Evergreen root ball

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Your wood is rotting away (fungus on and in it) wrapping wet wood using plastic is a bad idea, as you keep the moisture in and on the surface, layers of newspaper wrapped around it do pretty much the same.

Using a brown paper bag as I have been recommending for years and years, does not do this, it lets the wood dry slowly, but not prevent it like Plastic or multiple layers of newspaper or even packed in wood shavings.

[Bill Jobe]

What do you recommend at this point?
Cold weather is here with below,freezing temps. I could put it outside. Would that stop the fungus?

[Leo Van Der Loo]

What do you recommend at this point? Cold weather is here with below,freezing temps. I could put it outside. Would that stop the fungus?

Drying will kill the fungus, freezing will stop it till the temp goes up again.

[Bill Jobe]

Ok, so I now have it in a paper sack, but it's one of Home Depot's lawn bags, triple layered and I wrapped the end down into a fairly loose wad and put a clip on it.
How often should I replace the bag, if at all?
What if I was to put the piece outside while still in the bag. Wouldn't that provide me with the best of both suggestions?

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Ok, so I now have it in a paper sack, but it's one of Home Depot's lawn bags, triple layered and I wrapped the end down into a fairly loose wad and put a clip on it. How often should I replace the bag, if at all? What if I was to put the piece outside while still in the bag. Wouldn't that provide me with the best of both suggestions?

You want the wood to dry fairly fast at this point, stopping or slowing the drying down now with all the fungus growth on it, will give the fungus more time to grow and further rot the wood.A single layer of craft paper would be better than the leaf bag, maybe you can rip one layer from that bag and use that, but even doing all this, you might well be to late to save that wood.Try it, if you can get the moisture level below 20 % , the fungus will die and you can then let the wood dry with no further degrading of the wood.

[Bill Jobe]

Thank you, Leo.

[Bill Jobe]

Leo, it's down right at 20% or less at most spots, so maybe I can salvage it.
Hope so. I think with the right finish it will be a pretty piece. I'd hate to lose it since it grew right here on my place.

By the way, my pinned General MMD4E meter calibrated at exactly 18.3.

[daryl moses]

Bill, in my experience most if not all of the mold [fungus] will be turned away when it is returned to the lathe and finish turned. Of course it will depend on how thick it was before and how thin it will finish out to.
Several months ago I roughed out some pretty large Box Elder bowls 13"+. I anchor sealed them and left them on my basement floor, most of them formed a thick layer or green mold but they all finished out nicely.
I hope that will be your experience as well.