How Co-Dom's split

[mdvaden]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

Just a quick comment on red arrows added to the image.

It may be hard to tell since the wood stained dark. But the top red arrow is the top of the wood - or bottom of the included bark.

The tree parted some years ago, forming a thin gap. The water and debris and minor decay stained that area of wood dark.

The tree probably stood for several years with a gap just big enough to slip a pencil into.

So there was about 2" to 3" of included bark just above the stained fibrous-looking wood.

 

[petegrisewood]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

Please forgive my ignorance, but what type of tools would one use to perform micro-surgery on included bark? I'm assuming that what you would want to do would be to remove the "barky" parts so that the two distinct portions of cambium tissue - from two distinct stems - would now be on close enough contact that they would be likely to become one over a period of time.
Human surgeons often use advanced viewing technology (like tiny cameras) to be able to do surgery while viewing the process in real time. Have you actually performed micro-surgey on trees with incuded bark? That would be pretty freakin cool!
But more down to my humble practice, I have made it a point to observe trees that have split due to codominant stems & have watched the remaining sides fail in time. Once the one side fails - i think it is often the death warrant for the other side. Now, obviously this isn't the case in every scenario. But I have seen it repeatedly, warned clients about the dangers & in some cases have "saved" trees by reducing the remainder. In many cases, however, the tree must come down. Either by human hands, or by the hands of time.
I have spoken, heed my worms.

...I meant words! WORDS, I say.

 

[Babberney]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

Supposing I invented this tool, would I be using it to remove all the bark between two sides of a crotch, or would I be aiming to remove a horseshoe-shaped strip around the sides and top of the inclusion (leaving a big patch in the center that would never be removed)? The former seems much more difficult to manage, and would result in cambium that extends through the center of the log--quite different from what trees form naturally. The latter would be comparatively easy to manage (in theory) but would leave that big segment of void in the center where decay or cracking might develop.

Trying to stay off the grid,
k

 

[mdvaden]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

[ QUOTE ]
Supposing I invented this tool, would I be using it to remove all the bark between two sides of a crotch, or would I be aiming to remove a horseshoe-shaped strip around the sides and top of the inclusion (leaving a big patch in the center that would never be removed)? The former seems much more difficult to manage, and would result in cambium that extends through the center of the log--quite different from what trees form naturally. The latter would be comparatively easy to manage (in theory) but would leave that big segment of void in the center where decay or cracking might develop.

Trying to stay off the grid,
k

[/ QUOTE ]

Such a tool may sell.

But sales could be curbed by immediate pressing of new included bark.

 

[wulkowicz]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

Please forgive my ignorance, but what type of tools would one use to perform micro-surgery on included bark? I'm assuming that what you would want to do would be to remove the "barky" parts so that the two distinct portions of cambium tissue - from two distinct stems - would now be on close enough contact that they would be likely to become one over a period of time.
-------------

The tool is simple, cheap, and surprisingly available. Just wander into your neighborhood hardware store or super tool Mart and pick yourself up a plexiglass cutter. This is not the one I held up the ISA conference in Salt Lake City, and it is one of many I've tried with different heads according to their manufacturer's intentions.

The simplicity of the concept is to invite the two cambiums from two previously isolated woody cylinders to join each other, and once joined, allow the new single-sheet cambium to move forward following its cellular instructions and the mathematics of circles that it's so faithfully adheres to. The length of time it takes in the initial joining can be as little as a few days; parenchymal cells fill the space we create, and then due to the meristematic capabilities of tree cells, a new continuity of cambium is established.

The length of time for correction and growth is determined by the species, the age, the quality of surrounding conditions, and the success of our micro surgery. This is not a magic bullet. This is a simple intervention at the earliest of times that we can make in order to preclude any significant included bark that has some later arborist reaching for a chainsaw.

Here the tool is shown in relationship to my pudgy little hand and fits my discussion of microsurgery. The basic idea is minimal intervention with minimal wounding, and subsequent natural repair and growth. If I am quick and do my micro-cuts well with my preferred model which is half the blade thickness, there is a minimum exposure to pathogens and external complications.

Following Shigo's precepts, I expect the wounding to trigger CODIT 4 at the local area which further helps guard my intervention against invasive beasties. Perhaps it is difficult to accept the insertion of a small tool momentarily in the bark of a tree, much in contrast to the roaring bucking chainsaw. In practice, one develops a feel for the tool and its position relative to the cambial zone. The size of this tool and a young limb is tending toward included bark make excellent practice opportunities and have the additional advantage of changes being very visible.

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Human surgeons often use advanced viewing technology (like tiny cameras) to be able to do surgery while viewing the process in real time. Have you actually performed micro-surgey on trees with incuded bark? That would be pretty freakin cool!

-----------


It's more than freakin cool, it's supe-freakin cool.

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But more down to my humble practice, I have made it a point to observe trees that have split due to codominent stems & have watched the remaining sides fail in time. Once the one side fails - i think it is often the death warrant for the other side. Now, obviously this isn't the case in every scenario. But I have seen it repeatedly, warned clients about the dangers & in some cases have "saved" trees by reducing the remainder. In many cases, however, the tree must come down. Either by human hands, or by the hands of time.

I have spoken, heed my worms.

------------


Please understand that I know we can minimize the problems of included bark when we get there early enough, and when we understand that we are stewards and are obligated to look at minimum woundings when it's possible. We can again reduce the hazards of uncorrected included bark limb, and we can thus avoid our own creation of a hazard tree by the traditional removal of that limb and the exposure of the subject tree to all the rest of the adversities lined up around it.[/i]

It took me a long time to get a concept of the vascular cambium that I could wrap my head around. It's a distinct probability that a fat head makes it difficult to wrap In any case. But I persevered, with this tool and its partner tools based on different conditions and trees, I trust will be a substantial part of the new Arbor culture and others will delight in offering further improvements.

