I am just curious to understand what is going on here. On the main trunk at about 3ft height there was a big tree hollow filled with soil and I assumed that someone stuffed it in there for some reason. But when I made a cut at about 7-8ft (the photo above), the tree was still hollow inside and filled with dark soil. It had a ton of earth worms as well as larvae of wood boring insects. Before I cut it, the branch was still alive and not “open” at the top - it basically looked like a normal tree branch. How did this soil get in there and “travel” all the way to the top of the branch?
From Elizapples.com
heart rot creates hollows/habitats for all sorts of fauna. In hosting this fauna, the trees become collectors of poo (feces, not the bear). This creates an incredible microbial metabolism in the tree which, when combined with decomposing heartwood full of trapped minerals, supplies a steady amount of organic fertilizer that is slowly released to the base of the tree.
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Thanks, that was an interesting read, I’ve never heard of this before. And seeing other pictures, I now also understand what was the weird “soft spot” in the main trunk of the tree going all the way to the root. It didn’t hollow out all the way to the root (yet) but was definitely already affected there as well.
The only living part of any tree is the growing tips and the thin cambium layer surrounding the bark. The rest is long dead. So long dead that it eventually rots away
Evolutionarily this keeps other plants from using the nutrients until you’re REALLY dead
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I had to cut down a dying 60’ pine tree and it was hollow to the ground like that with a lot of decayed matter/soil in it. And when the chain sawing started, several flying squirrels glided to the ground. Interesting how nature works.
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This is so interesting, thank you for sharing it. Are you saving all of that to use around your gardens?!
Wow!
There’s a great video somewhere, I think you tube, where a raccoon jumps out of a falling tree.
I used the soil in the raised beds where I grow watermelon. I did have a great watermelon year, perhaps the years of accumulated flying squirrel manure made the difference. I like to think so.
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