Brody Ekberg

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since Aug 02, 2018
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Recent posts by Brody Ekberg

r ranson wrote:Transplant the tree with care, wide hole, maybe give it some water and a bit of nice soil, that sort of thing.  then come back next spring and see if it made it.



I should check to see what kind it is first. Its from a local conservation organization so probably is a pure american chestnut with zero blight resistance, and if thats the case I could see it being a waste of my time to transplant it since these spots are certainly already carrying the fungus.
2 weeks ago

r ranson wrote:If the choice comes down to cull or not cull, try transplant with STUN (extreme neglect). Let the tree make the decision. If it's too sick, it wll die.  If not, it will thrive.  



Are you saying to neglect these sick trees, or replant with new trees and neglect them? Im pretty good at neglecting things! All I do to these trees is water occasionally if it hasnt rained for a month and hack the comfrey back from near their trunk a couple times a summer.
2 weeks ago

greg mosser wrote:we have quite a few hybrid chestnuts planted in pure southern red clay that seem to be doing just fine aside from deer browse issues. they are around the crown of a hill, so (lack of) drainage doesn’t seem to be as much of a big deal as it could be.



Well, maybe it is less my planting and more just lack of blight resistant that my issue is.
2 weeks ago

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:I don’t have a lot of advice, but check your soil PH. It should be between 4.5 and 6 for chestnut trees. Also, it might be your grow zone. What I can find says zone 4 to 9, but you do say what you have is a hybrid.
I would take a good large soil sample and send it to a lab and get it tested. It’s usually about 50$ and it’s worth it. I do it when I run into problems. They will check the ph and your soil quality, and get back to you with advice on how to fix it, if anything needs fixing.
One more thing though, sometimes it just don’t work. I have had to replace trees because I just couldn’t get them to grow right.
Right now we have an apple tree to cut down. I have given it 8 years, and while it flowers we don’t get any apples. Instead we are planting a cherry tree.



I did get our soil tested years ago, and probably could dig up the results. If I remember right, it was slightly acidic but close to neutral. I think even if i made a bunch of changes to the soil now, they are infected with blight and will either struggle to live with it or die because of it.
2 weeks ago

r ranson wrote:Thankfully blight hasn't made it here yet.  

But sometimes we get issues with fruit and nut trees looking sick, but it's a soil problem. Too much or not enough...drainage, water, minerals, nutrients, critters eating roots, toxins from up hill neighbours.

Sometimes we can fix on location like adding lime or manuer, and other times relocating the tree does the trick (kill or cure).  

...

Could you tell us more about the soil?  Hopefully someone familiar with your climate can chime in with ideas.



Well, when I first saw they were struggling I blamed the soil and my planting. Chestnuts supposedly prefer sandier soil and to be planted a bit above grade, but we have more of a clay soil and if anything, they sit a bit below grade. I thought about digging them up the next year and planting them better, with more sand and higher up but they grew quite a bit so I left them. Then the growth died back and started this pattern. And now that I looked into chestnut blight, it is exactly the symptoms that these trees have.

Maybe with better planting they would have been healthier, but im guessing they would have been exposed to blight regardless.
2 weeks ago
I planted 4 chinese/american hybrid chestnut trees in our yard probably 5 years ago now. They were supposedly “blight resistant” but resistant and immune are not the same.

They have been growing consistently, but not well. They leaf our very late, send up new branches but have some deformed leaves and then half of the branches die off every year. So, although they are “growing” a lot of the growth dies off. Its like 2 steps forward 1 step back. And they arent growing like a nice straight single trunk tree, they’re growing like a struggling shrub.

After wondering for years what the problem was, I have decided its most likely blight. The stem gets discolored patches that turn sort of rusty colored and then the branch dies from that point onward. If you scrape the bark away at the discoloration there is decay underneath.

Should I just put these things out of their misery? Id hate to have 4 ugly unproductive struggling trees for years just so they can eventually die.

Also, assuming it is blight, it is probably in the surrounding soil now right? So if I replant another “resistant” variety of chestnut it will undoubtedly be exposed to the same blight correct?