--------------

...I meant words! WORDS, I say.

--------------

Hey, don't worry. They now have pills for both



Bob Wulkowicz

 

[wulkowicz]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

[ QUOTE ]
Supposing I invented this tool, would I be using it to remove all the bark between two sides of a crotch, or would I be aiming to remove a horseshoe-shaped strip around the sides and top of the inclusion (leaving a big patch in the center that would never be removed)? The former seems much more difficult to manage, and would result in cambium that extends through the center of the log--quite different from what trees form naturally. The latter would be comparatively easy to manage (in theory) but would leave that big segment of void in the center where decay or cracking might develop.

Trying to stay off the grid,
k

[/ QUOTE ]


Keith,

I first have to say that there is a time and a place for this technique. A 100 year old Cottonwood is a formidable challenge for correcting included bark via this concept. That is not to say it can't be done with older trees and thick bark, but physical impediments can grow more difficult with each passing year.


I have developed tools to deal with formidable and obstinate bark, but the underlying concept does not change. The vascular cambium is the source of growth as we understand it in the woody cylinder of a number of species. We must recognize how this growth occurs and what cellular instructions I am trying to take advantage of to remedy a specific problem.

Based on previous posts by different people, there is quite a range of definitions and uses of words that make me uncomfortable because they are slippery and ill-defined. Again that is not a personal criticism; we need to keep our words straight if we want to keep our woods is straight. I'll try to add some illustrations, but I can't do it right now and so please try to visualize looking down at two limbs pressing against each other and being defined as a problem of included bark.


The cambium of each limb is located just beneath the bark of each respective limb and our task is to join them together. Easy to say. Maybe difficult to conceptualize, but we have to provide for the tree, something it hasn't been able to do itself.

In our looking down at these two limbs with significant included bark, the sides pressing each other generally are flattened, and that can go on some distance in height. If I go to the bark curves at that are right there at the surface and easily reachable, all theory aside, that can be a practical and convenient location to do our microsurgery.

Yes, and getting up over the top can be very difficult, but it does not void our theory or efforts. I'm presenting the concept and the opportunity to experiment one's self on what can be discovered.

I do indeed intend to abandon the embedded tissues. Each successive growth season moves further away from the defect with new wood ring laminations and increasing strength. There is a distinct possibility of pathogens and decomposers in that area because all of the many-year-old exposure to the elements and nature's attendant nasties.

And I said before, this is not a magic bullet .You will be climbing in the trees someday with this tool in your bag and making your own decisions about what you can do as a steward.

When previously isolated cambiums on the same tree are allowed to join through a space we create, they greet each other like the Irish and the Scots in Braveheart. (You really need to listen carefully if you want to hear the cheers.)

Time, and our ability to observe, will record and clarify the responses of different trees to the range of this concept. It is nevertheless a solid, simple technique and we can all experiment with tools the size of above and limbs that would develop into included bark if we left them alone.

Minimum intrusion, minimum wounding, thoughtful intervention that is indicated by looking at it differently at the growth of trees. As I've said many times before, trees don't do what we tell them to do, but they will do a number of things that we are shrewd about our understanding where to tweak them.

You were never really stuck in any grid, old friend. You sometimes have a puzzled look on your face; but that's just a sign of grid agitation.





Bob Wulkowicz



PS: I really hate to have to say this, but a chainsaw is not a substitute for the concept or the tool. Please suspend your disbelief for a while and get away from snap to grid. And that is not meant to be condescending, just think of me as an old man wishing for a tad of flexibility in people considering something new.

 

[wulkowicz]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

[ QUOTE ]


Such a tool may sell.

But sales could be curbed by immediate pressing of new included bark.

[/ QUOTE ]



With inflation, the tool will cost about $10.

Developing a feel for the cambial zone might be a real source of satisfaction. And they're an awful lot of smart people out there who can be intrigued by something they discover on their own and contributed back to the larger community.

I really don't want included barked to return so I choose the sites that I'm trying to correct rather carefully. And I do understand the sport in finding a fatal flaw, but can we simply get on with the business of looking at something new and different?

Remember the youngsters are watching. And if we get preoccupied with minor squabbles, we are going to end up as soylent green.

For some of us, that's the greenest we'll ever get anyway.



Wulkowho?

 

[mdvaden]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

[ QUOTE ]




Remember the youngsters are watching. And if we get preoccupied with minor squabbles, we are going to end up as soylent green.

For some of us, that's the greenest we'll ever get anyway.



Wulkowho?

[/ QUOTE ]

I never watched the flick with soylent green - but heard of it.

Did see "They Live" though, with Berringer.

Or Equilibrium.

 

[wulkowicz]

Re: How Co-Dom\'s split

[ QUOTE ]


Remember the youngsters are watching. And if we get preoccupied with minor squabbles, we are going to end up as soylent green.

For some of us, that's the greenest we'll ever get anyway.



Wulkowho?

[/ QUOTE ]


I never watched the flick with soylent green - but heard of it.

Did see "They Live" though, with Berringer.

Or Equilibrium.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, soylent green wasn't a bad flick. It was one of those prophetic films that came out a little too soon and would be appropriate today with the major modification that we would be turned into ethanol rather than pigeon food.

I don't know of the others, so I'll go look them up. But it is ironic that I've been paying more attention to equilibrium lately; maybe this is the great designer's way of keeping me humble. Then again, what does he care?

Oops, what does she care?

Tubs





Tubbs