What do you do with conks?

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by rumination
In the forest, however, it would just be a drop in the bucket.

Every drop counts.

 

[glens]

clear-cutting conks?

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Once you've ID'd em to be evil--laetiporus ganoderma etc--, yeah, break off and bury every one you see, in the course of your work. Not that it makes sense to try and rid every forest of them, but ones you run across in urban work, yeah it's worth the time imo.

And Leon you are in an urban forest if I recall, right? Spores from your trees waft all over Honolulu.

 

[rumination]

You are correct Guy. Honolulu is backed up by miles of forest reserve. The tradewinds probably blow tens of trillions of fungus spores into the city every day. Which is why I still think my taking the time to bury a few conks here and there is pretty pointless.:angel:

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Maybe in your case that's so. But if you were in the middle of town instead of on the edge...

What might be fun for you and visitors would be to whack off the conks, coat em with lacquer, label them and put them on display. I've seen this done at other pub gdns. They are after all botanical specimens; that way you're putting the spores out of circulation and expanding the offering to the public.

May mean a raise in stature too; Curator of the Conks!:blob1:

 

[rumination]

Actually, there are some quite beautiful shelf fungus that grow in the forest here that artists collect to make jewelry out of. Really nice stuff.

As far as Curator of Conks...well I already get the mushroom treatment: they keep me in the dark and feed me bull$hit.

 

[jamie]

fruits

leave them on,

ganoderma rots the roots, so removing the fruiting body / bracket removes the positive id......

spores are everywhere, to remove the chance of spores getting into the atmosphere you would have to watch the tree 24/7....

species such as honey fungus grow via 'bootlaces' (the mycelium part of teh fnus) through the soil

correct me if any of this is wrong

if its a homeowner, ID the fungus and tell them, then if for asethetic reasons remove it but dont expect to eradicate the fungus

jamie

 

[Nathan Wreyford]

Fungal Freaks!!

See a hazard on this tree?? It was still alive when I showed up. Amazingly healthy looking crown for this kind of stuff on it. And not just a little.

No rigging on this damaged thing. It was all bombing.

 

[Nathan Wreyford]

Here is a pic with a (kick A$$) biner for size ref.

 

[Nathan Wreyford]

And my screen saver pick for the week. Lookin' up!!

Cool thing is we just left a 25ft stick for wildlife habitat since the hazard was removed. (tree could no longer hit nearby soccer field.)

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Beautiful pictures. Did you ID that bright white fungus?

Love the idea of leaving habitat after reducing hazard.

 

[Nathan Wreyford]

Actually, I was hoping you knew could do my homework for me.

I was just guessing one of those ganoderma (sp?) that was discussed earlier.

We call the tall stumps (poles) Spechtbaum (sp?) - woodpecker tree. They really make their homes in them. Speaking of woodpeckers, a woodpecker nest in a competition tree was the reason they postponed the German TCC until Sept.

 

[Sylvatica]

When I was studying Japanese garden design, I met a woman who told me a very old Japanese saying, which was something like - "If your trees are rotting, go fix your fence posts."

Well, I didn't get it right away. She explained that the ancient logic was to remove the rotten posts, thereby reducing the source of fruiting fungal pathogens taking up residence on your property.

Old folk remedy, or sound science?

Removing fruiting bodies does seem a bit like shoveling against the tide if the surrounding area is a vast fungal playground such a forest. But if the conk is near high value trees, visibly suceptible or not, then it would be very tempting to make an effort to remove any sporulating mass.

I make an effort to reduce carryover inoculum by removing infected leaf litter when required, so why not a conk, another localized inoculum source. At worst, wouldn't it just be a minor waste of time?

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Originally posted by Sylvatica
But if the conk is near high value trees, visibly suceptible or not, then it would be very tempting to make an effort to remove any sporulating mass.

I make an effort to reduce carryover inoculum by removing infected leaf litter when required, so why not a conk, another localized inoculum source. At worst, wouldn't it just be a minor waste of time?

While your at it, why don't you pee in the ocean and wait for it to rise?

Here's a pretty something or other:

 

[Nathan Wreyford]

Fungi pic

Just thought I would add another. Feel free to ID it for me

 

[MasterBlaster]

Nice pic!

 

[Nathan Wreyford]

again

 

[che]

This tree split a year or two ago. I drove by it yesterday and found all these. Today I brought my camera.

 

[che]

Here's a closer view. I'm not sure how clear it is...but it has grow grown AROUND leaves that were laying on it. They, and other debris, had been knocked out of what looks to be a racoon's nest further up into the big split. Tells me this stuff grows very quickly.

 

[che]

Here is the other part of the tree that split off and fell down over a large 'sink hole'. (It was a two 'man' job trying to repair a fence on the edge.) It also has this fungus.