Increment borers, who uses them

[Jake Andrews]

I was looking at increment borers on the sorbus intl website and had no idea how expensive they could be. Just wondered who still uses them or if you have moved on to less invasive techniques in identifying sound and decayed wood.

[Alinicoll]

I own one. It doesn't get used.

 

I bought it a few years ago and had great hopes for it for some kind of last resort decay detection. It was pretty disappointing. I found when you hit white rot it all compacts inside and gets jammed in the tip. I ended up damaging the tip trying to unblock it.

 

I'm sure they may be useful for checking growth rings but for decay detection you might be better off looking for a second hand or recon F series resistograph.

[Jake Andrews]

Interesting comment on the white rot blocking it as that's something I'd not considered. I remember years ago when working with my uncle we had a call from his Dad saying the borer was stuck in the tree and could we come and help get it out. I was young and uninterested then so don't know the cause of the jam.

[Steve Bullman]

you'll never get in deep enough on any decent sized tree to see visible signs of decay with an increment borer, unless its that bad that the decay goes right to the outer part of the trunk. But thats not entirely the point as I understand it. The increment borer is used hand in hand with a fractometer to test the strength of the core sample...and if you thought the borer was expensive!! Someone correct me if im wrong on that please

[10 Bears]

No, you are right Steve, that is how they are meant to be used ie together.

 

IMO, both practices are dated and quite close to useless in the general practitioners view of things.

 

Myself and a colleague undertook a cross contamination experimental study of using an increment borer and on average showed that it was possible to successfully cross-contaminate up to 8 subsequent trees from the same/original fungal infection that the first increment borer went through.

 

On that basis, the fact that the fractometer relies upon cores that potentially are going to infect subsequent trees, unless a massively prohibitive field sterilisation procedure is put in place, makes both of the techniques pretty much useless IMO.

 

I would recommend that no-one uses either for the reasons stated above...

[Fredward]

Thats an interesting point regarding the contamination.

 

I use one and it's probably more common over here due to a huge lack of more modern equipment in the country . I don't have years and years of expereience using them but I have used them on a number of occasions during study and in the field.

 

Good to remember that the idea is not to detect how much decay there is, but how much sound wall is remaining. The tool will likely get stuck if you continue trying to bore into soft wood, this is because the thread cannot wind itself out. It is imperative that the user stops when the resistance stops, this means decayed wood has been penetrated and the device should be extracted. Once the tip is damaged they are rubbish.

 

I generally only use them for extra evidence if a tree is likely to be condemned anyway.

[Fredward]

P.S a rifle cleaner can be used to unblock/clean them.

[Jake Andrews]

I understand using the fractometer for trees to conclude it's strength but can't you tell a lot from a core any way? Just the visual aspect makes it appealing to see what's going on but I would just like to know more about breaching the 4th wall and how detrimental it may be.

10 Bears, was your study in conjunction with any format of sterilisation? The same could be said for all kinds of invasive techniques, not just increment borers, could it not?

[Johny Walker]

got 1, 25yrs ago, used once 25yrs ago says it all really,

[Steve Bullman]

10 Bears, was your study in conjunction with any format of sterilisation? The same could be said for all kinds of invasive techniques, not just increment borers, could it not?

With that in mind we should really be sterilising our chainsaws and handsaws between each tree