blue stain on pine

[gtr]

Can any one tell me if the blue stain in a beetle kill tree, will spread once it is milled.

[beenthere]

For sure not, once it is milled and dried - air or kiln.  But if you mill it and dead stack it green then it may continue. Getting it on stickers will stop it quickest, I believe.

[Ianab]

Agree

Once the wood is dry to below 20-30% the fungus that causes the stain cant grow any more.

Cheers

Ian

[Minnesota_boy]

Any bark left on the lumber will impede the drying and the blue stain will spread under the bark until the moisture content drops low enough to stop it.  Make sure you knock off any remaining bark.

[extrapolate85]

GTR,

Standing dead LPP (I am guessing it is what you are referring to) in all but the most humid locations will stabilize at less than 20% MC. The sapwood will have already "turned" right after the tree has died or the first warm season following, but I don't think you will have any problems (even dead-stacking) unless this stuff is really recent beetle kill.  Plenty of mills just put in the dry kiln is to get the HT stamp, (which insures that bugs and pathogens are cooked to death). I have seen stud mills bring in dead LPP logs, mill it, and put it directly into the planer “stump to lumber truck” in the same day.

[solodan]

GTR,

Standing dead LPP (I am guessing it is what you are referring to)

No, I think he was referring to lumber that has alredy been sawed and is blue. Will it continue to blue? well , it can if the moisture content stayed up high enough, but what I usually see is that the face of a board will stop staining after cut because the face of the board is usually too dry to inhibit growth. If you dead stack it, it will still continue to stain if the boards are not dry, but this stain looks a little different to me and if you catch it early enough you can plane it out, because it is only on the surface. Another thing to note is that only the sap wood will stain, and this is very evident on species like sugar pine, that have a very distinct boarder where the stain will even grow. If you are selling it as blue pine and you want to know if it is going to get more blue, then I would probably say no. keep in mind that as the wood darkens with age, so does the stain, I have boards in my floor that are almost black.

[Dana]

I had a small amount of lumber that was staining and sprayed household bleach on it. Stopped the growth immediately.

[treecyclers]

Gang,
I milled a load of Ponderosa Pine that had the blue stain in it, and wanted more staining to occur.
So, being that the wood was still pretty green, I stacked and stickered it in my drying shed exclusively for pine, boxed it up tight (no airflow ventilation), and let it get all moldy and nasty over the course of a month or two.
Once it got nasty and moldy, I opened it all back up, and let it air dry naturally into the winter.
The pile I have is really beautiful, the surface mold planes off nicely, and the blue staining is really prevalent. It makes for some really stunning furniture.
The best part? I am the only game in the state that has such lovely blue stained pine!
SD

[Tom]

there is a difference in Blue Stain that is carried by bark beetles and innoculated into the tree by them and the "blue" often grey Stain that occurs from mildew.  Be sure of what you have because Blue Stain doesn't hurt the strength of the wood, but, Mildew will.  Mildew will come back too.  It takes a mildicide to kill it.  You may be carrying mildew into the house. 

[extrapolate85]

I think gtr is asking about beetle killed lodgepole pine. B.C. has been hit by a huge epedemic of mountain pine beetles in most of the inland regions of BC. The vast majority of these trees will already be dry to the point that you don't have to worry about the blue stain spreading. The sapwood will have already blued as much is it is going to and the heartwood will be bright. When LPP dies on the stump it dries out very quickly because it is very small in diameter and has very thin bark (about 2-3 mm). While the blue stain does not hurt the strength, no board mills will want it, few dimension mills either, but stud mills do well with it. Also the bigger straighter logs will have a good market as house logs.

[Pullinchips]

Around here if the wood from beetle kill is dead and dry on the stump the rot has started to set in ans decay has started and this cant be taken to the saw mill, pulp mill yes, but back during our last epidemic people could just about not give their wood away just to get it cut because there was so much dead.

-nate