Tony Croft aka hamadryad

no worries mate, the name multiforme is the give away really, very variable form, once youve seen the multiforme in the flesh youll see it for what it is. I dont find it that often, unlike the beech version fragiforme or beech woodwart as its commonly known. The fragiforme has quite obvious pimples on its surface too and jet black unlike the fragiforme which is more toward brown hues:thumbup: Hypoxylon multiforme

not multiforme which is only on birch, this is H. fragiforme the beech one:thumbup1:

Kretz is a bleeder for sure, not to be underestimated Mr Humphries, not even in healthy beech, which can control it to a degree it has to be said.

lightning strike

Here we have the walnut, a fine old girl, laying on the deck she is, and phoenix'd long ago. now she is battered by skip lorries and riddled with I. hipsidus, hollowing as expected and in need of some leverage management before a limb falls and causes a panic fell. In the last but one image youll note a psuedosclerotial plate in the central core within the area occupied by Inonotus hispidus. Armillaria can live in the heart/core of a tree for years decades, only switching to parasitic mode as and when stress weakens the host. Note also the black exit of Inonotus hispidus, a fungi of biotrophic nature but smart as Einstein, because even though it can penetrate living tissues, it does so only occasionally to fruit, mostly living as a heart rotting fungi where it can live in long term happy harmony with the host. it does not pay to kill ones food source, give this some serious thought.

So, a little walnut I did today and the conversation surrounding it got me to thinking about you lot in here, and basically whilst I do not agree with everything that goes on around here there is a need for info that is far greater than any of my personal feelings, so I'm starting over. Progress must be made somehow, and I am driven to make it so. So here we go again, round and round it goes where it stops nobody knows! Heres a good one from earlier in the week.... The ugly milk cap Lactarius turpis, important because it caused me even some confusion as it is from above VERY like the brown roll rim paxillus involutus which although is a mycorrhizae is also a very cpable saprophyte (deadwood feeding) whereas lactarius turpis is a mycorrhizae in this case associating with Betula pendula and Quercus robur group. first up an image of Paxillus involutus to compare included, the others l turpis the ugly milk cap, which as you can see has a less decurrent gill attachment and exudes a milk like substance from the gills when damaged. i will never look at either of these two and assume they are what they are without a proper look in future!

agreed:thumbup1:

we shall chat again ten years from now mr bourne:sneaky2:

Ten o clock news covered this today

oh well, onwards and upwards, got the uglymilk cap the other day:thumbup1: would have put it in my diary but thats now been shut down

More PR, listen, NOTHING is going to stop the spread of this disease but some will survive, a pathogen as a rule only takes out 90-95% of a population before either the host overcomes it or too few hosts starve the pathogen out. There is always a few resistant hosts, but we will be missing many ash for many generations.

was that phelinus pini hiding in there mr humphries!

They have to be seen to be doing something after allowing it in in the first place, its all PR exercise,

I should have also said it may not be a cavity per say but modified wood, which is the same, although even soft fillings have strange capacities on tubular mechanics:thumbup1: If at the end of the day the fell descission is made its always worth coring it rather than an expensive and prohibitive picus, this may suggest at the last minute that a fell is not needed

pasta broccolli and shrooms washed down with a red lovely!

From field to frying pan! Agaricus arvensis the horse mushroom:001_cool:

I think thats a smart move, having no tree based background to the post, no bias just business.

Now thats the sort of video I want to be producing! awesome, the subject of how trees move water was one of my readings of late but my book on plant physiology was too out of date so was well happy to see this, awesome.

T/R ratios is the residual wall of the hollowing trunk/stem/branch basic rule of thumb at 70% hollow its starting (in full crowned unretrenched trees) to be getting close to failure criteria (Mattheck) the basal fruits good or not i want to see they could be important the basal language suggests fibre buckling and a thinning of the TR ratio

the only stem failure I know of is in Principles by Lonsdale, its a heart rotter of the lower stem and large strucural roots so doesnt show typical declines in the crown as a rule, many fungi only effect mechanics by heart rot rather than parasitic and progressive invasion of living tissues. Fungi are only very rarely in posession of such powers, and its not Codit or rather its terpenes and phenols but hydration and lack of aeration that slows the progress of decay.

Basingstoke may appear backward to you but in Brighton they are "village" people! but if you think thats cool youll be in your element:lol:

Feras early response to this issue when raised by industry members was that a ban on imports would breach European trade agreements, If you want to blame anyone blame the stallers, it is unclear as yet to me anyway EXACTLY who decides what we import and where from, but whoever they are they have some explaining to do.

The only thing I can suggest is burn all ash waste as and when we prune them and burn on site in situ along with loose leaf litter, but this is micro biology loose in the u.k and we wont contain it, its not possible. we can do our best, but it wont be able to control something of this nature. it sounds pessimistic, but this is the truth, we let it in, now its here we will have to come to terms with yet another epic failure in biosecurity

happy that they are taking notice, unhappy that its taken too long and it is akin to stable doors. The dirty deed is done, its here and its going to be carnage more from control measures than by the fungus alone. Happy? if the truth was known i am so angry, and when I work out how and why this countries nursery trade was closed in the seventies and trade opened up further declining our nursery trade and importing pathogens left right and centre heads will be rolling. Something VERY wrong has been going on for the issues we currently have to be so bad. whats next? something to wipe out the beeches?

I dont think eradication is going to work, we have to accept its here and our problem to deal with as and when trees die. We need to let those that will resist do so naturaly, as you say they will most likely be eradicating all in a vicinity, a bad policy in my opinion I can totaly understand your anger and concerns regarding your plantation. This could have drastic effects for you. I personally wouldnt pollard your trees for a couple of years yet, the young growth will be even more susceptible to infection as they are weakened by the pollarding/coppice for some time and the new growth will be like candy to Chalara.