ForTheArborist
Addicted to ArboristSite
That yellow circle in the middle is absolutely soft heart rot.
This Ironbark Euc was topped a few years back, and it had heart rot running through it's two sub-main stems down to and just below its co-dominant joint. Then below that joint the heart wood had a 12" long crack split open 1/4" appearing through the whole main stem. Its angle was perpendicular with the two main stems. Given this criteria and approximation of about 4-5' from the porches of two houses, this was bound to be a shatty situation come the near future.
What likely happened here? I assume the heart wood began to rot where the stems were topped, and this set off a chain reaction coursing the heart wood with rot.
The phloem was so saturated it was dripping out at different places. No sap - just water. It was watered very frequently. I've read that Eucs don't do well with highly abundant water because they suck up too much, and they can't dry back out. In the deserts they suck up as much as possible in the short rain season, and then they dry back out during the dry season. I'm still 50/50 on the validity of these factors in regards to rotting Eucs.
