AusBonsai

I have just cleaned a fair amount of rot out of one of my wisterias and I am now looking for a little help from the forums.

I don't want the rot to return and would like to treat it with wood hardner, so the question is, which wood hardner do you use?

Cheers

Mark

Can you shoew a puicture of the issue Mark. I now asign to the don't bother trying to save it camp these days but earls wood hardener is an aussie one that is popular.

I use "Earls Wood Hardener" on all my Wisteria, Bougainvillea, Ficus, where the wood has rotted. Good stuff, but be careful not to get it onto the bark Tends to stop it growing
Available at the big B

Ken

I too have used Earl's on Ficus's and have had excellent results.

Just my 10 cents worth but very impressed with this product

John

A trip to the hardware store has seen me become the proud owner of a bottle of Earl's wood hardener.

I think I'll paint the hardener on and not use the spray nozzle as I'm not to sure how the live wood will react.

As requested I will take some photos of the rot and treatment and a review of the process in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the advice.

Mark

Dutchie_Boy wrote:A trip to the hardware store has seen me become the proud owner of a bottle of Earl's wood hardener.

I think I'll paint the hardener on and not use the spray nozzle as I'm not to sure how the live wood will react.

As requested I will take some photos of the rot and treatment and a review of the process in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the advice.

Mark

I pour a little into a bowl, and paint on with small brush, it is real runny so do not load the brush up too much as it will run onto live wood

Ken

Does this wood hardener affect areas where lime sulfur needs to be applied, can the two be used in harmony?

Have no idea, but why would you want to use Both?

Ken

A bit of info here viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5830&p=67633&hilit= ... ime#p67633

Thanks for the link Soda

Ken, Im about to start a few tanuki and i want to be able to achieve the ultra white wood look with the chocolate vein (im using shipaku) and on the same hand have the wood preserved for as long as possible i was worried that the wood hardener causes discolouration or that the lime sulfur inhibits the hardener.

Thanks a bunch guys

I was told you can use Earls first and then apply lime which i did try and the end result was a awfully unnatural look and colour to the wood. I then used the lime first waited i think up to about a month until all yellow had gone then used some earls and the result was ok but not really what i wanted, you really need to watch how much hardener you use because it can get a gloss to it. Earls is good at stopping rot and i have found it evens strengthens the wood abit but looks a bit milky, Lime on the other hand needs to be reapplied after awhile but looks much better and the weather can also be allowed to age the look of the wood. With tanuki the rot will start under the soil and slowly creep up after awhile, i have one with hardener and the rot is already coming back at the soil line and turned the some of the trunk green. I am now just using lime only and will just clean it all up and reapply when needed, i have read some people set the base of the wood in a layer of cement which stops rot from below the surface. This is all just from my experience and what i have read. Cheers.


Mark

Thanks magzy,

Does concrete alter pH in anyway???

VelvetSicklid wrote:Thanks magzy,

Does concrete alter pH in anyway???

I most certainly does! It raises the pH considerably. Because of this, most people I know use Sellys "Knead It" (the water one - blue packet) or a car body filler.

Joel

Ahhh thanks Joel, thats clarified everything for me, now i can begin.
*edit* I can only seem to find it in 50-110g packs....


All you AB guys are champs.
*this still stand*

Thats interesting that Earls wood hardener works on living tissue. Its designed to be used for repairing rotted weatherboards on houses but really its just glorified PVA bondcrete .