Post Oak Buried, Armillaria, Cracked Open

[jomoco]

Good luck with your client's tree mate.

If we both get the go aheads on our sick oak projects, we could both test the effectiveness of UV light therapy at burning out both armillaria mellea and ganoderma lucidum?

You know you want to Treeseer!

jomoco

 

[treeseer]

If we both get the go aheads on our sick oak projects, we could both test the effectiveness of UV light therapy at burning out both armillaria mellea and ganoderma lucidum?

You know you want to Treeseer!

YOU betcha! I already got the goahead, and will tell client to get the light.

What's the watts we want?

I'll get stuff from colleagues about it, so please pm me that mycologist contact could you please?

 

[jomoco]

YOU betcha! I already got the goahead, and will tell client to get the light.

What's the watts we want?

I'll get stuff from colleagues about it, so please pm me that mycologist contact could you please?

I want to go with a full bore 9 watt mercury vapor sterilization bulb like used in food treatment and water sterilization plants, but the dang bulbs themselves are not weatherized or well protected, and thus a fire risk.

So I guess I''ll start with a simple flourescent grow light in a mechanics light guarded bulb configuration, then use 3-4 of them with lots of shiny aluminum foil balls inside for that added disco detergent affect reaching every corner of the chamber.

The obvious limiting factor is reaching enough fungus with enough light to shift the odds back into the tree's favor, rather than the fungus.

For some silly reason I'm thinking fiber optic cables that can radiate uv light in a 360 degree spectrum?

I guess I'll go the cheap and humble grow light in a guarded configuration route first. I keep questioning whether excising all the fruiting bodies is a mistake, and that blasting them with uv light effectively scrambles the spore's dna permanently? It makes me think the light may work more systemically like round up does, and therefore the fruiting bodies a kind of funnel to pour my light into the heart of the invading fungi. I'm sure the actuality will be a more topical effect, requiring an impractical amount of digging and tunneling to get the light to enough of the fungus to be truly effective.

Perhaps even more importance should be given to the drying out effect the light and heat will produce? It's a reasonable assumption the combination of light and heat/dryness will be far more toxic for the fungi than the living root of the tree.

How would you proceed Treeseer, what would your effectiveness gold standard be set to?

Duration of exposure is another factor, I was thinking a week on, then a week off, on a continuing cycle of perhaps 6 months?

How to determine the point of overkill is a very pertinent question?

A pretty good selection of bulbs, along with a timer here.

http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/accessory/lights4.shtml

jomoco

 

[NCTREE]

Good stuff! can't wait to hear the results.

 

[jomoco]

Hey Treeseer, I've got a very specific and perhaps very telling question about your armillaria oak tree?

Is the infected side or portion of the base on a compassed northern side or shade side of the tree?

Since fungus need shade and moisture to grow and progagate, it makes perfect sense that the fungus' primary attack route would be from the northern shaded side of the tree?

Much like moss on the northern sides of almost all oaks?

If indeed fusarium wilt is a fungal pathogen in palms? Then this UV light therapy to mitigate it in the head of a palm would be far more effective there in terms of fungus exposure to light and proximity to it.

Fusarium or verticillium wilt fungal infections should both die from close proximity and exposure to a strategically positioned UV light source.

I'm thinking porous fiber optic matting below the root systems of agriculturally prized crops like strawberries etc, might make good fiscal sense by lowering the amounts of chemicals and fungicides necessary to maintain them in a healthy state?

jomoco