New tree wound closure technique? Cambium graft !

[RopeShield]

Here is another idea I have for helping trees/arborists with wounded trees.

When we wound a tree purposely or accidentally, why can we not sacrifice another part like a limb or limb section or parts of another tree and remove the cambium from said part and combine that to a suitable agar containing all the essentials(sugar, starch, plant growth regulators etc).
This solution can be applied to the wound and then covered with a species specific pseudobark(Permeable, semi or impermeable wrap).

Sleep on it and let me know what you think?

Is this a sensible and needed step in arboriculture?

We can synthesize blood, skin, organs for humans, so why not something as basic as cambium.

Cambium is available and we perform many types of horticulture grafting operations .
Seems to me this would be the evolution of proper tree care.

Full wound closure?

Let the experimenting begin.

If this is being done at any level please point me in the right direction.

 

[wulkowicz]

[ QUOTE ]
Here is another idea I have for helping trees/arborists with wounded trees. ...

Let the experimenting begin.

If this is being done at any level please point me in the right direction.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been asking this for some 20 years. Not being snotty, just tired about dogma and its constipations.

Happy to engage, and getting up to speed on honest discussions, about actual explanations and evidence..



wulkowicz

 

[Knowledgequest]

Mr. Wulkowicz and I had a lot of fun discussing/debating this very thing and then experimenting with multiple species with included bark in zone 8a last Spring/Summer. Not exact scientific analysis but the anecdotal observations from the dissections should be useful.

Bob, i hope you and yours are well.
ed

 

[Vl2007]

Growing a synthetic cambium...nice idea.

 

[rfwoodvt]

I've had limited success in reattaching peeled bark/cambium. Seldom get 100% reattachment but enough to end up with small wounds to close rather than a large one.

 

[guymayor]

Sterility is a Big Deal when culturing--fungi love that stuff.

Grafting sure seems worth experimenting with, on some wounds.

 

[Frax]

Sounds like a good idea for experiment. Compare strips of cambium grafted on somehow vs the emulsion type idea you have and see what works best where.

 

[Treezybreez]

Bridge grafting and Inarching have been around for some time. I have never performed them but am fascinated by it and hope to try it some time. http://www.scribd.com/doc/7607870/Bridge-Grafting-and-Inarching-Damaged-Fruit-Trees

 

[treevet]

[ QUOTE ]
Sounds like a good idea for experiment. Compare strips of cambium grafted on somehow vs the emulsion type idea you have and see what works best where.

[/ QUOTE ]

"...strips of cambium"?

I picture vascular cambium (cambial zone) as a jelly like substance in the spring (when leaves form)....later it lignifies and becomes xylem or phloem. If you ever have peeled off bark on purpose or even by mistake while climbing with your feet in the spring...that liquid stuff under the bark is cambium (prior to completing differentiation).

I suppose (as I understand again) that it is a tissue, but only because it is contained by the liginified cambium (not cambium anymore but now xylem on the inside and phloem on the outside of it). When a wound occurs...that unliginified cambium becomes callus (little or no lignin).

This is why, for example, included bark does so much damage, by only "pinching" vulnerable cambium cells and killing them, along with other wounding.

 

[Frax]

Thanks treevet.
I guess I meant thin strips of tissue with cambium exposed...sort of like bark grafting.

 

[boreality]

Is this thread about stem wounds ?

How about flush cutting a limb and covering? Should take. Kind of a bridge over the now deadish branch attachment.

 

[Blinky]

Flush cutting would damage the reaction zones, right? So even if you successfully sealed it with a graft, compartmentalization would be weak.

This is interesting to think about.

 

[wulkowicz]

[ QUOTE ]
Flush cutting would damage the reaction zones, right? So even if you successfully sealed it with a graft, compartmentalization would be weak.

This is interesting to think about.

[/ QUOTE ]


For Blinky, and each of the individual authors, it's very satisfying in watching you all step out of the box and suspend a level of disbelief.

I've also just penned a double-cliche, rather than a double-entendre, which may be my getting older rather than friskier. But still staying in line with biology, I'd like to re-present a series of my heresies that go back to the 90's:



[ QUOTE ]
Quoting from Alex Shigo

In the end, Modern Arboriculture will come, albeit slowly, mainly because old arboriculture is accepted by many people and organizations as it assures economic gains. A new train is coming. It is filled with students who have different ideas and values for life. This train includes the quest for solutions that can only come from biology and Book 1, chemistry.

The train is called Modern Arboriculture. It runs on the energy of connections.

[/ QUOTE ]


Now "connections" aren't the same here for Alex and I, but our native language is loose enough to keep both concepts alive and intriguing.

