This has puzzled me for a couple of years. We took down a sugar maple two years ago about 200 years old. My friend tried to cut slabs of of it with a 6' bar. The tree was about 40". Needles to say that without jake there it didn't work. Anyway the puzzle. about the slab about 4" from the center of the tree had a couple tap holes. Why didn't these holes heal over. The tap holes farther from the center did.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29224/005.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29224/003.JPG)
Someone else can probably give a better answer than I can, but the heartwood in a tree is really dead as far as growing. It provides the strength to hold the tree up and does transfer moisture, but it is not growing and it can not "heal" itself. It's only growth is adding layers as the tree grows in diameter. If there is a hole inside of the heartwood, it stays.
There is a chance that the taps n the tree ears ago were never removed and have just disolved, in the picture there is a difference in the heartwood colour above and below the tap hole.
I have been wrong before, many times in fact, but I was right once.
The holes probably did grow over with new wood, but the existing holes in the old wood wouldn't "heal" as there are no live, growing cells there. The only "healing" is from the growing layer of the tree outward from there. Like MM says.
I will start by saying, very cool find.
Also, since i consider myself a big chainsaw guy, I have also been very impressed by the pics of Jakes chainsaw handiwork. Maybe his previous life was as a west coast faller.
I think Mr.Magicman hit it on the button, but I do hope whoever ends up with the wood, gets as much of a kick out of the tap holes as I did looking at the pictures. Every good log tells a story
That is some interesting wood.
Magic and beenthere both got it.
The heartwood is done growing and only the sapwood grows.
The sapwood will heal the opening of the tap hole, but the tap hole inside will remain open.
I concur with MM, Beenthere, and Chuck. Once you drill that hole it stays there forever, just the opening in the outside rim of the tree where you drilled through the cambium will ultimately heal over. The dark streaks above and below the tree are from the tree walling off the cells on account of the damage/bacterial infestation caused by driling the tap hole. Happens around every tap hole that gets drilled. On a side note, it's worth getting those logs cut up right. Lumber full of tap holes goes for high dollar around here.
MM is right on the money, I have been making syrup for many years and sometimes cull out damaged trees and then mill them, the old tap holes show up on the inside without much sign on the outer bark.
The log has metal in it but a friend of mine has a chain saw mill and said he'd cut it if I buy the chain. Sound s fair enough. Who do you market wood like this to, and how do you determine a price.
Actually most of the tap holes do heal and grow back fully. It all depends on the growing seasons. Poorer growing seasons will not grow back fully.
I have cut many maples i our old sugarbush and found as many as 60 or 70 tap holes. About 6 to 10 of them are just as they were the day drilled. The rest are fully grown back in with the outline of the hole showing.
LEON
Show us a pic of where this happened. Would be interesting to see.
Growing wood over the tap hole in subsequent years is normally what happens. Healing the hole within the "dead" wood is the puzzle.
I,ll get some more pics this week hopefully when my friend comes to saw it. I make maple syrup myself and usually the tap holes I make are healed over when I tap the following year. As far as I know you should only tap into the sap wood. You are after sap after all, That's what puzzled me, but aparently this type of thing is not at all uncommon. Thanks everyone for your thoghts. Jake
Wintergreen Mountain- Just wondering, could it be that some of those tap holes that appeared grown shut were actually the result of someone plugging the holes?
Axe Handle Hound and ArborJake.
I will try to find a cutaway and post a picture when i get a chance.
LEON
Quote from: ArborJake on April 01, 2012, 07:56:56 PM
I,ll get some more pics this week hopefully when my friend comes to saw it. I make maple syrup myself and usually the tap holes I make are healed over when I tap the following year. As far as I know you should only tap into the sap wood. You are after sap after all, That's what puzzled me, but aparently this type of thing is not at all uncommon. Thanks everyone for your thoghts. Jake
Right, you don't drill into the heartwood, just the sapwood, but eventually the sapwood becomes heartwood as the tree grows.
I see. The tap holes opening closes but not always the rest of it before it starts to turn to heartwood.
But even sapwood does not actually "heal" itself. It grows over and covers the wound. Over a period of time this new growth will extrude into and eventually completely fill the hole. Heartwood can not do this. If the hole happened to be drilled into a part of a tree that had thin sapwood, then it goes through the sapwood and into heartwood. If the hole is drilled into heartwood, it stays a hole.
Ah, I'm with ya now. As a certified arborist I realy should've known that. Tree biology was never my strongest point.
