simplifying ..... the entire tree lives thru the cambian layer.. the green just under the bark ... water up.. sunshine converted to food down.. and stored in the roots ..

interior wood.. is basically dead lumber ... its only use.. is to hold up the tree ... structure ...

your interior is rotting .. and bug infested ... its dying in tree time.. which could mean.. decades ..

i dont get the first pic.. is that the entire top.. just a lollipop??

if this were a huge tree.. hanging over a house or some such.. i would suggest getting rid of it ... but it doesnt seem such..

looks like we got rid of the duplicate posts.. refresh your browser after posting.. if you dont see it immediately ....

ken

It's interesting to know that the cambium layer is such a thin layer in the trunk of a relatively big tree...do you think it became hollow as a result of a gradual rotting over time? Or the rotting occured later in time and the original 'hollowness' has a different, independent cause?

And the first pic shows the entire tree from the side where its trunk is not hollowed. And yeah the tree has a sort of lollipop shape.

Btw, I just realised that I mentioned it being a lemon tree, where in fact it is an orange tree.

Thanks a lot for your responses!

It will have no problem surviving, unless you get a nice storm which would snap it in half.

As long as there is not missing bark all around the tree it can live

If you would like to repair the old tree, you can plant a lemon seedling right next to the hollow side and graft it in to the old tree when it is big enough. Lemon will graft to orange and the roots go very deep for water, so drought is less of a problem. You keep pruning the seedling so that it grows tall but not too bushy, and when it is tall enough to reach the top of the hollow part, where there is good bark, you approach graft it in. Over time, the seedling grows and the trunk gets replaced by the seedling. You can leave a few branches on the seedling till it gets a good, multiyear union growing. I can draw you a picture of how to do this if it interests you.

jocelynpei - I am not the OP, but if you had time and interest, I would love to see how that can be done.

Ok, first you need a compatible seedling, so lemon or orange for an orange tree, apple for an apple. The seedling needs to be planted right next to the old tree, and on the side with the hollow. Keep the seedling well watered and mulched so it will grow fast. Prune off lower branches a little, but do not remove all of them as you want fast growth on the seedling. When it is high enough to reach the top of the hollow part of the old tree, you cut the top off it and graft it into the live part of the old tree. The seedling gets thicker over time, and eventually becomes a second trunk. I'll draw it for you later, cooking supper now.

pictures now

second picture

@jocelynpei I cannot thank you enough for the effort and time you've put into this! Never thought it could somehow be 'repaired' as such, sounds really interesting!

I'll definitely discuss this with the family.

Thanks again to you and to all the others who replied.

Absolutely amazing; thank you for sharing. I had no idea something like this was possible.

Yes, it works. The tree does not look normal after, like an unmended tree, but it can live a long time more. Some folks will also graft a few twigs from the old tree into the ends of the branches of the seedling, in case it breaks at the graft in a storm. After 20 years or so, that is less likely.

Good luck with your tree :)

Many great comments here-I would only add that many folks would be surprised to learn that a great many of the big, old trees they see every day are in fact hollow, or partially so. If one reads up on A. Shigo's C.O.D.I.T.....compartmentalization of decay in trees, it would quickly become apparent that wall one in this model is the weakest and most easily breached by decay fungi. Hence, hollow trees.

I just want to add to wisconsitoms post above about hollow trees, there are many 1,000 plus year old English oaks in the U.K. and had small pubs inside them, imagine that! They still had a crown of leaves above, I think it's Windsor forest that has many "old dodders" that are hollow and still have maybe not so full crowns, but they are still going.

Wow poaky-I'd have to take up my old hobby-drinking-if such a pub existed near home!

Tom and everyone, I would love to see some of those "old dodders" in person. When I went to the Uk in 2001, I was just getting interested in trees. We went to Windsor castle, but, I never knew about all the 1,000 year old oaks on the grounds. Well, they likely don't just let people go walking around on the property. I would've loved to see those pub trees also. The closest I came to that was having a beer in a Irish pub in Dublin. I wish I could go back to the UK again. I want to see Sherwood Forest, and many trees I've seen in books. I did get a pic of a Q. Ilex at Cardiff castle. I am happy that I have 2 English oaks because they will get humongous in time. I'll likely never see it, but, us americans have a way of getting rid of trees before they get super large, unless they are tree lovers. Maybe I'll haunt my property, and stop future owners from topping and chopping down my English oaks, they are not too close to the house. Yes, I've had a few drinks! Later folks.

I've never seen a pub inside a tree, but...

shax, Is that an oak, or some Australian warm climate tree? It is impressive. You could use one of those near the "pub tree" no doubt.

Okay, I see you are zone 9b, likely a tropical tree anyways.

No, I borrowed the pic from the 'net. Allegedly a baobab (presumably Adansonia digitata) in Zambia...

Shax, Oh, Okay, so those are the trees that grow in Africa and hold lots of water in their trunks, the trunks swell alot when there's lottsa water in them. people tap the trees for water sometimes. The tree is in one of my books. But shax, if your area is Frog rock, Australia 9b, that is tropical to me. I am in Pa USA zone 6, we have gotten -11F in the winter before last, so you are surely tropical to me! We had a MILD winter last winter (2015-2016) we only went down to 3F! I bet you can grow the "Antarctic Beech" the tree with (one of them) the tall roots, they are Prop roots, like the ( I think) Ceiba, or tree of life in guatemala. If i am wrong sorry, but, if i recall correctly, the Ceiba is alot like the Antarctic beech.

Nah, we're not tropical where I live, although in the north we have our own tropical Baobab gregorii (which we call boabs). Winters at my place get to -5c (23F) with heavy frosts, so anything tender dies. And summers of 40C+ (104F) for weeks on end, with no rain, so I can't keep the water up to those plants that need it.

I've planted many trees here (mainly Eucs, Banksias, Grevilleas, Acacias) that have survived only thanks to my recycled dish-washing and shower water...

Sadly, too hot and dry here for the beautiful Lophozonia moorei.

Thanks for elaborating. I really did think of zone 9b as tropical. 23F is quite a bit below freezing, when you consider tropical plants, they are usually damaged by much below 57F or 60F. You likely can grow lots of stuff that would grow in middle Florida (hardy tropicals) with your mentioned what we here call "grey water", basically all used water besides the human waste, to put it kindly. The continental US only hits the "tropical" conditions in the Florida Keys. My Bff stayed there for about 9 months on Big pine key, I got to visit for a week. It was beautiful, but, I missed my areas trees, even though they were bare at the time. The trees you mentioned above, I only recognize the Eucalyptus and Acacias by name. My area is too cold in winter for them, but, I think in California they had grown Eucalyptus trees, and Acacias makes me think of the African sahvana on Tv nature shows. But, California has lots of wildfires now, so I guess many of their trees are goners, like they didn't have enough problems, some nut was starting more fires where there weren't any. I just got your reference that in the north you have the tropical Boab, I nearly forgot your north is warmer, and it's OUR south that is warmer. If it's the same one I had seen, they store lots of water in their trunks from the Monsoon season (where they have a monsoon) not sure if you have a monsoon. And then people tap the trees for water when it's dry, and I think they remove the bark in thin strips and make ropes out of them and other stuff. In Africa that is... I do know Shax there are many "common names" for trees/plants and from continent, country etc. that common name is a completely different plant depending on where you go. I do think that the Acacias and Boab are the same trees, but not sure if the Boabs get so swollen with water in Australia as in Africas Monsoon season, etc. Later