JonnyVine

I wasn't aware that Phaeolus schweinizii was anamorphic?

Blaggards! They need to be exposed like this so people don't shop there

Glen Splendid, red carpet treatment, you've impressed them

I'm having difficulty understanding all this, sorry. I was, or at least have been under the impression that there is more opportunity for further learning than most of the hands-on, breetches-arse grafty type occupations? There already exists recognised learning by the AA and ISA not to mention the vast array of independents like TreeLife etc, offering levell 4/6 diplomas, PTI etc, all industry recognised and understood as requiring a degree of professionalism to pass them. Imagine being a builder of plasterer etc. Or have I completely missed the point?

So long as you don't go on holiday by mistake and end up at the Crow!

Jollywell serves you right for getting rid of the mog! Seriously though, invest in a set of snow tyres, then take them off in March and that gives you all summer to look for a set of spare rims to fit them on, next winter it will take you half an hour to fit them and off you go!

Where on earth did you find that? Excellent

Wow, some choice bits there. My bet is they will fetch more than the retail price, typical of ebay.

Clearly a huge amount of ignorance has resulted from trying to hold up nonesensical statements. The original task was to quantify this "the most highly fluid active cambium channels" which none of you have done. Instead you have made fools of yourselves and displayied your lack of arboricultural knowledge. Cambium does not have "channels", Cambium is a layer, it is zonal, it generates the cells in a tree and is omni-present in living sapwood! No channels there. No part of a tree has "channels", they have vessels (angiosperms) or Tracheids (gymnosperms) for fluid transport! That basal fluting you are struggling to describe is a natural reaction of a tree that has been colonised by a fungus with a strategy of selective delignification, so no education here, just a statement of the bleeding obvious. There is plenty more missinformation and claptrap in that functional iliterate cess pit of 16000+ posts if you care to read a few (if you are able of course) In the future, if you are going to try and vouchsafe BS for your chum, at least come up with something more realistic.

Thanks Kieran, its refreshing to find I'm not on my own! Easily done

I have found this also, there are quite a number around here in exposed locations, I had a theory that being on the coast, the constant prevailing westerly wind hampered the beetles flight capability?? Jonny

Hi H I've never seen ref to that theory, can you remember where you read it? Interesting article on natural selection, I had seen Endler's work before, but that was a study on the Bauer bird if memory serves correctly.

Wow, what a bute, nature just beggars belief

Hi There is a treatment which involves injecting a fungicide, however its aplication is extremely complicated so quite hit and miss and can bring about its own complications.

Damn, you must be gutted! I have a few on my land and every year I always fear the worst. I believe that trees are susceptible when the bark is of a sufficient thickness for the female scolytus beetle to lay their eggs in late summer. The beetles lay their eggs in galleries which they excavate between the bark and the wood carrying the spores of the fungus Ophiostoma novo-ulmi on their boddies. The fungus then sporulates in these breeding galleries and the larvae which hatch from the eggs feed by extending them, (which can be seen as hundreds of squiggly lines when the dead bark falls off), the larvae pupate in the outer sapwood and and develop into young beetles which emerge the following spring and eat their way out of the bark leaving hundreds of small emergence holes. The young then fly off carrying the spores of O. novo-ulmi on their boddies and begin feeding in the twig crotches on young bark wher the spores become lodged and begin to germinate. The fungus grows in the xylem vessels (not the phloem) where it produces more of the yeast like spores and as the fungus moves through the xylem vessels it produces phtytotoxins that disrupt the trees metabolism. Phenol based substances are then formed in the vessels preventing the uptake of water and nutrients and the tree is now dying. As already pointed out, Elm disease has been around for centuries in the form of Ophiostoma ulmi, which all but the weakest trees could tollerate, however in the last century a more aggressive strain known as O. novo-ulmi appeared and wiped out our native trees. Susceptible species to the more aggressive O. Novo-ulmi are Ulmus procera (English elm), U. Hollandica ( Dutch elm) and U. carpinifolia var. sarniensis (Wheatley elm). U. Glabra (Wych elm) and some spp of U. carpinifolia ( smooth leaved elm) are less susceptible and if infected, die over a longer period of time. Interestingly, the gene that is affected by U. novo-ulmi has been identified and Anti-fungal DNA has been inserted into the Elm genome using coat ed micro ball bearings! Unfortunately, present Law governing geneticaly modified crops prevents it from being implemented outside the lab and Personaly, I find this unfair as the female of the species is infertile so cannot be corrupted by pollen from GM trees.

