Sudden Oak Life by Lee Klinger

Last year a good friend’s mother contacted me about a sick sweetgum tree at her home in Carmel. I inspected the tree and saw that it was nearly dead. Although I had never treated a sweetgum tree before, as there seemed little likelihood that the tree would survive, I proposed we try a fire mimicry experiment. She agreed, so a major limb that was all but dead was removed, a surgery was done to remove a severe wood rot infection, the soils around the tree were amended with shells, ash, biochar, and compost tea, and a limewash was applied to the trunk. One year later …