Compartmentalization of decay in trees

CODIT is an acronym for Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees ( compartmentalization of decay in trees ), a developed from the late 1970s concept of the American forest tree biologists and pathologists Alex Shigo to describe wound reactions in the wood of trees. In the 1990s there was a further development of the concept by replacing the term decay by Damage. This takes into account that a tree already responded to the violation of the pathways and the penetration of oxygen and not only on wood -degrading fungi.

Description

Different than in humans and animals is not repelled into trees damaged tissue and replace but sealed off and abandoned. The focus is on the protection of the control and storage tissue. These are Tüpfelverschluss, Verthyllung and storage of chemical substances different effective " walls " made ​​in wood fabric:

• Zone 1: Isolation of vascular tissue in the axial direction
• Zone 2: foreclosure in the tangential direction, the direction along the ordinary affairs Rays
• Zone 3: foreclosure in the radial direction, right and left of the rot along the medullary rays
• Zone 4: foreclosure tangentially outwards. This is all the walls the most effective and also " Barrier Zone" ( barrier zone) is called. It protects the re-growing, young tissue against penetration of pathogenic fungi ( white rot, brown rot ). Open wounds on the trunk or branches closes a tree from the sides with a Wundkallus.

The CODIT model has had a decisive influence on the practice of tree care. It led to a change in the cutting techniques and the task of tree surgery. While it was formerly believed that a milling out the damaged wood would accelerate the healing process, could be detected by Shigo and others, thereby affecting the foreclosure zones of the tree to be broken and such treatment of wound healing rather counteracts. Also, the caps of trees was subsequently rejected as improper form of tree care.

Weblink

• Tree Decay, An Expanded Concept