Not sure if this makes a difference but my location is Michigans upper peninsula near the Wisconsin border.
2 weeks ago

R Scott wrote:Can you lay it down in one piece?  If you can, you could build it like a cutting board or countertop and dropped in place.



I could if i glued them to a sheet of treated plywood. Whether I put the plywood in first or glue the blocks on first and insert the thing as a whole it seems the end result would be the same. But still not sure how to deal with expansion and contraction of the blocks, how to waterproof and if I need to do anything to the concrete first.
1 month ago
We are wanting to use our rough sawn red pine 4x4s to make endgrain flooring for our entryway. Its a small space, probably 4’x4’ and concrete right now. Its unheated and gets a lot of moisture from snowy boots in winter.

My thoughts are cutting the 4x4s about 1-1.5” thick and wedging them in side by side with no grout in between, then putting some sort of water proof sealer like Waterlox on top. We have never done this before and I have questions…

I imagine these will expand and contract with moisture and season changes, so should I leave a gap around the perimeter? And if so, how do I keep the blocks tight together with a perimeter gap? Would lining the perimeter with something like cork be a good way to allow expansion?

What do we do between the concrete and wood blocks? Should we seal the concrete first? Or I considered laying a thin piece of treated plywood down and gluing the blocks to that.

Any suggestions are appreciated! This is the look we are going for:
https://aspensonlumber.com/unfinished-flooring/
1 month ago

R Scott wrote:Nails will still loosen as the wood swells and dries in thickness, but shouldn’t split or get loose enough to be an issue. My preference for board and batten is to nail the boards on one edge, then finish the boards if you’re going to. Then screw the prefinished battens in place with stainless or color matched screws. That way you can tighten the battens if they dry a lot or remove them to re finish. You can also screw a few boards on the same way if you need an access panel.



I might screw everything and skip nails all together. I just dont want issues since its my house and it seems like screws will just hold much better
2 months ago

R Scott wrote:Flat head nails split and finish nails pull out if the wood moves too much. Which is better depends on the species, thickness of board, and where the nail is placed. And how it’s driven—over driven flat heads definitely split worse. I don’t know the right answer for your situation, test your options and pick your poison. Finish nails definitely look better in my opinion, unless you overdrive them with a gun and then they are ugly.

Galvanized nails for a nail gun are a slight premium over regular, stainless are available but $$$.  We would use galvanized ring shank nails in a regular air gun turned way down, then finish driving them with a hammer and a special punch—it has a guide collar so you can’t miss or bend the nail. I think they call it a trim nail punch.  Made for driving nails into aluminum trim.

A quarter inch air gap between the siding and sheathing will do WONDERS for letting the siding dry and last longer. You can rip pieces of plywood or 2x material or buy the stickers material from a lumber mill. They make bug screens for the top and bottom, some are like heavy filter material used for ridge vent (cobra filter) and some are perforated metal and some are corrugated plastic. None are cheap, but if you have a Menards they sell sheets of Coro-plast you can rip down for a decent price.



As of now I think we’re going with Spruce, and maybe 3/4” thick. Unless thicker or thinner would be better. Seems to me that nails shouldn’t pull out from wood movement if the boards are only nailed on one edge or in the center right? I thought I read for hidden fasteners you want to nail on one edge of a board where the batten will cover it but if you arent worried about seeing nail heads, just put one in the center of the boards and let the battens hold the sides down. If nailed on both edges then nails pulling our or splitting boards seems inevitable. No experience here though, thats just my logic. I would consider using screws instead of nails if puling out is a concern regardless of how their nailed. And if I do use nails, I will likely hammer them in. I dont mind swinging a hammer and dont get to do it often.

As for an air gap goes, Im still planning that. We have 2x4 walls so are considering adding some insulation to the outside and not sure how thick or which route to go on that. Also looking into rain screen materials like nylon mesh strips and whatnot. I forget the brand names but there are a few products out there that I could lay 1/4” thick by 4” wide strips horizontally across the sheeting and it would allow air flow and water drainage behind the siding. Im sure they are expensive and maybe coro plast would be just as good and cheaper, Im not sure. And bug screen is also going to be part of it. Not sure what to use for that yet but definitely will be putting something in the gaps on top and bottom.

2 months ago