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.
Thanks
Carole

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
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

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
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from "Carole" contains these words:

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
!

Suggest you look at books by (the late) Michael Jordan. You'll get
recipes in some.

You'd be surprised at how many species of mushroom you can eat.

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.

If you're anywhere near well-established woodland, you can get most of
your protein requirement for the autumn from fungi. Especially in the
Midlands and east Anglia, some years you will find that fields and
grazed leas will yield bluelegs by the hundredweight - literally. These
salt down well, makng sauce to cook with from the juices, and reducing
the bulk and firming the texture of the caps.

Dry stalks and old caps and powder them in a liquidiser for addition to
dishes...

My nickname as a yoof and young man wasn't 'Fungus' for nothing innit.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

"Carole" wrote in message
et...
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.
Thanks
Carole

Many Prunus spp are susceptible to Honey Fungus. However, Prunus spinosa
and Prunus laurocerasus have some degree of resistance, so you may be in
with a chance since it sounds as if you have the 'Victorian' Prunus
laurocerasus.

If you can, improve your chances by removing as much infected soil and plant
material as possible, and use an Armillaria drench to help clean up the
soil.

If you are a member of the RHS, you could request a copy of their Honey
Fungus plant pathology advisory leaflet, or you could google on HF and see
what comes up.

Spider

"Carole" wrote in message
et...
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 !


My Collins Wildlife Trust Guidebook to Mushrooms of B & E advises picking
young and eating as soon as possible, warning "as some ill effects or more
or less serious instances of poisoning may occur, possibly as a result of
the later action of micro-organisms"

I'm not doubting Rusty 'Fungus' Hinge's word, but thought you might want to
know.

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

The message
from "OG" contains these words:
"Carole" wrote in message
et...

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 !


My Collins Wildlife Trust Guidebook to Mushrooms of B & E advises picking
young and eating as soon as possible, warning "as some ill effects or more
or less serious instances of poisoning may occur, possibly as a result of
the later action of micro-organisms"

Is this the Collins guide by Morton Lange & F. Bayard Hora (first
published 1963)?

If it is, bin it - or at the very least, amend it.

I haven't correlated what it says on other species, but it gives some
seriously dangerous advice on Paxillus involutus - it says: "Harmless if
cooked, of little value; slightly poisonous to some when raw."

WARNING!

This is unbelievably ignorant for Lange, who damn well ought to have
known in 1963 (when the 1st edn was published) that they are
cumulatively DEADLY.

This was discovered during a famine in Poland during WWII when there was
a glut of them, and a dearth of anything to eat.

That it is still described as 'harmless' in the 1978 edition beggars
belief - I knew it was deadly in 1954... from Collins New Naturalist
Series, Mushrooms and Toadstools by Dr. John Ramsbottom, pub 1953, which
I borrowed from the local library, and completely filled the paper
stickything inside the cover with renewals, then chose the book when I
won a prize for GCEs at school a couple of years later.

So well used that it fell apart - I'm now on my second copy...

And have a shelf of mushroomy books.

I'm not doubting Rusty 'Fungus' Hinge's word, but thought you might want to
know.

This is a standard CYA caution: I've never had any ill-effects from
eating mature caps. The elderly ones really don't look appetising.

The rule of thumb is, don't eat any edible fungus if it has maggots in
it - not because of the wriggling protein, but the bacteria which
sometimes accompany them.

Generally, age alone in a very few species is only likely to lead to
indigestion.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

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

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 !


My Collins Wildlife Trust Guidebook to Mushrooms of B & E advises picking
young and eating as soon as possible, warning "as some ill effects or
more
or less serious instances of poisoning may occur, possibly as a result of
the later action of micro-organisms"

Is this the Collins guide by Morton Lange & F. Bayard Hora (first
published 1963)?


No, it's the Photographic guide by Regis Courtecuisse ( fp 1999)

The message
from "OG" contains these words:

Is this the Collins guide by Morton Lange & F. Bayard Hora (first
published 1963)?


No, it's the Photographic guide by Regis Courtecuisse ( fp 1999)

Don't think I've got that one.

