Treatment of dead wood and wounds in figs
Posted: January 31st, 2012, 2:01 pm
Hello fig lovers,
I'm coming across a few cases of dead wood and wounds in figs which need some sort of treatment. I'll insert pictures of a few examples...
In other species with hard wood I would consider making use of lime sulfur and make a feature of the exposed wood, but I've read that fig wood will decay quickly despite the use of the preservative. So in the cases above my main interest is to safeguard the health of the tree from rot, rather than to create a visual feature. How should I treat these wounds? Should I gauge out all the rot until I've exposed all living wood, then bog it up with putty or something?
I've read threads on this forum about Earl's Wood Hardener, but it seems like this product is being used for creating wood features (jin, shari) rather than to promote health per se. Is that right?
Okay, now for a more experimental case. The Green Island Fig below was bought in this condition because I was curious about what I could create with the living skin. Some ideas so far are:
(1) bore out all the dead wood and replace it with dead wood from a hardwood like eucalypt.
Then the deadwood can be shaped to my liking;
(2) bore out all the dead wood, seal the cut inside surfaces and grow the ring of living tree
(3) treat the dead wood after a bit of carving, with Earl's wood hardener and/or lime to try and preserve it best I can, or
(4) treat the dead wood with lime. Accept that it's going to rot slowly but enjoy watching the process. It can be bored out later if it doesn't look good (this most conservative option probably my preference)
What do you think?
-Andrew.
I'm coming across a few cases of dead wood and wounds in figs which need some sort of treatment. I'll insert pictures of a few examples...
In other species with hard wood I would consider making use of lime sulfur and make a feature of the exposed wood, but I've read that fig wood will decay quickly despite the use of the preservative. So in the cases above my main interest is to safeguard the health of the tree from rot, rather than to create a visual feature. How should I treat these wounds? Should I gauge out all the rot until I've exposed all living wood, then bog it up with putty or something?
I've read threads on this forum about Earl's Wood Hardener, but it seems like this product is being used for creating wood features (jin, shari) rather than to promote health per se. Is that right?
Okay, now for a more experimental case. The Green Island Fig below was bought in this condition because I was curious about what I could create with the living skin. Some ideas so far are:
(1) bore out all the dead wood and replace it with dead wood from a hardwood like eucalypt.
Then the deadwood can be shaped to my liking;(2) bore out all the dead wood, seal the cut inside surfaces and grow the ring of living tree
(3) treat the dead wood after a bit of carving, with Earl's wood hardener and/or lime to try and preserve it best I can, or
(4) treat the dead wood with lime. Accept that it's going to rot slowly but enjoy watching the process. It can be bored out later if it doesn't look good (this most conservative option probably my preference)
What do you think?
-Andrew.
