We had a large conifer chopped down and the stump ground out last year. In the last couple of days something that looks horribly like honey fungus has popped up. I've read up about it and apparently it can grow on roots. We can't do anything about the roots - they go under the lawn, into next door, and, probably, under the house!
I know I need to clear the area, but what is the best chemical to treat the ground with??

You could just harvest it and eat it. http://www.mssf.org/cookbook/honey.html

It's not a problem on dead wood.

Granity - I thought it was a threat to plants growing in the area, e.g. I have an astilbe which is looking pretty sickly, plus various grasses now surrounded by fungi.

"Janet Conroy" wrote in message
...

We had a large conifer chopped down and the stump ground out last year.
In the last couple of days something that looks horribly like honey
fungus has popped up. I've read up about it and apparently it can grow
on roots. We can't do anything about the roots - they go under the
lawn, into next door, and, probably, under the house!
I know I need to clear the area, but what is the best chemical to treat
the ground with??

It's normal for fungi to live in/on/off decaying vegetable matter, including
decaying tree roots, it doesn't matter. There's nothing to be done about it
really because you have no idea how far it will have spread. What you see is
just a small part of the organism.

If you did manage to kill it something else would take over. I'd leave it to
get on with its work.

What do you think is the problem? Apart from its reputation of course - most
bad reputations only have a smidgeon of truth in them.

By the way, I've seen honey fungus in my garden, I intended "doing something
about it" but didn't get round to it and then realised that I couldn't see
it any more - or since. It was near a stump of Russian vine which we'd
recently cut down and very close to a timber shed I bought when i was
seventeen - I'm now sixty nine. The shed is still standing six years after I
saw the fungus.

Don't panic! Life's too short. Leave it to the red tops.

Mary

The message
from Janet Conroy contains
these words:

We had a large conifer chopped down and the stump ground out last year.
In the last couple of days something that looks horribly like honey
fungus has popped up. I've read up about it and apparently it can grow
on roots. We can't do anything about the roots - they go under the
lawn, into next door, and, probably, under the house!
I know I need to clear the area, but what is the best chemical to treat
the ground with??

Dunno about the ground, but treat the caps with boiling spiced vinegar
with a touch of sea salt, after soaking them and discarding the slimy
water.

Bottle, and seal.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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Rusty Hinge 2 writes
The message
from Janet Conroy contains
these words:

We had a large conifer chopped down and the stump ground out last year.
In the last couple of days something that looks horribly like honey
fungus has popped up. I've read up about it and apparently it can grow
on roots. We can't do anything about the roots - they go under the
lawn, into next door, and, probably, under the house!
I know I need to clear the area, but what is the best chemical to treat
the ground with??

According to Garden this month, no chemical treatments are available to
the amateur.

Honey fungus is one of the commonest species in the UK, being
encountered on 31% of forays run by the British Mycological Society - in
other words, it is all over the place, and where it isn't, its spores
are.

Dunno about the ground, but treat the caps with boiling spiced vinegar
with a touch of sea salt, after soaking them and discarding the slimy
water.

Bottle, and seal.

But only if you are sure that it is indeed honey fungus.


--
Kay

The message
from K contains these words:

Dunno about the ground, but treat the caps with boiling spiced vinegar
with a touch of sea salt, after soaking them and discarding the slimy
water.

Bottle, and seal.

But only if you are sure that it is indeed honey fungus.

Naturally.

Unless you are really that unobservant that you are unable to
distinguish between honey fungus and sulphur tuft, there isn't anything
poisonous you could confuse it with. Even sulphur tuft is bitter rather
than (as some books report) poisonous, and you might find shaggy
pholiota a tad chewy...

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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Granity wrote:


It's not a problem on dead wood.





errm yes it is!

It feed of the dead wood and sends out bootlaces to find its next host!

In an area of endemic HF, alaways stump grind any felled tree and remove
as much root as possible

pk

I suppose it depends what is around it within about 30' or so, quite a lot of trees are immune to it. Also if it wasn't about we'd be knee deep in dead trees :-)

In article ,
Granity writes:
|
| I suppose it depends what is around it within about 30' or so, quite a
| lot of trees are immune to it. Also if it wasn't about we'd be knee
| deep in dead trees :-)

Actually, almost no trees are immune, though the rest vary between
being very sensitive and fairly resistant. It isn't the only fungus
that breaks down dead wood, by eany means - there are at least
hundreds in the UK, more probably thousands.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

Actually, almost no trees are immune, though the rest vary between
being very sensitive and fairly resistant. It isn't the only fungus
that breaks down dead wood, by eany means - there are at least
hundreds in the UK, more probably thousands.

And AFAIK, none of them is very poisonous.¹³² (Many are tough and/or
have an unappetisingflavour, though.)

¹³² Some of the Scleroderma are mildly poisonous, but that doesn't
prevent them being used as truffle substitutes, especially in some
varieties of German sausages. Why 'truffle substitute' I can't fathom,
as the things don't taste remotely of truffle...

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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In article ,
PK writes:
| Granity wrote:
|
| It's not a problem on dead wood.
|
| errm yes it is!
|
| It feed of the dead wood and sends out bootlaces to find its next host!

Perhaps, but it's grossly overstated as a problem. If it were half
as lethal as is made out, none of the older English woodland would
exist.

As far as I know, there is no proof that it ever transfers between
hosts via the bootlaces or other mycelium but no clear evidence that
it doesn't.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
PK writes:
| Granity wrote:
|
| It's not a problem on dead wood.
|
| errm yes it is!
|
| It feed of the dead wood and sends out bootlaces to find its next host!

Perhaps, but it's grossly overstated as a problem. If it were half
as lethal as is made out, none of the older English woodland would
exist.

As far as I know, there is no proof that it ever transfers between
hosts via the bootlaces or other mycelium but no clear evidence that
it doesn't.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Fungi are positively beneficial and serve to dispose effectively of dead
material which would otherwise polute the environment.

The message
from "Malcolm H" contains these words:

Fungi are positively beneficial and serve to dispose effectively of dead
material which would otherwise polute the environment.

and sequester carbon...

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
PK writes:
| Granity wrote:
|
| It's not a problem on dead wood.
|
| errm yes it is!
|
| It feed of the dead wood and sends out bootlaces to find its next host!

Perhaps, but it's grossly overstated as a problem. If it were half
as lethal as is made out, none of the older English woodland would
exist.


in natural woodland there is a natural balance of competing fungi, in a
domestic garden that balance does not exist and HF can be very destructive.

I've watched it spread over 14 years in an arc across a garden i look
after in Wimbledon village taking out rose beds, azaleas/rhodos, a 30 ft
mature hawthorn. Armillatox seemed to help for a while, but eventually
HF won in an number of sections which are now herbaceous instead of roses

pk