Spalting- How Long Does It Take?

[Rob Cunningham]

A few weekends ago I cut up some silver maple logs into bowl blanks.
Two of the logs I just made a fresh cut on the end and stood them up, cut end on the ground, to see if I could get them to begin spalting. They are in the shade behind my shop. Any thoughts on how long I should let them sit before they begin to spalt? After they start to spalt, is there a way to stop it or do I need to cut them and rough them out right away?
Thanks for any help.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Spalting is a rotting process that only can happen when the moisture contend is high enough and the temperature is right, when the fungus is growing in those conditions they will continue until either is below or above the growing condition.
Usually turning and drying is the easiest way to stop the fungus from continuing to grow HTH

How long does it take ??, depends, on how optimum the above conditions are, also on the type of wood you are trying to spalt, so wintertime with low temps will be slower than summertime with higher humidity and higher temps.

[Michael Schapansky]

My wife buried several blanks in the 6 cu yds of compost we have near the greenhouse. We've had several rains so it's staying just a bit moist. She buried them were there was fungal activity in the pile. She's going to dig them up after 3 months and check them. Hope we don't need any compost before December...

[Don Meyer]

I beleive in one of the back issues of Fine Woodworking magazine thet had a procedure for spalting wood. If you go to their website you should be able to find it.

[Joe Pfeifer]

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/techline/producing_spalted_wood.pdf

[Mike Peace]

I cut a live River Birch tree down in March and put the 8" X 15" logs in the shade under my back porch and off the ground. I cut some blanks today and they are very heavily spalted. So seven months in this case.

[Eugene Wigley]

Rob, the pictures below are of bowls I have rough turned in the past two weeks. I cut the Sweet Gum tree last december and stacked the wood on new years eve. I sealed both ends of each piece of wood with two heavy coats of anchorseal. There was no spalting in this wood as of mid April. The wood was stored under a metal shed in North Carolina for the summer. You can see what Leo said is correct. The temp. here in the summer is often above 90 degrees F with high humidity. The wood spalted to this degree since April. It will slow down now that the temp. is lower.

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[Rob Cunningham]

Thanks for the replies. I'll just let them sit and see what happens over time.