tree experts, help

Mike(NEOhio) · Sep 12, 2016

I have a number of good sized black cherry on my place and the last few years I've been losing them. Trunks look OK on the outside but they go down and I find they're rotted inside. Seems like a lot more often lately. This one just went down last week.

Donald Lehman · Sep 12, 2016

If you have any broken off, dead or rotted branches on a black cherry, you have maybe 5 years on the outside to harvest them and have good lumber or firewood. Much more than that and you will have nothing but red powder inside the tree where the heart wood used to be. The tree you picture should have been cut at least five years ago, maybe longer if you wanted it for anything other than firewood. It doesn't take only a few years for soft maples to turn to punk after the tops start dying off, either. Not just the heart wood, but the whole dawg-gone tree. Hard maple will remain solid a bit longer. I have seen hard maples with the whole heart wood rotted away and the darn things are still standing and still producing syrup.

Any black cherry sapling you find in your woods that are growing in a vee like that need to have one side pruned off immediately and sealed.

jeffcat · Sep 12, 2016

Have seen that too many times also. You can get a boat load of those big carpenter ants in there and they really raise heck. Most of the time with any tree, is if they are wounded. Bump them with a lawn mower or cows bruise them with their hoof. If the wound is not cleaned and sealed the tree will grow around the wound and it will slowly rot on the inside for years. Good way to check for things like this is go out with a hammer and thump the tree. You will very quickly hear if it is hollow or solid! Make firewood FAST!! A type of mold or fugis gets into that wound and just grows through everything likity split.

Mike(NEOhio) · Sep 12, 2016

Interesting about them rotting so fast. I have cut up cherry logs that have been on the ground for years with 2-3 inches around the outside turned to whitish pith, but inside that layer it's solid and hard. Like it rots from the outside in.

Texasmark1 · Sep 12, 2016

Carpenter ants are our #1 tree killer here.

oc-18guy · Sep 12, 2016

another vote for carpenter ants. I can't remember the last cherry tree I cut down that didn't have carpenter ants in it.

BushogPapa · Sep 13, 2016

A GOOD application ( in time) or Motor Oil will put them out of business..

Texasmark1 · Sep 13, 2016

I just use the Spectracide or Bayer product that I use on fireants but rather than spraying, I pour it on, especially in the crevices where branches exit and around the trunk at the roots.

Billy NY · Sep 13, 2016

My father cut a black cherry down somewhere in '81 here along an old fence line, for whatever reason, it was left there. Its like a giant piece of driftwood and very hard, they just weather and don't rot like that. It would make excellent firewood today as its still there now. It landed on its limbs and is still off the ground. The black cherry is a favorite of mine, there's a lot to like about these. Only thing to use care around is wilted branches or leaves, its cyanide in that state, so it has to be removed from livestock areas.

I've got a bunch still on the ground from the '08 ice storm, small diameter, but hard as a rock still.

tree experts, help

Mike(NEOhio)

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Donald Lehman

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jeffcat

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Mike(NEOhio)

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Texasmark1

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oc-18guy

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BushogPapa

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Texasmark1

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Billy NY

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