I am being required to plug my bore holes taken with a standard 5.15 mm increment borer per the stipulations of a specific permit I have received. The species is Pinus palustris, a very sappy conifer, and I am boring during the growing season.
I've seen people recommend plugging candle wax or beeswax. What are some other materials people use? And where do people buy the wax in the correct shape?
Hi Nicole,
We also were obrigated to close the boreholes of a 15mm borer in the tropics. So we decided to close boreholes with sterilized cork plugs to avoid fungus growth and insect attacks. Before closing the borehole, it should be cleaned with a brush. A traditional fungicide, calledBordeaux mixture (‘bouillie bordelaise’) composed of a saturated solution of copper (II) sulphate CuSO4and slacked lime (calciumhydroxide) Ca(OH)2with a 1:1 ratio, is applied to the inside of the hole. The cork plug has a slightly higher diameter than the borehole and is pushed slightly below the cambium to facilitate tree healing and callus formation.
All the best
Stefan
For European beech we used also a fugizide and locked the drill hole with wooden dowels of the same size.
At our lab, what we usually do is insert a wooden (beech) rod previously treated with a fungicide into the bore holes. We then apply on the scar a commercially found healing balm (like the ones use to treat the scar after pruning)
Dear Nicole,
In Araucaria angustifolia trees under subtropical climate conditions we used first of all fungicide and then we closed the hole with a woody material.
We close the bores with the wood plugs used in carpentry. They are cheap and can be easily desinfected with alcohol (70%) or hipoclorite (5%)
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Hi Nicole,
To protect bore holes, we usually use a furniture peg and then seal it with Lac Balsam https://www.compo.de/de/de/produkte/Lac-Balsam.html
There are studies back around 2001 by Dirk Dujesiefken from Hamburg, Germany, with a few pubs in German (I have the citations). He compared a variety of options and in very rare cases it was recommended to plug the hole. But rule of thumb is do NOT pug holes at all. Plugging is in most cases worse than anything else. So dont plug holes, also dont use any desinfection treatment, and by no means any "balsam".
We use bamboo peg to seal the bore holes and so far haven't seen any adverse effect.
I am agree with the answer of Dr. Rupert Wimmer. Please don't plug the hole with any foreign material it will seal automatically by compartmentalization process. But you may simply wipe the hole with Bordeaux paste after closing the hole with your fingers. Just like use of ethanol after injection in human body for disinfection.
as an addition....any "desinfection" action may kill living parenchyma that is important in the defense system. Agree ?
Agree. But i think insertion of disinfectants into the hole is more dangerous than simply wiping outside. Anyway natural sealing is far better.
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