writes:
[snip]

On the other hand, the pieces that make the trip are worth the
hassle. The wood is creamy colored and will darken a little to a
light amber. If you tree has one of the many infirmaries that kill
Magnolia, you may be in for a real treat. I have turned some (and
have some in my backyard that are lathe bound) that looks like
Ambrosian Maple.

That's my 0.02, FWIW.

Robert

Thank you for the response, Robert. My tree and the one from which I'm
getting the "extra" wood are both casualties of a severe ice storm 2-1/2
years ago. Theirs started dying right away; ours started last spring. On
ours, the leaves at the top started dying and dropping, like it was
getting sunburned. Theirs apparently died mostly at once. Even though
theirs is cut back to the main trunk and larger branches, there are leaves
growing on the main trunk. I'm leaving mine in the ground until all signs
(of which there are little) of life are gone. Both trees appear to be
approximately the same size/age, which would be 50 years old or so. Do
Evergreen Magnolias have a life expectancy? The mystery for me is that if
it were from the horrible amount of storm damage, why did it take this one
more than a year for any seeable symptoms?

I'm thinking about leaving the roots in the ground, stump cut to about 30
inches tall in height, and putting a slab of oak I have on top of it
(about 4 feet in diameter from the trunk of an oak tree). Properly
finished, it might be quite interesting.

The morning the ice started melting, it sounded like a firing range in the
back yard, so many large limbs breaking. At least 1/3 of the magnolia
tree went down, probably more like half or more. We lost 1/4 of the
apricot tree, also over 50 years old. That type of weather doesn't happen
very often here, but when it does, it's bad since the trees haven't been
"wintered" every year like they would be in climates in which ice storms
are a regular event. I had ice on my chain link fence at least an inch
thick so the poor trees didn't have a chance. Here, for whatever reason,
they call it a silver thaw which seems odd since it's really warmer
weather after the freeze and the falling rain becomes ice when it lands,
rather like sleet one would think, which is when the branches start
breaking. They really get breaking as the ice starts thawing and falling
off redistributing the weight resulting in extra strain.

When I bring their wood home, I will lay woven geotextile road fabric on
the ground in an area that will not puddle, lay the wood down, then cover
it with more geotextile. That way it will be close to ground temperature
with the geotextile allowing it to "breathe." Is that pretty much the
type of care you meant?

I'm fortunate to have this other tree coming so I can do my
trial-and-error errors on it. I've seen very few of these trees in our
area (Portland, Oregon, area) so they apparently not plentiful.

Again, Robert, thank you.

Glenna

Glenna Rose wrote:


Thank you for the response, Robert. My tree and the one from which I'm
getting the "extra" wood are both casualties of a severe ice storm 2-1/2
years ago. Theirs started dying right away; ours started last spring. On
ours, the leaves at the top started dying and dropping, like it was
getting sunburned. Theirs apparently died mostly at once. Even though
theirs is cut back to the main trunk and larger branches, there are leaves
growing on the main trunk. I'm leaving mine in the ground until all signs
(of which there are little) of life are gone. Both trees appear to be
approximately the same size/age, which would be 50 years old or so. Do
Evergreen Magnolias have a life expectancy? The mystery for me is that if
it were from the horrible amount of storm damage, why did it take this one
more than a year for any seeable symptoms?


Glenna

Sounds like disease rather than trauma. Do you have a county
agricultural extension agent? They have resources to check it out and
research what the problem might be.
What do you plan to do with the wood?

--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

The key to flexibility is indecision.

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 10:22:32 -0700, (Glenna Rose)
wrote:

writes:
[snip]

The morning the ice started melting, it sounded like a firing range in the
back yard, so many large limbs breaking.

Glenna

Is this a joke? The 15th of July and the ice started melting?

Give me a break.

Stinky wrote:
On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 10:22:32 -0700, (Glenna Rose)
wrote:

writes:
[snip]

The morning the ice started melting, it sounded like a firing range in the
back yard, so many large limbs breaking.

Glenna

Is this a joke? The 15th of July and the ice started melting?

Give me a break.

" ...My tree and the one from which I'm getting the "extra" wood are
both casualties of a severe ice storm 2-1/2 years ago. ..."

Read +before+ spouting

--

On Jul 15, 12:22 pm, (Glenna Rose) wrote:

SNIP

Do Evergreen Magnolias have a life expectancy? The mystery for me is that if it were from the horrible amount of storm damage, why did it take this one more than a year for any seeable symptoms?

That would be something that a arborist would better answer, one that
was there looking at the tree. The symptoms you are seeing now may
have nothing to do with the ice storm. As suggested, they could be
disease related, or they could be from insects, or even just the ice
storm. I don't know how long different Magnolias live, but down here
in South Texas it can easily get ot 50+ years. But once again, I
don't know the species.

SNIP

When I bring their wood home, I will lay woven geotextile road fabric on the ground in an area that will not puddle, lay the wood down, then cover it with more geotextile. That way it will be close to ground temperature
with the geotextile allowing it to "breathe." Is that pretty much the type of care you meant?

That wouldn't be my first choice, but it might be good for your area
and climate. Keep in mind I have only stickered a few types of wood,
and the magnolia I kept was so I could turn it on my lathe. I never
acquired enough to cut more than a few boards, so I opted to put it
all on the lathe.

If I were to dry a highly reactive wood, I would not put it anywhere
close to the ground, regardless of what my underlayment might be.One
of my buddies that has great success in drying really wet, warping and
unstable woods just follows the classic drying procedures.

He has bought some of those cheap (I mean the REALLY cheap) plastic
sawhorses and put his wood on them. I am only talking about a couple
of hundred bf here to stack, although he has made bigger piles when he
"scores". He sets them up in a shady corner of his lot that gets some
air circulation, and then puts a layer of wood, then the
"stickers" (he has a bunch of old 3/4" X 3/4" wood tomato stakes he
has used for years) to separate the layers of wood.

His wood is all cut to a 1" thickness, and again following the classic
formula, he allows one year per inch to air dry.
He makes sure the wood is well supported by the horses and may use two
sets to make himself happy when he has some 8" boards. Stickers go
about every 16 - 24" at 90 degrees to the boards.

His wood is kept about 30" off the ground, and his goes a long way to
keep fungus and insect infestation away. He puts a cheap tarp over
the wood, covering it to as close the ground as he can get. He secure
the tarp to keep it from blowing away.

In about 30 days, it is a good idea to take the tarp off, remove the
wood, and stack it in reverse order, upside down from the way it was
originally stacked. 90 days later, do it again. Then wait about 6
months, then do it again. You shoud be able to wait out the remaining
time without changing the orientaion or stacking order.

That's the backyard method.

Another amigo has rented a huge building in a rather dangerous part of
town for his cabinet shop. He takes any harvest of green wood he has,
puts in on some well placed dunnage, stickers it, throws a tarp on it
to slow down the drying and just forgets about it. He has plenty of
room so he doesn't worry. Keeping it inside out of the elements takes
all the fussing out of drying.

Good luck.

Hope this helps some.

Robert