AusBonsai

Hi,

I recently cut down some big branches/ forks in my trident maple trunk. Upon looking at the cross section, I can see these dark green spots towards the centre of the trunk (please see the photo). Is this some sort of decay/ disease I need to be worried about? If so, is there a remedy?

The tree appears healthy to me this season,The last season saw it have significant issues with leaf mould and possible over-watering. But all seasons prior to that have been fine.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I don't know what those spots are but I don't think it is anything to worry about. The centre of the tree is old wood. It does nothing much except hold the tree up. You have probably seen perfectly healthy trees that are completely hollow. no cause to worry about the centre of the trunk. Real problems are with the outer layers which actually do all the work.

I think you are right that it is nothing to worry about.

I neglected to mention that the cut I made was merely 20-30mm from a previous cut 4 months ago. When I had a look at this off-cut split through the middle, you can see that the discolouration is simply the wood thats exposed to the outside environment and maybe using some sort of sealing/ protection reaction.

So the spots were just the cross-section of the edge of this sealing discolouration.