In article ,
wrote:


If the full circumference is stripped I fear you will lose the tree as
the sap won't be able to travel up to the leaves. In any event it is
likely that there will be no new growth above the stripped bark albeit
you may get some new growth at ground level. Cork trees seem to cope
well when their bark is stripped/harvested but they are an exception.

I've always wondered about that. Is the explanation that it's not
actually the bark itself that carries the sap up the tree but the very
thin layer just inside it (phloem????), and which is destroyed in most
trees when you remove the bark. But on a cork oak the bark is so thick
you can remove the bark without removing that layer? Or is the layer
also thicker on a cork oak?

I believe that cork is harvested from the outer layer of the bark but
the more likely reason for the tree's survival and bark regeneration is
that the bark is stripped in a spiral and so the stripping never
completes the fatal circle.