Yet.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Blimey..too much information !!!!

Now I don't know if I can eat the fungus and have a fab free meal...or die
!!!!
And ...should I plant the prunus...or...eeeerrrmmm...not
Jeeeeez..life's complicated..but I guess if all I have to worry about is a
hedge ...I should count my blessings.
maybe I'll continue to get my mushrooms at the village community
shop.....and just sit in my garden with a glass of wine and enjoy it's
beauty...hedge or no hedge...life's too short

Thanks all you guys xx

"Spider" wrote in message
...

"Carole" wrote in message
et...
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.
Thanks
Carole

Many Prunus spp are susceptible to Honey Fungus. However, Prunus spinosa
and Prunus laurocerasus have some degree of resistance, so you may be in
with a chance since it sounds as if you have the 'Victorian' Prunus
laurocerasus.

If you can, improve your chances by removing as much infected soil and
plant material as possible, and use an Armillaria drench to help clean up
the soil.

If you are a member of the RHS, you could request a copy of their Honey
Fungus plant pathology advisory leaflet, or you could google on HF and see
what comes up.

Spider

The message
from "Carole" contains these words:

Blimey..too much information !!!!

Now I don't know if I can eat the fungus and have a fab free meal...or die
!!!!
And ...should I plant the prunus...or...eeeerrrmmm...not
Jeeeeez..life's complicated..but I guess if all I have to worry about is a
hedge ...I should count my blessings.
maybe I'll continue to get my mushrooms at the village community
shop.....and just sit in my garden with a glass of wine and enjoy it's
beauty...hedge or no hedge...life's too short

You won't be tempted by Paxillus involutus - it's rather
unprepossessing, squatter, dark brown all over, and looks nothing like
honey fungus.

I don't know of any poisonous mushroom which grows on wood. (That's not
to say there isn't one, but I don't know of it. There are plenty which
are tough, woody, hard or slimy thobut.)

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

"Carole" wrote in message
et...
Blimey..too much information !!!!

Now I don't know if I can eat the fungus and have a fab free meal...or die
!!!!
And ...should I plant the prunus...or...eeeerrrmmm...not
Jeeeeez..life's complicated..but I guess if all I have to worry about is a
hedge ...I should count my blessings.
maybe I'll continue to get my mushrooms at the village community
shop.....and just sit in my garden with a glass of wine and enjoy it's
beauty...hedge or no hedge...life's too short

Thanks all you guys xx


First of all, thanks to Charlie Pridham for the Armillatox name ... couldn't
quite remember it!

Secondly, Carole, if the lovely glossy leaves of the hedging prunus you
admire are evergreen, then that plant is almost certainly Prunus
laurocerasus .. the one you *can* plant as it has some resistance to Honey
Fungus. Indeed, if I understood your original post correctly, it has
already proved itself being, as it is, part of your hedge. Do go ahead and
extend that hedge. Your real problem is shifting the stumps of the privet
hedge before starting work on the new planting. Good luck with that.

Incidentally, I wouldn't rule out sitting in the garden with a glass of
wine. It may help to give you a sense of proportion while the hard work is
going on. :~)

Spider

"Spider" wrote in message
...

"Carole" wrote in message
et...
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.
Thanks
Carole

Many Prunus spp are susceptible to Honey Fungus. However, Prunus spinosa
and Prunus laurocerasus have some degree of resistance, so you may be in
with a chance since it sounds as if you have the 'Victorian' Prunus
laurocerasus.

If you can, improve your chances by removing as much infected soil and
plant material as possible, and use an Armillaria drench to help clean up
the soil.

If you are a member of the RHS, you could request a copy of their Honey
Fungus plant pathology advisory leaflet, or you could google on HF and
see what comes up.

Spider

On Feb 13, 1:33*pm, "Carole" wrote:
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.
Thanks
Carole

Carole, I had honey fungus on a stump of an old tree which was growing
in my hornbeam hedge (not this house). It didn't affect the hedge at
all, maybe there is another reason for the los of your privet?

Judith