Advice requested - horse chestnut / R. ulmarius

[CarolineP]

Hello,

After many years of slow decline, our beautiful horse chestnut has died. We believe it was due to the fungus R. ulmarius (the bracket fungus was white on the outside and orange on the inside). We’re planning on having the dead tree removed and want to plant a replacement tree. My concern is this: could the fungus damage newly planted trees? We are currently thinking of planting either a silver birch or a hornbeam.

Any advice gratefully received as we are novice gardeners…

[Stubby]

3 hours ago, CarolineP said:

Hello,

After many years of slow decline, our beautiful horse chestnut has died. We believe it was due to the fungus R. ulmarius (the bracket fungus was white on the outside and orange on the inside). We’re planning on having the dead tree removed and want to plant a replacement tree. My concern is this: could the fungus damage newly planted trees? We are currently thinking of planting either a silver birch or a hornbeam.

Any advice gratefully received as we are novice gardeners…

Can't help much but I would prefer the Hornbeam .

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, CarolineP said:

Hello,

After many years of slow decline, our beautiful horse chestnut has died. We believe it was due to the fungus R. ulmarius (the bracket fungus was white on the outside and orange on the inside). We’re planning on having the dead tree removed and want to plant a replacement tree. My concern is this: could the fungus damage newly planted trees? We are currently thinking of planting either a silver birch or a hornbeam.

Any advice gratefully received as we are novice gardeners…

I've very little experience of it (only one poplar IIRC); it's a brown rot, so it has rotted out the cellulose and left the brown lignin and would normally cause structural failure before killing the tree, I wonder if another pathogen, like honey fungus is also involved.

 

Neither of the species you mention have been recorded as common hosts for R ulmarius, how close to the stump would the replacement be planted?

[CarolineP]

Thank you for your thoughts.
We don’t think it’s honey fungus but we’re no experts!
The replacement tree would (ideally) go in the hole that the chestnut is removed from.

[openspaceman]

7 minutes ago, CarolineP said:

Thank you for your thoughts.
We don’t think it’s honey fungus but we’re no experts!
The replacement tree would (ideally) go in the hole that the chestnut is removed from.

I would wait a year or two before replanting.

[daltontrees]

R. ulmarius is not actively pathogenic and tends to colonise exposed heartwood in wounded mature or maturing trees, so the chances of it affecting a young replacement are as good as zero. Also I have never seen or heard of it on hornbeam or birch. I'd say crack on with a replacement, just don't use horse chestnut, elm, maple (inc sycamore) or poplar.

Edited May 2, 2022 by daltontrees