laetiporus sulphureus

Was on my way home a couple of days ago and saw this on an Oak by the roadside. 5 fresh brackets of laetiporus sulphureus? The brackets range in size form quite large towards the top and somewhat pathetic at the base. Further inspection of the ground there was the remnants of the previous years brackets. There's 2 other mature Oaks on either side, one of which has wounds all over the place but is not showing any brackets or other signs of disease.

Question is do i doorstop the owners of the property and inform them of the fungii and of the potential hazard (the tree's got quite a bias over the road) it presents?

Or is that just plain necky and unethical?

Would be a good job with potential for repeat business.

What would you do?

Don't ask Don't get IMO

How would you feel, if this tree happens to fail, and you had evidence of a brown cubical rotting decay fungi in attendance,

and didn't tell the owners.

Guess maybe, this is the point where you need to start your decision from.

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if i were you, i'd tell them. even if you dont get the work.

How would you feel, if this tree happens to fail, and you had evidence of a brown cubical rotting decay fungi in attendance,

and didn't tell the owners.

 

 

Guess maybe, this is the point where you need to start your decision from.

 

 

 

 

 

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This is a fair point and one which i have considered, my gut feeling is to tell them not just from a public safety point but also to prevent the fungii migrating on to the Oaks on either side.

I guess i'll chance my arm, and if they think i'm going to offer to tarmac their drive as well then that's up to them.

I'll sleep soundly, and take a different route home in future!

Thanks all.

Ive been here sooooooooo many times!

the response youll get is "argh okey dokey matey" and they will close the door and tell their friends tommorow that they had "one of them cowboys knocking on the door telling them they had a fungus problem, just like that guy of rouge traders last week blah blah blah!" or the petrol garage i tried to warn regarding a poplar riddled and cleary on the move with rigidiporos, i watched as i drove by each day, and on several occasions drove in to beg them to deal with it. We even dropped in a quote, another arb even dropped in and purely off the cuff did a picus on it to show them the decay. a while later I saw on my way to work that it had shifted a little, even lifting a curb stone, my urgency increased and the manager even got the land agents who control the site on the phone, they didnt want to speak to me.

i told them this tree is going down within the week, a busy main road into chesham, that if this tree fails and kills or hurts someone i will be raining down hell fire and acting on behalf free of charge.

3 weeks later the tree was on the main road, very early morning, taking out several phone lines, but at the time of day, no one was hurt, though the traffic later was gridlocked and the inconvinience caused havoc that day to thousands of people.

its your call mate, but take it from me, there is a VERY high chance they will look at you like some pikey door knocker and it will go nowhere.

my gut feeling is to tell them not just from a public safety point but also to prevent the fungii migrating on to the Oaks on either side.

Laetiporus has been on the target tree for quite some time.

The spore exchange will already be there, in terms of the other Oaks, and would have been in action for quite a while.

It's now about how those trees grow & adapt to the physiological change that's already occuring or that will occur.

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Laetiporus has been on the target tree for quite some time.

 

 

The spore exchange will already be there, in terms of the other Oaks, and would have been in action for quite a while.

 

It's now about how those trees grow & adapt to the physiological change that's already occuring or that will occur.

 

 

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being a brown brittle rot, laeti is a cavity former, and the tree is unlikley to adapt in any way shape nor form. At late stages depending on the sail and wieght of heavy limbs structural failure is likely, though a managed tree could and would live for a long long time with a hollow heart.

The problems are magnified when woodpeckers dig out the softer area around the decay and create a stem weakness, which first splits the stem by shear and then folds, buckles and snaps at the nest site, or the limb socket wound that initiated the colonisation of laeti in the first instance.

In the past i`ve stuck a flyer through the door with a note saying what i think the problem is and telling them to call me or one of the many other good tree surgeons around. You have then warned them without doing the door knock and it`s down to them.

sending a letter to tell them would be good saves them been feeling intimidated by knocking on door