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Re: [APD] grape vine



Due to various grades of grape wood sold in the pet trade,there
is some issues with a generalization. The rock hard sandblasted
aged wood is excellent. The hairy, softer light weigh stuff is
not useful. Stay away from that. 

You will need to soak grape wood. The darker parts in older
pieces is very durable, while the lighter color parts will get
furry initially, this will go away after a few days/weeks. 
Most wood goes through this process. 

A good soaking, boiling etc helps. 
You should not be able to push your finger nail into the wood,
like hardwood(oak etc). 

Small branches are often sold for reptiles, these can be used,
but....manazanita is more suitable. again, these often are semi
green pieces of wood, that is the main issue, they need aged.

When I collect wood, I make sure it's well aged. 
The fungi that grow on wood are fairly benign underwater. 
This is the main issue, rather than the chemicals in the wood
itself. The fungi release various compounds and release a number
of compounds from the wood. But most of the tannins, phenloics
etc that wood contains, are often found in water.
Same with the fungi.

Think about that for awhile.

The main issue for any wood related issues is aging and amount
of color released. Obviously, old aged wood will have less,
certain species have less tannins also. 

I live where we have more grapes than we can stand(about 45 min
from Napa, CA). Some of the nice sandblasted older vines are
nothing short of beautiful.

Still, for most folks wood usage, manazanita is more suitable
and has very little effect and the curing process is rapid.
The smaller branches and curvy nature makes for good mossy
branch displays without taking up large amountrs of real estate
in the tank nor blocks the light much for the plants below.

For large displays, southern swamp cedar and redwood are ideal
as they have nice branchy pinwheel root balls.

Folks that have come to the Plant Fest have seen these.
If folks come to CA, I can show them numeroud redwood
stump/roots along Alpine lake. You cannot collect the wood
there, but it's a nice drive/cool place and close to SF. Further
north, there are several wood vendors. 

Oak is excellent wood, especially if it's old field oak in dry
regions. Live oak that has been rotted good with only the heart
wood remaining is great. Fungi cannot eck out well with heart
woods of many trees so the rot is very slow. 
Fungi also don't/can't live on lignin alone, they degrade it to
get at the goodies locked in between. 

Redwood heartwood is extremely antifungal, but we have cut down
most of the larger trees, and the out sap wood is not nearly as
resistent. 

The roots are even more antifungal than the sap/heart wood.
So they last a long time underwater.

I've had some oak that's 20 years old. But all wood rots slowly.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com




















  

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