Pollard a willow in decline to rejuvenate it.

[Mick Dempsey]

1 hour ago, HarryPNE said:

Also!

...and this is coming from my relative layman level of knowledge...

Could chip at the base not create a perfect breeding ground/habitat for damaging insects, fungi or pathogens?

...just a thought.

Good question, come up before and never satisfactorily answered.

[Gary Prentice]

1 hour ago, HarryPNE said:

Also!

...and this is coming from my relative layman level of knowledge...

Could chip at the base not create a perfect breeding ground/habitat for damaging insects, fungi or pathogens?

...just a thought.

The only literature that I've ever read or lecturers that I've listened to have been positive. I wouldn't dispute that a breeding ground/habitat might be created but whether this is beneficial for harmful organisms is, in my opinion, unlikely. 

 

Go into an old woodland and start rooting about amongst the lead litter and organic debris, try to find something that is truly harmful to the trees (Apart from Heterobasidion annosum on conifer stumps). If the fungal decomposers were harmful to living trees, generally they'd be no woodland, the same with the microfauna. 

 

There's a lot of literature about hygiene in gardens, cleaning up and burning/removing fallen leaves - in some circumstances that may be necessary to prevent fungal spores re-colonizing the following year (tar spot on maples, ash die-back, horse-chestnut leaf miner and leaf blotch), but realistically most of these pathogens are so endemic unless everyone is doing the same it's unlikely to have any significant impact.

 

Honey fungus is probably one of the main concerns, but even that is pretty widespread anyway and only really becomes problematic when it finds a tree that is stressed due to some other problem. I don't think I'd personally not mulch because of a possible chance of giving HF the upperhand.

 

Have a look at Glyn Percivals papers on mulching. The sugars in cherry and hawthorn are meant to encourage mycorrhizal fungi, some other tree has antibiotic properties that are thought to reduce some diseases, can't remember which but might be hawthorn or willow. There's just so much literature available, but it's all very focused on each particular benefit so takes a bit of searching. But generally you won't go wrong using whatever you can get that is well composted.

  

[Gary Prentice]

25 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Good question, come up before and never satisfactorily answered.

It's trees Mick, there's never a 100% satisfactory answer to more or less any question. There's three threads running on identification that no-one can agree on, so what's the likelihood of agreement on something as complex as mulching and the effect on pathogens, soil bulk density, mycorrhiza, moisture retention and moisture percolation etc etc etc.

[Mick Dempsey]

2 minutes ago, Gary Prentice said:

It's trees Mick, there's never a 100% satisfactory answer to more or less any question. There's three threads running on identification that no-one can agree on, so what's the likelihood of agreement on something as complex as mulching and the effect on pathogens, soil bulk density, mycorrhiza, moisture retention and moisture percolation etc etc etc.

Apples and oranges Gary.

 

 

 

If I chipped up a dead or dying willow with Honey fungus and it found its way into a mulch pile at the bottom of this tree for example, could the HF colonise the patient so to speak?

Seems a fair question.

[Gary Prentice]

12 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

If I chipped up a dead or dying willow with Honey fungus and it found its way into a mulch pile at the bottom of this tree for example, could the HF colonise the patient so to speak?

Seems a fair question.

Possibly Mick 

But seeing as Honey Fungus is pretty endemic anyway, would the cause actually be the woodchip or spores in the air or rhizomorphs already present in the soil? 

 

[openspaceman]

6 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

Possibly Mick 

But seeing as Honey Fungus is pretty endemic anyway, would the cause actually be the woodchip or spores in the air or rhizomorphs already present in the soil? 

 

Robert Strouts came out to us to see why a few limes planted as an avenue were dying and decided it was honey fungus from infected chestnut tree stakes that were the cause, he used it as a example with picture in his book.

 

Similarly the curator at RFS Wisley would not allow stump grinding and had stumps excavated and burned as he was worried about  fungal attack.

 

He was less worried about using leaf mould from road sweeping until the simazine started killing stuff ?

[Gary Prentice]

The Limes being transplanted/stressed etc, it would make sense that HF could colonise them, hence my comment about trees at a low ebb. 

 

I kind of think that stump-grinding would be easier for fungi to colonise than leaving the stump intact to be honest, but saying that I can't recall seeing HF fruiting where stumps have been ground. Furthermore, I can't recall seeing HF on wood-chip piles or on mulch either. (Not that the absence of FFBs is conclusive anyway) Could the saprophytic fungi that you more commonly see be antagonistic to HF? 

 

This article mentions stump removal where the stump is the disease centre, couple with root raking to remove larger roots. Whether that means that there is a lower/negligible risk from smaller organic remains, small diameter roots or wood-chip is unanswered.

http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/lessons/fungi/Basidiomycetes/Pages/Armillaria.aspx

 

In conclusion, I wouldn't advocate using wood-chippings from obviously infected trees (armillaria, K.d) but generally I'd think that there is a very low risk of introducing something harmful. I still think that the positives outweigh the negatives.