This Oak has a 1.5 inch cavity from previous chop. Do I carve it out to let water drain, or do I leave it and let it rot away naturally?
Which is better for the health of the tree?
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Is filling the cavity and letting it heal over the filler an option? I’m not sure how well that tree heals wounds.
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What would I fill the cavity with? This is my first growing season with this tree. I don’t know how it will heal.
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You could use the two component epoxy putty.
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I remember a stream using the two part epoxy. I’ll look it up. Thanks, antelion.
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Deciduous wound healing stream is where that can be seen.
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Thank you, Welp. I’ll check it out.
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It looks like you cut off a fair sized branch just below the bottom of the cavity. In that case, connecting the two might work very well and make a nice feature. It would tell the story of the tree losing its top, filling with water and rotting until it reached the level of the lower branch where it broke through, and then started to drain and the rot rate dropped.
I agree with Mr. Wiser.
I would take a sharp knife and chase the live cambium down the trunk. It appears that the odd bark eruption straight down from the measure shows it is dead down to there…
Probably dead at least to the limb nub.
The carving of a elongated s shaped dead wood would look OK on an old oak. Would break up the strait trunk.
Nice nebari…
Use wood hardener after carving.
Post a photo of the whole tree, please.
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I did something similar on a twin trunk crab apple. Looked good until a vole ate the whole tree… Now I have a two year old forest.!
