Aspen Bibliography

Wound healing and fungal colonization in stems of young Trembling Aspen after thinning and pruning

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Information Report, Northern Forest Research Centre, Canada

Issue

No. NOR-X-37

Publication Date

1972

Abstract

Fifteen-year-01d trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) on unthinned and thinned (12 x 12 ft or 3.7 x 3.7 m spacing) 1/10-ac (0. 04 ha) plots were pruned to a height of 10 ft (3.1 m) in September 1964 and April 1965. Pruned branch stubs on half of the trees were dressed with an asphalt-base paint immediately after pruning. After 5 years, living trees from each treatment were harvested. Thinning increased diameter increment by about 60% and also resulted in more rapid wound healing. In the unthinned plots, wound dressing resulted in somewhat slower wound healing and more extensive fungal colonization as indicated by isolations from pruning wounds. More organisms were isolated from pruned trees than from unpruned controls, the main isolates being a bacteria, a yeast, and Cytospora chyrsosperma (Pers.) Fr. Very little decay was detected and the fungi known to cause trunk rot in aspen were isolated in very few instances. The trunk rot fungus Peniophora polygonia Pers. ex Fr. (Bourd and Galz) was isolated from tissues adjacent to several wounds which had failed to heal over. Cankers developed around some of these wounds.

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