Hidden Nature

Fig. 15.4. Horizontal section
through trunk.
This shows how the growth rings act as charge
separators or dielectric layers.

Temperature gradients in the tree

Temperature gradients are important in tree metabolism. The areas

of active growth in the outer trunk and in the branches need heat

energy to sustain the formative elements in a productive, ionized

and fluid state for the processes of combination and re-combination

to take place.

During the daytime, a positive temperature gradient is active

from the outside inwards, the cooler, more internal sap rising faster,

transporting the finest nutrients up to the top of the tree. They are

taken to the foliage, for the small green shoots, flowers and repro-

ductive elements required for the highest quality growth. Viktor

Schauberger's measurements showed that this upward flow could

be as fast as 3m (10ft) per hour, or 50mm (2ins.) per minute. The

lower quality, coarser nutrients present in the outermost layers of

the cambium ring (just inside the bark), needed for building the

structure of the tree, are raised only as far as their fineness permits,

the coarser being deposited in the trunk, the finer later in the

branches. The effectiveness of this process depends on a negative

temperature gradient being active from the outside inwards (cooler

HIDDEN NATURE