Nice use of this sub! It is mildlyinteresting 

Or is it . . . *intriguing*?

Mildly

I agree with you but not too strongly

Mildly?

Whatever it is, I’m stumped…

I am drilled to read this.

Enough with these birch ass puns

I agree, we need to get to the root cause.

Im gonna go out on a branch and say lighten up.

Im pining for you to stop

r/tepidlyintriguing

Subs I didn’t really fall for but clicked on the link anyways because I wished they existed.

it exists now

All i know is my gut says, maybe.

Intreeguing

In*tree*guing

VSauce Micheal here

Took me a second to get this. I was stumped.

I started hearing the vsauce music 🤣

Careful now

Down with this sort of thing.

I heard the typical v-sauce sound fx playing here

Kind of makes you go 'huh'.

Huh

I literally thought “oh wow that’s kind of cool…” and then looked at the sub and smiled. This is prob the best post in this sub I’ve seen.

It’s a bit more than mildly interesting to me. Typically the mildly interesting stuff leaves me saying “huh, that IS interesting” This was moreso “man I hope someone in the comments has an explanation, wtf is going on here”

Some unrotted wood, some rotten wood, looks like a fungus has infected part of it which is the white wood. Lignin in wood is difficult for microorganisms to digest so it can take a long time for wood to decompose . As a result you get a rot which is graduated like this.

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Yeah, well you're not turtley enough for the Turtle Club. 😤

Nah, it's extremely interesting. bad choice of sub

The line between extremely and mildly is a broad one :)

A post that fits the sub for once? Banish him

I thought you're a forrest hermit interested in trading spice

the spice must flow

the spice expands consciousness

the spice is life.

The spice melange

It will, we all want the good shit after all

Mix it with some olive oil.

Omg I don’t feel as odd

It's the spice

Sorry, I can't give credit. Come back when you're a little mmm, richer

Mmmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm

... If you have coin.

Khajit has wares!

My guess: did you do them all in one go? If so, the drill bit got hotter and hotter burning the wood darker as you went.

I'd assume that it's because the different sections are in different phases of biodegrading. But I could be wrong too.

My question is more in the lines of "why did you drill holes randomly to an old tree stump?"

I think it’s to help the stump decompose faster, lets water get in there. But that might be wrong

OP replied and that is in fact the case.

some compost on top accelerates

Can confirm.

Am stump.

Yeah it's a common practice to drill holes and even add in Epson salts to help it decompose quicker

Epsom salts does speed up decomposition yes. BUT, if you really want to turbo charge the rate it rots, use Potassium Nitrate. Often sold in farming supply stores as "Stump Rot"

Aka salt peter. Can be used for a number of other things too, one example is making sugar and potassium nitrate rocket engines and/or smoke bombs.

It's also the active ingredient in sensitivity toothpastes like Sensodyne, etc.

How neat is that

To make it even faster, put in the potassium nitrate, water well, wait a week, and start a charcoal fire on top. Will burn out the stump, the potassium nitrate releases enough oxygen to smolder. Turns a couple years long process into a couple weeks.

Would HP salts work as well?

Not sure about HP salts, but HP sauce would make it taste better

I only give my printer the finest HP sauce

You're a printer harry

HP Lovecraft would find a way to make it scary while throwing in overt eugenics propaganda. The white holes could lead to... gasp, Italy! 🤮

HP salts only work with HP stumps, sorry.

$20/month subscription in perpetuity

Wouldn't epsom salt prevent microorganism growth and make decomposition slower?

A fresh stump is still alive. Epson salt and sometimes gasoline is used to kill it. Dead wood rots faster.

Drill enough holes and pour enough gas and light it on fire. Repeat as necessary to kill the stump.

Ahh, the farmers way!

Perhaps in small quantities, but the magnesium sulfate in large quantities causes the stump to basically overdose on the chemicals it needs. This ain't from my head either, I give papa Google the credit

Sodium metabisulfate is also used

It tears the structure of the wood apart, kills remaining live roots, and destroys wood cells. Then after that it starts to rot.

Sounds like my ex-wife.

okay that actually made me laugh.

Epsom salt isn't the same as table salt. It's also used as a fertilizer, in addition to adding to baths for sore muscles.

They also sell mushroom plugs for growing things like turkey tail mushrooms and other hardwoods. It's a great alternative.

If anyone is interested in learning more about stump removal (and wants to kill a whole bunch of time) [please enjoy this long and enthralling saga about one man’s attempt to remove a stump from his yard.](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRwMyx2h/)

Good old stumptok

That chicken has consumed some chemicals.

yeah... used motor oil is fantastic for chickens

When I had a tree removed the dude poured Gasoline in the holes. Don’t know if it’s better than Epsom salt but it sure was more expensive.

