GambaBun
New Member
We had a large Norway Maple cut down in March, and the stump "wept" continually from the time of cutting. After a month or so we began to notice a horrible smell in the area and traced it to the stump (which is about 3 feet across). The moisture had become slimy with a white salt-like deposit where it ran off the stump. We cleared it off, but it quickly returned. We tried cauterizing it with a blow-torch but couldn't make any headway against the moisture. Coating it with lime helps reduce the smell for a few days, but it quickly soaks through, becomes multi-colored, and begins to stink again. A web-search suggests it is Slime Flux or Bacterial Wetwood, but I can only find articles about dealing with that in live trees. I'm not surprised to hear that the common name for this slime is "Dog Vomit", because it is not only gross-looking, but gross-smelling... somewhere between feces and the worst breath you've ever encountered. It's enough to keep you indoors, and that's not where we want to be!
We asked the arborist who took down the tree to take a look at it, and he is pretty amazed himself. He suggests having the stump ground, but I'm concerned that the stink is going to keep bubbling up from the roots below.
What experience do others have with this phenomenon? Is the bacterium (if that's what it is) likely to spread to other trees? Could it be spread through the wood-chips when it is ground? Has anyone got another suggestion for how to stop it?
We asked the arborist who took down the tree to take a look at it, and he is pretty amazed himself. He suggests having the stump ground, but I'm concerned that the stink is going to keep bubbling up from the roots below.
What experience do others have with this phenomenon? Is the bacterium (if that's what it is) likely to spread to other trees? Could it be spread through the wood-chips when it is ground? Has anyone got another suggestion for how to stop it?
