Wood losses occur as a result of its decomposition in places of various wounds: not cared for or improperly cared for. The most common place of rapidly progressing decomposition of wood are untreated wounds after faulty cutting of branches, exposed with their surface to rainwater. The defect of the cut consists in making it in a plane that is too far from the trunk. In such a wound, the healing tissue grows slowly and unevenly, often without entering the cut plane at all.
The surface of the wood, not protected against infection and rainwater, decomposes. Very often, the small opening of the resulting bulge does not increase in size, and the decay of wood takes on a deep character and proceeds very quickly. In such a place, relatively high humidity is permanently maintained, due to the large water capacity of the resulting humus.
It is possible to stop further decomposition of the wood in its early stage of decomposition, on condition that the place of the defect is exposed, remove decomposed wood, performing interior disinfection, drying and protecting against moisture by applying a tar coating to the wood surface.
Until recently, many similar places of wood defects in trees were filled with various materials, that is, sealed. This way, as many years of experience have shown, turned out completely: ineffective in inhibiting the decomposition of wood. Often, the placement of the seal increased the intensity of decomposition, because more humidity remained under the seal. The seals filling the interior of large cavities were assigned the role of mechanical reinforcements. There were also no successful results in this respect. The seals by no means made a permanent connection with the wood of the tree, they slipped, they were bursting. This is largely due to the poor physical properties of materials commonly used as fillers.