Published via Ecency

for those of you who are not familiar with Cork Oaks (Quercus Suber), you can see it above in all its sad glory. wooden interior within a thick layer of cork protecting it from the adversities of the outside world. from the elements, insects and even fire.

as I mentioned in my previous post here:(@bigorna1/spring-almost-gone-garden-update),
we are experiencing young Cork Oaks dying from a disease called Carvão de Entrecasca (bark charcoal in simple translation).
this being a fungal disease and contagious. a traditional way to try and contain its effects is by cutting the affected trunks / branches and burning them.

so today was this sad day that I finally managed to force myself to step into our forest and remove these dying individuals. I will not be able to burn them so soon, as the weather dictates that fire risk is already fairly high (welcome to Portugal..).

I decided to try and naturally treat the stumps in order to further protect them from both the fungi itself and insects that might try to enter the open wound.

I remembered that last year I managed to cure a Loquat tree that was invaded by wood caterpillars by pulling them out and curing the wounds using ashes.
these last being Alkaline and have a positive effect by turning the local environment less acidic and hence less attractive. just like within the human body where a certain diet that support acidity, can provoke the development of cancerous cells which can not thrive in an Alkaline organism.

so my line of thinking was both anti fungal and anti insects.

the process:

some ashes from the chimney will be used as the Alkalizing agent.

some Borax (about 10%) will be used to repel insects. traditionally in Portugal, Borax is used to treat timber against insects in concentrations of between 4 - 8 percent.

I then boiled some water in order to help dissolve the Borax and mixed the whole thing together.

then passed the solution through this strainer to take out any floating debris and larger bits and pieces.

the solution obtained was now homogenous and was left to cool down.

applied by hand a thick layer of this plastery substance in order to seal off the open wound from potential invading insects and hopefully stop any further development of the fungi as well.

the hand saw that was used to cut these trunks will need to be disinfected before being used elsewhere. this is also done while pruning the Olive trees as a measure to contain diseases and limit spreading.

as soon as I get my hands on more Copper wire, I will also complement this job with Lakhovsky coils as an extra measure to promote curing.

the sun continues to bombard us and just like @housecatharsia suggested, I am looking forward to the benefits of the upgrades 😎
in the meantime, I am trying to bravely nurse my headaches.