Rob You can not make a silk purse out of a sows ear, that claptrap makes a mockery of education and learning. Sorry about the cahcne thing, I was being a childisht ****

Hi Rob If all you see is "technically correct information", then please, take this opportunity to quantify this line, "having left the most highly fluid active cambium channels". I have spent quite a number of years studying tree anatomy/biology and it could be that I have missed this or perhaps not got there yet, so if you would explain, maybe I can catch up. Also, what is a "good cahcne" Looking forward to your explanation Jonny

Well done Rob, you beat me to it.

Dave It sounds like you already know what to do, Its quite easy to sift through the conflicting advise if you take your time, a quick look shows us that some are offering advise and some want to baffle your brains with BS, oh and bad grammar. Good luck with the tree Jonny

Hi James Odd looking tree, use two 12mm rods inserted at about 20 degrees to each other to prevent a crack developing between the bolt holes, personaly, I would not bother with nylocks as these are only necessary on rotating devices, spend the money on having oversized washers made and yes, sink them into the stem, but don't go mad. You could put a restraint in the form of a strap higher up to prevent shock loading on the bolts.

Ross, bang on! As Treeser has allready said wall 4 looks quite strong, and plenty transportational material, not 360 degrees and not quite33% thickness to radius but what is left looks very healthy. Treeser, like David said, we all suffer different experiences and it is these experiences that mould our opinion, I don't mind having my post torn appart by people that have genuine knowledge and experience, I call this "healthy debate" as it makes me think (and sometimes wake up)! Dysfunction; The loss of physiological function, especially in water conducting tissue So the cambium to the right of the photo could be described as dysfunctional Ps, there is a diametrical crack that starts at about 2 o'clock and dissapears under Ross's feet, not too sure how I would calculate that into the criteria? Keep it comming, all good stuff Jonny

One that shows how much ot the outer shell of wood was still alive, the very bottom/last cut Ross

Dysfunctional is not a guess because I can see it. Vast is not an exaggeration because I can also see there is lots of it. I believe that hardness in wood is a disadvantage from my own core/fractometer records over the last 6 years, also, works by Dr C Mattheck show similar results. I think you are spot on that tree inspectors need vast knowledge and experience and also an in depth knowledge of tree/fungi relationships ( in this instance it was one of the worst, K. Deusta) I also believe that CPDs are the most important aspect of our work and being part of a forum where we have to quantify what we write is beneficial to the purpose. Kind regards Jonny

I think the evidence speaks for itself Ross, like David and myself have said its a cracking thread! Only down side IMO is that you haven't posted a pic of the final buttress cut, square on at 90%, I think quite a number on here would have loved to have seen one.

I never heard that term applied to a tree before and couldn't find it in any of my books from accross the water either. I completely agree that discolouration is not tantamount to decay, or even incipient decay, but, the hardness mentioned earlier is equaly not tantamount to tree strength and in most cases can be a weakness as it makes the wood too stiff and brittle. Unfortunately, I am viewing the pictures from an iphone, however, I can still see vast quantities of dysfunctional wood, how much is discouloration I am not going to guess and as far as residual wall is concerned, I was looking to the right of the trunk where it is much thinner and appears to be none existent in some places! Yes Ross did give the thread a kick, but its a good thread and clearly relevant to quite a lot of peoples every day employment, so, as the saying goes over here "its good to talk".