Help needed!

scgrasscutter

First off this is my first post as I was looking for a place with a professional opinion so I hope someone can come through for me.
MOst of the "arborist" around here I wouldn't let cut my bushes let alone ask a question like I have.
I have a lawn service, and one of my customers has a Japanese Maple that I found a problem with last year. At the base of the trunk I found some "rot". She had an extension agent from the local university come and have a look. He suggested that I remove the rotten wood and pack the cavity with an asphalt roof coating. I did as he suggested and all looked fine until last week when I inspected it agian, because the tree looks to be in poor health. I found that the coating did not harden anny except for the outer skin. Today I removed the "packing" and found that it was holding a fair amount of water, which concerns me because it may make things worse. I did not however find anymore rotten wood, in fact I found some new feeder roots. After doing a soil test I think I know why it looks in poor health. Now for my main question. Is there anything I can use to fill the cavity that will not hold water? The rot was prety severe, over half of the base is gone. I am just worried if I leave it open that it would be to inviting for further problems. I have a few pics, but they are not as detail as I would like. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

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Eric Frei

Make me wonder what this "agent" was studying, computer science, perhaps economics but certainly not arboriculture.

Well, I have some suggestions/opinions. I'm always good for that, some say too many in fact.

First off, I dont like the location or severity of the wound.

BUT in saying that it's not like if it falls over it's going to take out half a house either.

The best thing to fill it with at that location is nothing other than the ordinary things we normally put around trees/shrubs ....

What prevents the decay from advancing around the stem is the plants ability to "wall it off". It does that from good health and care (vitality/vigor).

You can try to encourage good fungi to displace bad fungi, products with Trichoderma.

If you try to combat with fungicides etc you'll kill good and bad guys together.

So, good TLC, soil conditioning agents (sea-sol, charlie carp, liquid blood/bone etc), no over fertilizing and only use organic fertilizers, try to get hold of something with good fungi in it .... might be known in nurseries as mycorrhizal inoculants

What stops the spread of rot is not on the outside of the wood but the inside. The tree has to build (to a certain degree) it's own defences. Sure you can maybe drench some great fungicide but remember the trees gotta live in that too.

Due to the location of the wound whether you cover it or not it will be a moist spot. Uncovering gives the ability for root growth and good guys to invade.

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Sean Freeman

Eric has covered all the bases, I would NOT want that particular Uni student advising anyone round here....what a shocker asphalt

Get the tree healthier and it will do all that has to be done..or rather all that can be done...improve the soil biology, mulch, mulch, mulch. Certainly soil drench through the mulch, I'd be looking at identifying the most suitable soil inoculants and simple organic amendments like seaweed extract, fish emulsion, molasses, humic acids, definately trichoderma.

newguy18

aside from whats been said put about 1/4" thick of compost around it,just to help improve the soil.

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old schooler

pcarborist

scgrasscutter, First you've got to dry it out! Part of the problem I see is that the wound is moist (perhaps too much mulch around and up against the trunk). Fungi love dark moist environments. If its shady around the wound, prune back the vegetation to allow sunlight in. After you have thoroughly dried out the wound, you might want to try lightly scribing around the wound to help clean it out. Be careful you don't do any further damage to the trunk (and while you're at it scribe all the roofing tar out as well).

Sean Freeman

Just a quick post to point out that moisture is not the problem, do not drain water from wells in the unions of any tree, do not dry out areas of wood tissue.
The ingress of oxygen into wood tissues is the worst outcome for the normal healthy functioning of the tree. Dry oxygenated wood tissue is exactly what the majority of wood decay fungi require....the process of drying out wood tissue is what the many such fungi activey do after forming barrier zones within the timber.

However removing mulch from contact with the stem of the tree is an important step, the trunk flare should never be buiried under soil or mulch.

treeseer

It's worse than you guys imagine--we are told that this was not a student, but an extension agent. It's hard to believe USC would put anyone that dumb into the field; the state urban forestry program is really pretty good.

scgrasscutter

Thanks for all your help. My question was answered much better than it was on another forum. I was attacked for doing what I was told to do by someone who was suppose to know what he was talking about (He wasn't from USC, it was further north). Someone even stated that if that was their tree, I would owe them a replacement As far as the moisture on the trunk, the pic was taken after I ran the irrigation to readjust the heads to keep the water off the trunk. That's why it looked so wet. The trunk is not covered by much or soil, beside the trunk very close to the surface are some roots. As far as the cavity area that is below ground level (The area where most of the tap root was) should I just fill it with sand to aid in draining? I have convinced myself through major research to not fill the cavity above ground, now I have to convince my customer. After I did a soil test, I found the following:
pH- was acidic
N- low
P- low
K- high
So I am thinking of using a blood/bone meal combination .
If anyone has any more help to through at me, I would appreciate it. Thanks agian for your hospitality

Eric Frei

How acidic was it, are we talking 4.5 or 5.5 etc?

I'd go with the sand trick too.

How did you get an NPK reading for the soil, some sort of home kit or did you get a soil test or leaf test?

Maybe you used something like this

LaMotte Garden Soil Test Kits

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scgrasscutter

Twas a home test kit. I took two seperate samples a few feet from each other and tested both samples.

Ph was around 5.0-6.0

Eric Frei

Well that's not too bad, some lime will balance it back.

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