Sap in the roots?

[Planman1954]

I've got a question. My friend cut down some trees for me a few summers back, and left about a 12" high stump...mostly SYP. One day, I stepped onto the top of one...and promptly lost by balance as it fell over! I mentioned this to him the other day. He said that his father told him when he was young that a tree's sap drains to the roots in the winter, and if you cut a tree in the summer, that deprives the protective sap for the winter, and the tree stump will rot. Is this the case? Thanks.

[thenorthman]

be the first I've heard of it helping to rot the stumps... The sap does go down into the roots for winter, but seems unlikely that it would prevent rot.

Could be that by cutting in the summer it prevented to trees from regrowing come spring because no energy was stored in the roots, no energy no leaves, no growth.   We got big leaf maple out here that can be hard to kill even a low stump they can sometimes grow back, so i figure get em while they are putting all there energy into growing (spring/early summer) and it should be the death of em

[Planman1954]

Well, my friend Jimmy grew up in the country. He could be a survivalist with all his knowledge of living off the land. He comes up with a lot of ways things work in the woods. He laughs when I tell him that I get on the internet and check to see if he is right about something...and he always is! This is something that his deceased father told him as a child, and he still remembered it. I would lean towards it as true. Thanks.

[thecfarm]

I don't know about SYP,I don't have any on my land.  :D  I do have white pine,fir,eastern hemlock for softwood. I have cut alot in the spring,alot in the summer,alot in the fall and a lot in the winter. All the stumps last just as long no matter what season I cut them on my land.

[WDH]

SYP does not stump sprout.  Planman, your friend may be exactly right, but I suspect that it has more to do with the age of the tree when cut and the amount of heartwood that has formed.  Heartwood is usually pitch soaked and more resistant to decay.  You can see the heartwood in a rotted log that has lain on the ground for many years.  It will be solid and pitch soaked.  They call those pitch soaked pieces of heartwood in a rotted log "Liter Knots" down here.  There are also "Liter Stumps" where all the sapwood rotted, but the heartwood part of the stump is still solid as the day the tree was cut.

[Planman1954]

Thanks for replying. I think the trees we cut were young, so maybe age had something to do with the rotten stumps.