As a follow up on maple tree tap holes healing depending on the growing season and other effects.
HERE ARE SOME PHOTO'S. If they uploaded.
It is discolored but very solid regrowth.
155 YEAR OLD MAPLE TREE.
FLETCHER, VERMONT. 2012
28 INCHES DIAMETER.
LAST TAPED IN 1940 ACCORDING TO THE GROWTH RINGS.
THE FIRST 54 YEARS WERE POOR GROWTH PERIODS. (1/32" to 1/16")
THE SECOND 50 YEARS WERE A VERY GOOD GROWTH PERIODS. (1/4" to 3/8")
THE LAST 51 YEARS WERE POOR GROWTH PERIODS.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21618/MAPLE_TAP_HOLES_1%7E0.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21618/MAPLE_TAP_HOLES_6%7E1.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21618/MAPLE_TAP_HOLES_2.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21618/MAPLE_TAP_HOLES_3%7E0.JPG)
One more picture of a unhealed hole on this cross section.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21618/MAPLE_TAP_HOLES_4.JPG)
Not sure, but appears to be plenty of decay showing up.
What is "solid regrowth" ?
benthere
The growth in the tap holes is solid regrowth with a dakened color.with the rings passing unifomally across the tap hole. It is not rot or decay.
The tree, as you can see, doe's have substantial rot in one area away from the tap holes and in the center.
LEON
Ran into hundreds and hundreds of tap holes over the years in the sawmill and never found any that "filled up" They healed over, but never did they fill in with new wood. Perhaps duff from insects or rot, but I didn't think it was possible for them to grow full, only shut.
jeff
I wish i could get this cross section to all of you so you would see it in real time. Pictures don't show it very well.
I'm not sure but would guess that the exposure to bacteria that discolored the wood around the holes also discolored the new growth in the hole as it healed.
LEON
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21618/MAPLE_TAP_HOLES_2.JPG)
A cross section to me, shows me nothing honestly. The cross section could very well be cut within a fraction of an inch of the side of the hole. What you are showing me looks like the stain that is radiating out from near the hole. I think in all likely hood, the actual hole is in the chunk of wood that was next to that cut, or is could be underneath where you are looking. When you rip the length of the log with a sawmill, you can't help but saw across the hole. When you are bucking to length, you are either going to miss the hole, or obliterate it with the cut. one or the other.
Taking a look at the last picture there, I'd not even bet on it being a taphole. Could be anything.
It is my understanding that a tree does not have the ability to heal. It can only cover an injury with new growth. If your "tap" holes are indeed filled with wood, then I would suspect that the tapper drove a peg in when the tap was removed.
Quote from: Jeff on September 23, 2012, 06:41:07 PM
A cross section to me, shows me nothing honestly. The cross section could very well be cut within a fraction of an inch of the side of the hole. What you are showing me looks like the stain that is radiating out from near the hole. I think in all likely hood, the actual hole is in the chunk of wood that was next to that cut, or is could be underneath where you are looking.
I'm with Jeff, trees don't heal, they seal, or compartmentalize. If you look closely you can see the stained growth rings from either below or above the hole. Should make some interesting looking boards though.
It's called CODIT, or Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees. The wound will start to form callous rolls, and if small enough, it will eventually compartmentalize. If it's too big, it will not close and the tree will be exposed to insects and disease that will rot the heartwood.
The fact that the fill material in the hole has growth rings indicates to me that it is not a tap hole. If it was a tap hole, when the hole was made, the wood was removed. How could it somehow "come back" and have growth rings like the surrounding wood. Odd.
Quote from: WDH on September 25, 2012, 09:11:28 PM
The fact that the fill material in the hole has growth rings indicates to me that it is not a tap hole. If it was a tap hole, when the hole was made, the wood was removed. How could it somehow "come back" and have growth rings like the surrounding wood. Odd.
Because we are not looking at the hole in the cross section. We are looking at the wood that was adjacent of the hole and staining from a non-specific source. Either from the spiel or the elements I'd guess, if indeed it is the results of a tap..
Yes, that makes sense. Like the shadow of the tap.
I've sawn through hundreds of tap holes and almost all will have some amount of stain around them, but the hole is just as perfect round as it was when it was first drilled. It's only reasonable that if the log was bucked right next to the hole, you would see the stain the way it appears in the photos above. Many times the stain radiating out from a tap hole will look just like the streaks you get from ambrosia staining.
My confidence in tree growth has been restored :D.