My brother has a few Box Elder trees that he wants to use as firewood. Rather than cut them down, split, and stack them, he used a method of killing the tree while standing. This way it can dry out and he can dice it up later when it's needed and it will already be dry. I think it's called girding maybe? Basically you cut a gap in the bark to prevent it from accessing it's root structure.
We'll it didn't work. He cut a 5 inch gap over a year ago now. Last year, despite the gap, they leaved out and looked like a normal tree all season. This year, same thing. Full canopies of leaves again.
How can this be? A tree shouldn't be able to just keep on living with no access to its roots, should it?
In the photo, not only is the bark removed from the gap, but the chainsaw groves are around half an inch deep also.
