What do you do with conks?

[che]

'bout squished this guy, trying to steady my hand on a t-post.

 

[Treeman14]

I like them sauteed in butter, with a bit of white wine, some garlic, and a touch of onion.

 

[John Stewart]

Hey
I think that knocking off the conks and fungal fruiting bodies is just masking the real issue. Most conks or baidiocarps are the fruiting stucture of trunk or root rot They can live for up to 10 years depending on the region and dont start until sometimes 10 years after infection. So with that said a large conk could mean up to 20 years of decay action! Trunk or root doesn't matter are you going to risk leaving that tree standing. Once you have seen it you are now liable if you try and mask the situation by knockin them off. I would make sure you inform and document and then leave those fruiting bodies alone. Also I don't understand burying because the spores only come out if the position of the basidocarp is not altered. The spores fall out of vertical tubes on the under side. They must be vertical or they can't fall out.
So bustin off would suffice on the stopping the spread of spores. I.D of the fruiting stucture is critical to understand what type of rot is going on. They tell you important things like if there is a ton of them it is called panic frutifaction and it means it is running out of solid wood to feed on . Also conks only grow parallel to the ground so if you see one that is on any other angle to the ground it means the tree is starting to lean over. Amazing stuff if you know what to look for and very important to us in quoting a possible removal
Take Care
Later
John

 

[John Stewart]

Originally posted by Mike Maas
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:

That is called Climacodon and it is a heartwood rotting fungus. It usually occurs in a frost crack

 

[John Stewart]

Re: Fungal Freaks!!

Originally posted by Nathan Wreyford
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.

This one is called Red Belt Fungus and is an aggresive heart rot fungus and should be treated very carefully when considering the removal tactics of such a tree

 

[John Stewart]

Re: Fungi pic

Originally posted by Nathan Wreyford
Just thought I would add another. Feel free to ID it for me

This looks like sulphar fungus another heart rot fungus. It doesn't show up for years so be carefull of this one

 

[ORclimber]

John,

Can you recommend any good sources for conk ID?

 

[John Stewart]

Originally posted by ORclimber
John,

Can you recommend any good sources for conk ID?

Sure
For ID try Diseases of Trees and Shrubs by Sinclair,Lyon and Johnson
If you want to understand them a little better try a book by Claus Matteck called Manual of Wood Decays in Trees
It is a light read but good info and also some ID pictures
Take Care
Later
John

 

[ORclimber]

Thanks. I'll look into Matheck's book, already have the other.

Tree Diseases of British Columbia, and Diseases of Populus of British Columbia have good stuff too. Free from the Canadian Gov't. Directed at Forestry though.

 

[jimmyq]

book links:
http://bookstore.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/FM...&CatalogNumber=4633&-script=Web_English&-find

interesting web resource:
http://www.pfc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/diseases/CTD/index_e.html

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by John Stewart
If you want to understand them a little better try a book by Claus Matteck called Manual of Wood Decays in Trees
It is a light read but good info and also some ID pictures

Mattheck was third author on the Fungal Strategies book; most of his work is chapter 2 (you can see the hedgehog). Schwarze is 80% of the book, and Julia Engels more than Mattheck.

I need to buy that Manual you're talking about...but I doubt it approaches
Schwarze's research or insights.

 

[John Stewart]

Hey Guy
You are correct that Claus had help!
The authors were K. Weber and C. Mattheck
Ya you always pick up something new in Claus's books. I do consider his books like Stupsi and Pauli the Bear light reads do too their ease of comprehension on such advanced topics. The pictures help a lot so maybe that is why I say light!
Don't you think that he does a dis service by his choice of style? For years I thought Stupsi was a kids book about trees!
Later
John

 

[NickfromWI]

Originally posted by ORclimber
John,

Can you recommend any good sources for conk ID?

Good sources? I found mine already. I'll just send John pictures of the conk. He's pretty good so far (not that I was checking his work).

love
nick

 

[M.D. Vaden]

It's interesting to see this thread rise back from the ashes. So, what the heck...

I just started another album "Forest Floor" where I put some photos, and lately, many are photos of mushrooms and conks.

Mt. St Helens and some lava tree molds are down the album a little ways.

Forest Floor & Pacific NW album

This latest time in the woods finally brought me to the conclusion that the important cliche is not that "trees are a renewable resource" but that "forests are not a renewable resource" - not in a single lifetime anyhow