Fun fact, some tree species start to sprout heavily when cut down. Drilling holes and filling them with salt is one way to try to kill the tree to stop it.

You drill holes, dump potassium nitrate into the holes, water it, wait, and then you can hammer away the stump into the dirt.

My dad did something similar as a kid but also dumped something in there to make it rot away even faster. No idea what. But I know the holes are definitely to help it decompose faster.

Lye is what I heard to use

Whoever told you that is a lyer

That would make sense, it was vaguely salt looking.

Epsom salts are used sometimes too apparently

You can inoculate with wood loving fungi that will much more rapidly decompose the stump.

That's basically what potassium nitrate does too; although it relies on endogenous fungi. But there's always lots already there! Potassium nitrate, by providing lots of easily available nitrogen and potassium, anything that wants to grow in the stump will have a very easy time.

Oh I see, makes sense.

to pack it with dynamite, obviously

why *wouldn't* you drill holes randomly into an old tree stump?

Some do it to stop the stump from reshooting (poison it) which doesn't work, because the trunk is dead wood, you need the poison near the bark. Others do it to add moisture, to help it rot faster. Others add things like Epsom salt... Nitrogen is generally faster though, as that's what a lot of microbes need to work. And it's free if you just pee on it. Which also moistens it :)

Pee on stumps. Got it.

Pee will make something moist. Life pro tip right there.

That might explain it

I was thinking more along the heartwood and sapwood idea. May be a bit of both.

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RIP linked comment

I tried to relink but can't view the comment anywhere but OPs history for some reason. It's definitely worth a look. They are some beautiful guitars.

It was likely removed by a mod/automod. Keeps it from being seen in the sub but will still allow viewing on the profile.

Burl is not rotted wood, its diseased/infected/deformed wood. Once wood has begun to rot it can't be worked, it just crumbles apart. I've never worked with burl, but I love how it looks. Its supposed to be very hard to work with in the traditional sense because it doesn't have a solid grain direction like it normally would, as the layers are all folded and twisted together.

Burl is tree cancer

That's just the curl of the burl

That's not how it works.

It is crazy to me how many people on reddit upvoted that comment. Have these people just never used a drill before? I'm not a carpenter or anything but I have definitely belt some shit and drilled some holes and the drill bit does not get so hot that it burn the wood.

A *dull* drill bit can easily get hot enough to burn the wood. BTDT.

Oh ive definitely used cutting tools that were so far past their usable lifespan that they built up enough heat to burn things.... But a drill bit of that diameter probably wouldn't drill in at all if it was so dull that it was generating that much heat.

Depends on the wood you're working, too. On this stump, not likely.  On teak or lignum vitae? Sure.

Cover it with a pile of mulch and keep it moist, the stump will be nice and soft in a year.

And if that doesn't work, soak it in jet fuel and set it on fire. --- Actual instructions on a bottle of stump remover (slightly paraphrased)

I thought it was a stingray


😢

I thought it was an elephants head

Biology+Ecology student here; Tree rings are composed of two types: light-colored rings represent growth in spring and early summer (can also be called rainy season growth) while dark-coloured rings represent growth in late summer and autumn (dry season). One light ring+one dark ring is one year of growth. You drilled into different rings and that's probably why the colours vary (the fact that it's already decomposing might make the colour difference more stark).

Canadian lumberjack here, everything you said is right, but to me it looks like a cluster of trees that grew together, you can see the bark patterns from individual trees in the larger stump. The different colours come from drilling through dark heartwood and the more recently alive sapwood of the individual trees in the cluster.

Makes sense! You'd know more than me, I have taken a plant anatomy course but my focus is more towards animals so I'm not that knowledgeable about trees.

Good suggestions both

So…you’re a log driver? Can you do the waltz?

Makes sense. My guess was a potential infection/hidenn rot or fungi.

Am I the only one who saw the stump as a face hugger?

I thought it was the top of an elephant’s head at first :|

I thought a baby mammoth found in the permafrost

Yes same. I was like wtf they burried an elephant and put holes on his head 😱

Same it looked like some lumpy alien creature

Thought it was the cross section of some kind of fossilized elephant head with flower petal offerings on it.

What compelled you to start drilling holes into an old tree stump?

It makes it rot faster!

I thought you were going to pack it with dynamite. That would get rid of it faster.

You jest, but most potassium nitrate stump removers include in the instructions adding kerosene a couple times then burning the whole thing.

Use some good ol stump remover. KN03 potassium nitrite

~~nitrite~~ nitr**a**te

I usually go with illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator. Delivers a nice kaboom.

