Silver fir is a Slovenian autochthonous species, which has a share of 7.5% in Slovenian forests according to the data of the Slovenia Forest Service for 2019. A moist core and strong tendency to cracking are two of the worst specific defects of fir, which significantly reduce the value of the wood and thus profitability of fir forests. Because of the high percentage of wood with a wet core, we investigated how the wet core affects resistance to decay fungi and to wetting of the wood. We found that the presence of wet heartwood in wood has no effect on resistance to fungi; in fact, fungal resistance improved slightly with wet heartwood in our tests. Wood with wet heartwood is slightly less permeable, so it was slightly less soaked in the tests with long-term and short-term wetting. Fir wood performed well compared to spruce wood in terms of resistance to decay fungi. Fir performed better on Gloeophyllum trabeum and Serpula lacrymans, while spruce performed better on Poria monticola and Trametes versicolor. We also calculated the resistance dose of wood according to the Meyer-Veltrup model and found that silver fir wood with a wet heartwood is equally or slightly more resistant than spruce wood, while silver fir wood without a wet heartwood is less resistant than spruce.
|
