? Honey Fungus on Ornamental Cherry

[jamez654]

Hi,

 

A couple of weeks ago mushrooms appeared growing from the trunk near the base of a cherry tree in the garden. This appeared to be similar in appearance to online photos of Armillaria species. Unfortunately by the time I got around to taking a photo they had started to rot but I've attached one anyway. The tree is not dead though it does have some decay from pruning wounds where it has been hacked at in the past. We have lived in the house for 10 years and have not seen evidence of Honey Fungus in the garden before.

 

I don't like the tree anyway as it has a poor shape and is not in a good location in the garden so I'm keen to fell it. However it is close to part of a  75m length of Hornbeam hedge I planted 3 years ago which I don't want to loose.

 

I am considering felling the tree and removing as much stump and root as possible with a mini digger. Filling the hole with soil and grass seeding over. I would then dispose of the stump which I presume would be full of the fungus, chop as much of the tree up for firewood as possible and chip the remainder on site.

 

Is this the best approach to minimise the spread. Could I use the chip to mulch the hedge or would this increase the risk of spreading the fungus?

 

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

James

[Dan Maynard]

Honey fungus that I've seen has been in much larger groups than that. Did you see the fungus stem (has a proper name I don't remember) - did it have the characteristic ring?

 

If you want to cut it then no harm, personally I wouldn't go overboard digging. Mulch the hornbeam, make sure it doesn't suffer drought stress 

[john87]

44 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

Honey fungus that I've seen has been in much larger groups than that. Did you see the fungus stem (has a proper name I don't remember) - did it have the characteristic ring?

 

If you want to cut it then no harm, personally I wouldn't go overboard digging. Mulch the hornbeam, make sure it doesn't suffer drought stress 

Like this..

[jamez654]

Thanks for the comments. I'm afraid I didn't notice whether the mushrooms had the characteristic ring or not but they definately were not in large groups like the photos above and I don't see the black bootlaces under the bark either.

 

Here are couple of photos of the tree if that helps at all.

[Dan Maynard]

I still don't think it's honey fungus. The odd fruiting body can be from anything, remember fungal spores are everywhere.

 

Cherry roots tend to be huge, if you're determined to dig it's going to be a big job. I'd consider getting someone in to grind it, unless you have the digger anyway it's probably cheaper than a days hire.

[jamez654]

Thanks Dan. I'm more open to grinding it if it isn't honey fungus. There is poor access for any large machinery which may limit the enthusiasm of someone to quote stump griding. There is a pedestrian gate to negotiate which is just under 1m wide. I've had a digger through the gate before, we just squeezed a 1.5T machine through but its tricky as the ground slopes accross the gateway. The tree is then approx 40m up a relatively steep slope so anything which isn't self proppelled requires lots of manpower or a winch to get to it. I intend to winch a Timberwolf 13/75 up the slope to chip the branches directly onto the adjacent hedge.

[Dan Maynard]

I would say 1m is plenty wide enough for a smaller tracked grinders or self propelled wheel one, most are only about 0.75m with the aim of fitting garden gates.

 

I've a small amount of experience with a TW13/75, to be fair it was hired (and blunt) but we gave up using it on a couple of jobs. On lime it grabbed too much in and blocked itself, on Scots pine the inlet chute is such a narrow square it was too difficult to get material down to the blades.

 

Cherry is a pain to chip at the best of times because the branches stick out at right angles, if it was me I'd be looking for another answer. Maybe stack it all and have a bonfire next spring when it's dried out a bit? Or hire a CS100 from somewhere if you can, the aperture being 300mm wide makes a huge difference to how easy it is to get forks in.