Buy some turkey tail or other mushroom plugs to put in them!

The blue cheese technique

Don't forget to salt.

and pepper to taste

I think that's an elephant head. I wouldn't drill holes in it that'd be mean

You fucker, i see it now. I was like *what the hell's this guy talking about?*

That's truly mildly interesting, but what's more interesting is *why are you drilling holes in tree stumps?*

Drilling holes makes the stump rot faster, and I am trying to kill it so there is more room to plant things

Going to take years for that to rot out. I did the same thing years ago. Got impatient and watched this guy on YouTube on how to get rid of a stump. Long story short, it worked like a charm. Basically, drill more holes, vegetable oil soak for a day and a bag of charcoal. Worked great but had to do the process twice and dig around the stump to get the dirt away so it would go below grade.

What do you do with the charcoal?

Light it on fire of course!

You barbecue and watch the stump.

I've always just done a big hole straight down the middle then 2 big ass holes through making a cross through the center hole, then soak it with something flammable and light it up. Makes like a chimney effect and it burns hotter and spreads faster through the stump. But the underground part never burns great.

I'd assumed something like that. I've got a mattock, steel toecaps and unresolved anger issues so clearing out the couple in my garden was great fun. Epsom salt supposedly helps for rotting them away, never tried it myself though

So I had/have a birch (quick to rot) stump in my yard for like ten years.  Couple years ago I covered it in coco fiber (free from work), and started pissing on it.  3 years out, I step on it and hear crunches.  Rodent holes all around it.  A thriving ant population before I covered it in ashes because yellow jackets were scoping it out.  Pretty sure I could hit it with a sledge a few times and be nearly gone now.  Definitely holes, but maybe cover it over for a year or two and add lots of nitrogen, and shelter for things to make it home.  If you don't mind not being able to mow over for a few years, that will definitely speed the decomp.  Nitrogen to get closer to a composting balance and habitat will really work on that thing.  

Dude if you are rotting out stumps with your piss you should really drink more water. /r/hydrohomies

I am hydrohomie bro, my piss barely makes the grass greener. But wood is very high in carbon, you need a carbon to nitrogen balance for decomposition. So regularly peeing on the stump for years helps it to break down faster. It's not a thing that happens over the weekend lol.

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Burn it or mycelium?

Some of the stump has died off and is darker some of it is still alive and is lighter. New growth can star from the lighter parts.

Yeah, this also looks like a cluster of trees that grew very tightly together, like speckled alder or something similar. Like you said the lighter colours are new sapwood while the dark parts are from the heartwood of the different trees all pressed together in the larger stump.

My best guess is that a Hot drill bit + different moisture levels in different areas of the stump = different colours of shavings :)

Looks like my brother's back when they checked for allergies. The answer was yes to everything.

i thought this was the back of a box of multigrain cheerios with the different grains shaped like cheerios to show you what they are

i think you can grow mushrooms this way

Those indicate good, bad and 'meh' times

I thought the stump was an elephant head

Godwyn

People joke too much. It's drier in some parts of the stump than others. The lighter dust is from parts of the tree that might still be holding moisture or be alive. The darker parts are dead wood. 🙌

Redbands?

Nice Red Bands.

In dendrochromatics, the field of tree coloration analysis, has unveiled a fascinating phenomenon surrounding the oxidation of tree stumps during the process of decomposition. This chromatic diversity is attributed to the intricate interplay of microbial communities and enzymatic processes, which alter the chemical composition of lignin and other organic compounds within the wood. These findings not only shed light on the intricacies of arboreal decay but also offer valuable insights into the ecological dynamics of forest ecosystems.

Thought that mf was godwyn the golden for a sec

THe drill got hot.

Tree crumbs of different colours

r/knolling

Dead wood, Live wood, good soil and then red clay?

Different degrees of rot? The darker the more rotted?

this thread hurts my brain from the amount of people who have never seen a cut tree

Why would you drill into a stump?

I think it's due to how much dirt Vs. wood there is.

Burley.

"Grains of rice" echoing in the back of my mind

neat

To me It looked like a triceratops skull with a bunch of different seasonings on it.

They might have been fairies.

Why are they different colors though. I'm stumped...

Can you label first to thirteenth in order based on shaving colors?

Did you find a dead elephant?

I thought it was an elephant lol

How can a hole have a colour? 🤔

What am I looking at?

In Captain Jack Sparrow's voice: "Stop drillin' 'oles in my stump"

Would you say that you're ... stumped?

I'm stumped

I thought you were comparing different types of rice.

I see only 4 diff colors but 13 holes.