Possible privet "Yard"-dori

Bpswieringa

Seedling
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Location
West Michigan
USDA Zone
6a
I have this stump from my yard. My desire is to get it into some inexpensive free flowing substrate and keep it alive. I'll go from there. My main concern is in the first picture we see a major split. Is there any thing I can do to prevent this wood from rotting out the whole tree?
 

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Did you pot the tree up? It'll die pretty quick not potted, privet and pretty hardcore but i'd worry about getting it potted before the split rotting.
 
Did you pot the tree up? It'll die pretty quick not potted, privet and pretty hardcore but i'd worry about getting it potted before the split rotting.
I dug it an hour ago. I plan on adding medium before the day is done.
 
Can't do much with privet. Their wood is very soft and rots quite quickly. I have seen stumps keeping up just by the live vein and doing quite fine
 
My main concern is in the first picture we see a major split. Is there any thing I can do to prevent this wood from rotting out the whole tree?
Don't worry about dead wood rotting the whole tree. All plants are able to 'compartmentalize' damage so that it doesn't spread too far.
You may be aware of very old trees that are completely hollow (search giant redwoods) but still quite healthy. The inside wood is just supporting structure. All growth happens in the outer layers so rotting centre wood is no problem to a tree.
Just pot it up and let it get re-established before starting to worry about what may or may not happen.

Can't do much with privet. Their wood is very soft and rots quite quickly.
My experience is a little different. Privet is a weed species down here and I've collected a number of specimens. Most now have jins and/or shari which appear to be holding up (with lime sulfur treatment) as well as most other species and way better than many.
 
Just get it planted up. Let it grow for a year and see what stays alive and where the dead parts end. Getting is nice and healthy is the start to keep as much as possible. Once established, do some rough work on the deadwood then let it decay for a year or two. CLean that up and look at conservation of what is left. It is not something to worry about right now and as @Shibui commented:

Don't worry about dead wood rotting the whole tree. All plants are able to 'compartmentalize' damage
As an example, look at this lilac and the deadwood parts, two pics, 4 years apart:
20170314_SM01-1.jpg20211127-R14A6077.jpg
 
Bit of inspiration for privets with deadwood.

Graham potter

Using glue on deadwood

In my experience with privet, wounds of that size down the trunk on privet will keep rotting until quite close to the live vein regardless of treatment, at least in wet and damp England. That is not a death sentence and I have seen plenty of giant privets making a feature of it.
 
Bit of inspiration for privets with deadwood.

Graham potter

Using glue on deadwood

In my experience with privet, wounds of that size down the trunk on privet will keep rotting until quite close to the live vein regardless of treatment, at least in wet and damp England. That is not a death sentence and I have seen plenty of giant privets making a feature of it.
Wow that's pretty cool!
 
Just get it planted up. Let it grow for a year and see what stays alive and where the dead parts end. Getting is nice and healthy is the start to keep as much as possible. Once established, do some rough work on the deadwood then let it decay for a year or two. CLean that up and look at conservation of what is left. It is not something to worry about right now and as @Shibui commented:


As an example, look at this lilac and the deadwood parts, two pics, 4 years apart:
View attachment 534127View attachment 534128
Sorry to derail, but wow. This is nice. Will it get flowers this year?
 
That’s a great stump, absolutely no worries on privet compartmentalising this, it’ll probably even bud out on the bits of the split trunk where it’s still live. On a side note, I don’t think it’s actually scientifically possible to kill a privet.
 
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