

 

why do you think its dead on 1 side at the base?, and im not convinced that those marking are characteristics of fungi either. Not sure if that is fibre bucking, I haven't seen much to be honest. Is the second stem included?

 

Crown reduction may be the way to go, ideally if you was going to remove it, you would of do so before the fence was done.

 

think a little further investigation may be the way go to try and establish the facts.

Be interesting to see other people thoughts

 

ATB

Tree

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Ash bacterial canker (Pseudomonas syringae) maybe?

 

Paul

[MattyF]

It's just riddled with canker and Pretty common on ash ...

Is there bark necrosis around the base ? If there's cause for possible root damage it would be worth monitoring , it looks like the included limb has already been alleviated of weight but if root damage is present a light reduction to reduce wind sail would be my thoughts on it... But it's impossible really to spec and access the tree site ect by a few photos ... Where about a are you incase your local so I can condemn it and have the timber for my mill it would look stunning planked

[anthony mills]

Thank you tree79, AA Teccie, and Matty F for your useful replies. I did not know that Ash bacterial canker manifested in this way. The regular succession of rings of distorted bark is quite an extraordinary feature. The second stem was cut off just above where the photo ends, possibly not that long ago, there is one small epicormic sprout from it. MattyF, this tree is in Kenley, south of Croydon. A segment of at leat 25% of the basal circumference is dead, I was pulling bits of bark off looking for Armillaria. It is though on the side the tree is leaning towards, so the tension side is intact with a slight indication of reaction growth - an area that looked like newer, smoother bark. Another, not at all clear photo of the base attached. What effect does canker have on the wood that makes it desirable when milled? Is it similar to a ripple from buckling, or like burr wood?

[Logrod]

If it does come down I'd be very interested in seeing pictures of the timber. Are the rings a weakness or just additional growth from the canker? And why does it manifest in regular rings?

[se7enthdevil]

if the customer wants it down then at least convince them to get a mobile bandsaw mill in to turn it into boards, they should look stunning...

 

when kiln dried they could recoup a good portion of their cost to fell it in the first place.

[treequip]

if the customer wants it down then at least convince them to get a mobile bandsaw mill in to turn it into boards, they should look stunning...

 

when kiln dried they could recoup a good portion of their cost to fell it in the first place.

 

You keep banging that drum but here are a couple of reasons why not

 

Its a fence line tree that looks to pre date the property so look out for nails and suchlike.

Its got poor access.

Its got decay.

Any interesting grain is often limited to the "post infected" timber so may not go much into the stem.

Once you get under the bark there isn't a lot of timber there to begin with

When the client sees you taking what looks like a saleable product they start wondering what its worth and why you aren't doing the job for free or even paying them for the timber.

To fell and firewood on site looks like an easy morning for 2 men (Carting extra) so at most an easy days work with a trolley. Ball park price £300 as a minimum to a max of £800. Value of milled and extracted timber once stored and seasoned?

The man with the mobile sawmill will probably want a full days money even if all you have is a couple of hours work.

[se7enthdevil]

if the tree is hollow then i agree but if it's more sound than not then milling it would should not be ruled out.

 

you can't deny that the timber out of this one would look stunning...

[treequip]

if the tree is hollow then i agree but if it's more sound than not then milling it would should not be ruled out.

you can't deny that the timber out of this one would look stunning...

 

I can, I have firewooded hundreds of cankered trees where the decorative hasn't gone more than a inch or two under the cambium.