I teach that trees are really two-dimensional (sheets) in growth and that is a brilliant biological design strategy that makes them the biggest and oldest creatures we know. All the rest of us organisms bump into 3-dimensional difficulties if we try to get too big. Trees don't. Just look at the General Sherman.

No one has to listen, and I do expect a barrage of suggestions where I stuff my silliness, but it works;
the concepts work;
the tools work;
and the new perspectives are a delight--as we watch them unfold.

A new train is ideed coming; the little engine that wood.


Bob Wulkowicz

 

[RopeShield]

[ QUOTE ]
Sterility is a Big Deal when culturing--fungi love that stuff.

Grafting sure seems worth experimenting with, on some wounds.

[/ QUOTE ]


I spent a day on a Nut farm.
Yeah really.
I am still a big fan of nuts. The edible kind. Nut farm would be top o the list.
Any way it was common practice for Ernie a well respected grower to place mud on the pruning wounds of his Castaneas. The idea is to add a Hypovirulent strain so as to keep the the virulent fungus at bay.
More nuts/food for thought.

Here is link to The American Chestnut Foundation check out their efforts and they are always looking for help and support on one of the farms.
http://www.acf.org/FAQ.php
I had a study tour with Dr Fred Hebard in Meadowview.
God Bless what is imo the best food on the planet and an extraordinary tree.

Here in Canada we have CCC Canadian Chestnut Council
http://www.canadianchestnutcouncil.org/

 

[RopeShield]

Many more ideas flowing.
I can see with use of recombinant DNA technology almost anything is possible.
Culturing vascular cambium to place on a wound seems plausible but the reality is trees are not in a lab where the optimal conditions for tissue culturing can be met.
What is obviously necessary is to provide or exclude for air and water and temp.

I think the agar/cambium mix is essentially what is available from a healthy host with additional reserves till the graft is complete and active nutrient transportation is reached.

Compartmentalization of the wound may block a good union but we know from our grafting history it is not a major factor. Recently it is found that compartmentalization is initiated when tissue is exposed to air. Till now I thought that it is a reaction to wounding but the exposure to the atmosphere/air is enlightening.

Grafting simply is matching the parent and scion Vascular cambium to vascular cambium.

I will have to refer to my plant propogation text for further info.

I hope my talking out loud is not annoying any one.
Kinda Peter Parkerish in a way. "Spidey senses tingling"

Bandaging the area after applying the cambium/agar could resemble something like gauze and wax.
Duct tape may even work if the edges can be sealed properly

Viable technique? What do you think?.
We can put a man on the moon.

 

[oldoakman]

Wulkowicz, you are awesome! I've always enjoyed your commentary. Keep it up my friend.

 

[guymayor]

Bandaging also may improve odds for growth of inner parenchyma cells
from rays etc
Like the black rubber technique used on bark wounds
Which could merge with the grafted material

Poultices with moss are commonly used in air layering

And on oaks in Europe or so I'm told
Would be fun to try!

 

[RopeShield]

Two Dimensional is a new and interesting way of looking at trees for me.
Apical meristem, how does this fit in with the 2D?
Roots n Shoots?
I really enjoy your words and how they build connections in my brain.

Cheers

 

[RopeShield]

Is it possible to skip those connections?
Like Ray cells,companion cells, cork cambium.
Cambium to differentiate to xylem and phloem only would suffice?

Rereading the books I have at hand is slowly answering some but not all the questions.

Cheers

 

[RopeShield]

I think white plastic may improve healing.Less liekly to heat up. Definitely sealing the intersect of the tape and bark with a wax is wise.

Sphagnum moss is antiseptic. remember reading somewhere how it was used to preserve fish for periods longer than ice.
There will be issues with acidity. Moss from what I remember is used as an acidifier.

Back to the cambium grafting and the proposed technique is do we assume the cells will line up so they form the phloem to outside and xylem to the inside.

Or is all of this to be considered a temporary area of growth while the original wound tissue closes over the wound?
Interesting note is, the axial and radial parenchyma may contain living contents in some tree species for over a hundred years(Shigo). Mb we can make this connection? New cambium to old wood or old life( the symplast)

The next time I look at a dead tree I will remember that it may still be alive with active protoplasm.
Protoplasm is the cytoplasm and nucleus. Living wood vs Deadwood or dead tree vs live dead tree.

All of the different parts of a cell are found in approximately the same relative position in all of the cells. it is this point that will challenge us to unite or graft tissue successfully .

How do we apply this?
With the next injured tree with lost bark we are confronted with, we may have a better technique to reduce the damage. or experiment with.
Its worth a shot. the longer the wound is exposed to air the less likely there will be regrowth but mb we can incorportate a new cambium/scion to wood and cambium of the parent/patient.