hackberry question

[Wes Ramsey]

Just last night I finally got around to turning a chunk of hackberry I cut this spring. I left it sitting on the ground hoping for some spalting, but it didn't really do much on that front, but it did have some beautiful purples and greens running through the wood. Do these colors appear naturally in hackberry or did they come from sitting on the ground?

[Bob Bouis]

My experience with sugarberry (at least I'm 99% sure it was sugarberry) is that it turned gray/blue from fungus really, really fast.

But I never saw any greens or purples. Are you sure about the ID?

[Wes Ramsey]

Positive. Never seen these colors in hackberry either, but I haven't used it much.

[Art Mann]

I think the coloring you are seeing is spalting - just not what you were expecting to see. In either case, the odds are it was produced by an actively growing fungus.

[Michael Mills]

Could well be spalting... greens, purples, reds,... lots of colors.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/spalting/

[John K Jordan]

Is it mostly down the center of a large tree? I've seen amazing intertwined figure there. Maybe a photo?

I wonder if it could be from minerals where it grew. I cut some dogwood last year that had some very unusual streaks of pinks and browns, the only one like that in dozens. I suspected something different in the soil.

JKJ

[David Dobbs]

I have seen lots of different colors in Hackberry when milling it.

[Thomas Canfield]

I would guess spalting. I have turned some green Hackberry thick and packed in plastic bag with shavings. Turning the bag inside out every 2 or 3 days until moisture on inside bag stops resulted in both drying and getting spalt to develop on the wood. Sure added to otherwise bland grain.