rot pith on sweet chestnut coppice

[digga]

hi i hope this is the right place to post this i have just coppiced a block of sweet chestnut . noticed the odd dead standing stubs but rest of the block looked in fairly good health apart from a bit of windblown .

 

but when i started to cleave the wood into fencing product started to notice allot of rot piths in the timber .and the wood seems very brittle sometimes just shearing straight of even on large diameter bits.

 

could this be phytophthora ?

could this be the reason for the windblown as the roots are rotting off ? would this effect the grain in the timber due to the tree starting to die and decay even if the tree looks healthy no sign of ink spot

[SteveA]

Sounds a bit worrying - Have you got any photos? cheers, steve

[digga]

will try get some pics next week

[digga]

the rot in the 1st pic was from a tree that looked healthy when cut down but when cleft rot pith and very brittle the 2nd pi shows some of the stubs that have died