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"Ceder" root
At 03:48 PM 6/30/98 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Neil,
> I can only offer what my grandmother told me about cedar. If you put cedar
>chips in an oak chest that has become infested with wool moth larvae, it will
>kill the little caterpillars. Also, if you use it to smoke meats, it will
>make the meat toxic.
The stuff used to line ceder chests and make the little thingies you
put in drawers for the Ceder smell is nor grown in North America.
They are "true" Ceders of the genus Cedrus, than grow in Lebanon
(and now in other parts of the world, such as Jamaica). The
stuff is called "Aromatic ceder", and not all true ceders will
have this purplish heart to it, yo uhave to cut a tree open
and it might have it. About 1 in 10 does, and nobody knows
why.
The stuff is an oil. Like teak and mahogony, these woods have enough
oil that that can be used outdoors and won't rot like, say, pine
will.
I suppose an oil, impregnated in wood fibres, is not going to
go anywhere really quickly; obviously this isn't the stuff
that makes the water tea colored.
> Richard, can you define this seasoning process that you use?
Stuff natuarally seasoned doesnt need it. If I recall, the passage
I saw said to just leave it in the sun for a year; expose it to the
elements. I've used freshly dug up root after sticking it in
a bucket of bleach for a couple of months. It still got fuzzy,
but I'd scrape it off when I didn't lke it - usually every 4 months
or so.
After a couple of years it stops doing it.
Some killifish (such as Nothobranchius rachovii) are so sensitive
to nasties in the water that they're used in research. The only
fish I've ever killed with chloramine poisining was an Aphyosemion
bivittatum. I've kept these fish in tanks with ceder root for
a very long time, along with many other killies, so I don't
think it's a problem.
All in all I'd saythe best place to get it is a "ceder" swamp.
Cut a chuck of root of a dead stump. If you do that you avoid
the fuzzies.
--
Richard J. Sexton
richard at aquaria_net
Bannockburn, Ontario, Canada +1 (613) 473 1719