CLOSING WOUNDS

BuckeyeOne

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It was covered with some sort of rubbery substance I presume as a way to treat the wound. Somehow water got in it and rotted the area underneath. I discovered this afterwards when I pulled back and removed the latex-like coating.
That sounds like "duct seal". It is used to seal transitions in Heat/Cooling ductwork.
I've heard of people using it, but have been hesitant to try it myself.
I think I'll stick to cut paste and putty!!
 

markyscott

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Great post, Sergio. I’ve had a lot of success using Kwikwood filling cavities. The other brand I like is Oates. The callous tissue seems to grow over it very well.

- Scott
 

Lars Grimm

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i thought that was part and parcel of sealing wounds and cuts, you will inevitably be using large slabs of paste, wound sealant, putty etc in a bid to rapidly heal wounds. now you want to hide the paste because you dont like how it looks?:D
Rapid is all relative :)
 

Deep Sea Diver

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Nicely done Sergio! I really like the epoxy vs cement idea, a bit more manageable.

As far as the perfect time to make alterations like this, I always harken back to what Bill V said in a club meeting a couple falls ago when asked when he worked on his trees Bill said,” Whenever I have the time “

(He was sure, of course, that he could provide proper care for the trees afterwards).

Cheers
DSD sends
 

Dav4

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That sounds like "duct seal". It is used to seal transitions in Heat/Cooling ductwork.
I've heard of people using it, but have been hesitant to try it myself.
I think I'll stick to cut paste and putty!!
No, duck seal behaves just like the imported putty sealant. It eventually hardens and falls off. I’ve got experience with the sticky rubbery sealant that Sergio is referring to… I found it on a very large imported azalea, hiding a gigantic rotted chop that eventually led to the trees demise.
 

MACH5

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Any thoughts about tinting the kwikwood so it is not as noticeable while you wait for it to callous over?

Lars, you could always paint it with artist's acrylic paint to disguise it while it heals. Or there are other two-part epoxies that are gray.
 

MACH5

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Nicely done Sergio! I really like the epoxy vs cement idea, a bit more manageable.

As far as the perfect time to make alterations like this, I always harken back to what Bill V said in a club meeting a couple falls ago when asked when he worked on his trees Bill said,” Whenever I have the time “

(He was sure, of course, that he could provide proper care for the trees afterwards).

Cheers
DSD sends

That is a classic Bill answer! I think that is key to provide proper aftercare.

I'd like to add that, although I have said that I pretty much did this work because I had time, if I had any sense at all that this would be detrimental to the tree I would not have done it. I am confident the tree will be just fine :)
 

63pmp

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Thanks for posting your technique Mach5. I've been doing this for a few years and find the epoxy putty easy and fast to work with. We have one here called Knead-it Aqua which has a longer working time time than the regular product.

However, the other night while staring at the ceiling at 3am wondering about everything, my thoughts drifted to the short lifespan of plastics and the like, and started wondering what would happen if the epoxy started to breakdown after 20 - 100 years. So I'm thinking of going back to a cement mortar product.
Any thoughts on this?

Here's a Kashima I repaired awhile back. The scar was right on the graft, an area of bark just died back, a branch wound higher healed perfectly. The wound just wasn't healing until I putties it and now is closing OK. Kashima are good healers usually.
 

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MACH5

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Thanks for posting your technique Mach5. I've been doing this for a few years and find the epoxy putty easy and fast to work with. We have one here called Knead-it Aqua which has a longer working time time than the regular product.

However, the other night while staring at the ceiling at 3am wondering about everything, my thoughts drifted to the short lifespan of plastics and the like, and started wondering what would happen if the epoxy started to breakdown after 20 - 100 years. So I'm thinking of going back to a cement mortar product.
Any thoughts on this?

Here's a Kashima I repaired awhile back. The scar was right on the graft, an area of bark just died back, a branch wound higher healed perfectly. The wound just wasn't healing until I putties it and now is closing OK. Kashima are good healers usually.

Personally I'm not concerned. If in fact the epoxy does breakdown for whatever reason, by that time the tree would have engulfed the hardened substance so much that it would simply remain inside of it becoming an invisible and distant memory of its past. The only purpose for using the epoxy is to give the tree a chance to seal over the wound as it continues to build its vascular layers (wood) on top of it. Also I would not be surprised if that stuff survives Armageddon! 😂There are some nasty chemicals in that epoxy!:eek:
 

Mike Corazzi

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Lars, you could always paint it with artist's acrylic paint to disguise it while it heals. Or there are other two-part epoxies that are gray.

I've repaired totally broken branches with Gorilla Glue. A clothespin holds the branch til it "takes." Gorilla Glue can be sanded and as you say, daubing with acrylic paint will hide the whole operation. :)

I have two repaired trees and have to search to find where I did it.
 

MACH5

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I'm starting to see results on my foil duct tape experiments now! This wound was cut on March 6th, picture was taken today.
View attachment 366563


Joe, I am myself also trying the foil. In fact I am now comparing results with cut paste, Callous Mate (the one Ryan uses), foil, grafting tape and yes... nothing! I know there are a lot of anecdotes on each. But wanted to see it for myself. No hard conclusions on my end yet. But.... I am noticing that cuts with nothing applied to them are closing much slower but with a finer layer of vascular tissue.
 
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