In article ,
says...
Crikey - didn't know you could eat honey fungus ! The amount I've lobbed
off that stump and destroyed........what a waste - and I'm a vegetarian too
!

Sounds right about the privet - planted it about 15 years ago, and it gets
regular pruning. I think I'll bite the bullet and replace it.
Wonder if I should also dig out the stump (god forbid - it's big) even
though it apparently offers a supply of edible fungus.

Carole

"Rusty_Hinge" wrote in message
. uk...
The message
from "Carole" contains these words:

I have a long privet hedge. A section of it in the middle, about 6
plants,
have died due to honey fungus which got to it from an old horse chestnut
stump which was cut down several years ago. The spread seems to have
stopped (is it likely to come back ?)
I actually don't like privet - ugly stuff. I have another very long
headge
of prunus - lovely glossy leaves, much nicer.
I'd like to replace the lost privet with prunus, and if it takes well,
gradually replace the whole privet hedge with prunus to match the other
one.
Question - is prunus also likely to succumb to honey fungus, or is it
more
tolerant. ? Don't want to plant new stuff that is just going to die.

It is said - honey fungus only attacks weak or dying trees/shrubs/bushes.

Whether this is correct though, is still a matter of argument.

Privet - especially old privet which has been clipped for years very
often becomes weak and is much favoured by honey fungus.

If you are going to replace the hedge, or parts of it, dig in plenty of
well-rotted compost and bones/bonemeal/old leather, etc.

Meanwhile, cut off the caps of any honey fungus which appear, and you
can either fry them, or after soaking (gets rid of goo/slime) you can
pickle them or use them in casseroles etc.

Old caps are tough. (I dry these, powder them and put them in stews,
casseroles, etc.)

--
Rusty
Grubbing out all the privet roots and the dead tree stump is a good
starting point, removing as much old root as possible takes away the food
source, treat the planting trench with amarillatox (which smells
remarkably like Jeyes fluid) and feed up the soil as Rusty suggests, if
you avoid stressing the new plants you should be fine. My garden is
riddled with Honey fungus and it has never touched the long Laural hedge
despite numorous trees dieing within feet of it.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea