I've got fungus!!

Hello everyone!

So I have an issue unfortunately.

I recently bought my plot of land! Its mainly Sitka spruce, with a clear felled area (about a 3rd of the size of the whole land) planted with alder, downy birch, rowan, goat willow and some Douglas for.

Unfortunately I've recently found that a big portion of the Sitka spruce area is RIDDLED with honey fungus. The Sitka spruce area used to be a cow pasture over 50 years ago, and was planted by the forestry commission as quick growing plantation woodland. It's been clear felled a few times. With the Sitka woodland currently growing, planted in 1993.

Where the old hedge lines were, there are some old oaks, possibly about 70 years old, but then look sickly, lots of dead branches etc ( I had attributed this to the fact that the area that was recently clear felled, was south of the other trees, so blocked all the light).

The honey fungus seems to be spreading out ALOT. Reading about it online it's spread a doom within my brain, have I bought tainted land? Will I still be able to grow food and have an orchard? I've already planted then fruit trees and lots of walnuts too!

I also tried potatoes this year, but after an initial spurt of growth, they all died off! (I thought it was possibly too wet as this year has been a complete wash out!)

A little bit of advice and direction is appreciated!

Thankyou in advance!

welcome to the forum!

I am not familiar with honey fungus though I asked google which said it is destructive in the UK.

It might be good to remove dead wood that has the fungus on it.

It might safely be place in a hot compost pile.  It is my understanding that a hot compost will kill pathogens.

I hope some folks with experience will chime in.

When we lived in the UK, the land around our home was bordered by mature trees and one or two of the older trees had honey fungus in them.

We planted an orchard adjacent to the honey fungus infected trees and as far as I know, the fruit trees are still thriving (we moved back to NZ in 1997 but former neighbours have reported that they are still growing well).

We used to eat them, however only cook a few and make sure that you can tolerate them, some folks get an upset stomach from eating them.

If it is safe, are you able to burn the ground in the vicinity of the affected trees - perhaps set up a steel drum that you can move around to contain the flames and make biochar?

That may help kill the mycelium and stop it spreading further into your garden.

I hope that you manage to contain it.

Here is an article on the edible Honey Mushrooms. Is this the same fungus you have?

Here is The Mushroom Expert's more scientific guide to identification of Honey Mushrooms.

As for as I know potatoes aren't affected by honey fungus, so that is probably a separate issue (not much comfort there!) We have had a few threads discussing honey fungus:

David Livingston helpfully posted a list of more resistant plants here which might be worth taking into account when you do planting.

Dan Tutor discusses it in a hugelultur thread

As a professional landscaper and gardener, I can assure you that honey fungus is not a threat to any annual in your garden, and probably very few woody perrenials.
I have often collected honey mushrooms from spruce stumps around gardens and orchards, and I've never seen any ill effects.
Where I live, it primarily attacks dying spruce trees and their roots and stumps. The mycelium is faintly bioluminescent, and the mushrooms are delicious and easily preserved through drying, although some people may be allergic.

It sounds like spruce is one of honey fungus' favourite foods, so if you have a lot of dead spruce stumps the fungus will be quite happy. Usually we want more soil fungus, but it your case you want to reduce it - so tilling would be one suggestion - breaking up the fungal network.
You could try using a fungal innoculation mixture when you plant new shrubs and trees to make a competing fungal network that might crowd out the honey fungus.
Some web research pulls up some hope: From https://www.sasa.gov.uk/rd/pest-pathogen-diagnostics/armillaria:

Six species (A. borealis, A. Cepistipes, A. gallica, A. mellea, A. ostoyae and A. tabescens) commonly occur in the UK but of these only two (A. mellea and A. ostoyae) are considered to be pathogens that can infect and kill healthy trees. Identification of the separate species using traditional techniques is very difficult and even the use of modern DNA based methodologies has not lead to the development of a rapid, cost effective assay. This leads to trees often being removed as a precautionary measure on the assumption that the two pathogen species that is present.

So it sounds like there is honey fungus and bad honey fungus you may have an innocuous form happily feeding on the dead spruce. It may be worth getting a tree expert in to look at the oaks - there are quite a few other things that could be causing them issues see oak dieback for example.

Anne Miller wrote:welcome to the forum!

I am not familiar with honey fungus though I asked google which said it is destructive in the UK.

It might be good to remove dead wood that has the fungus on it.

It might safely be place in a hot compost pile.  It is my understanding that a hot compost will kill pathogens.

I hope some folks with experience will chime in.

Thankyou for your reply,
Unfortunately the area it covers is more than an acre, so there is too much to try and compost. And I'm unsure how well that would work also.

There is ALOT of dead wood on the floor, I can try and collect it all and possibly burn it. But that seems to conflict with ideologys!

Megan Palmer wrote:When we lived in the UK, the land around our home was bordered by mature trees and one or two of the older trees had honey fungus in them.

We planted an orchard adjacent to the honey fungus infected trees and as far as I know, the fruit trees are still thriving (we moved back to NZ in 1997 but former neighbours have reported that they are still growing well).

We used to eat them, however only cook a few and make sure that you can tolerate them, some folks get an upset stomach from eating them.

If it is safe, are you able to burn the ground in the vicinity of the affected trees - perhaps set up a steel drum that you can move around to contain the flames and make biochar?

That may help kill the mycelium and stop it spreading further into your garden.

I hope that you manage to contain it.

Thankyou for the reply!

The area covers more than an acre! It's quite a dense spruce plantation area so burning the ground isn't an option unfortunately. Although I've researched a bit more, and biochar does seem to be a possible answer to it. I'll never be able to remove the fungus, but by improving the drainage and nutrients in the soil structure, the area should be less ideal for the fungus. It would also improve the health of the trees and plants root systems which should make them less susceptible!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Here is an article on the edible Honey Mushrooms. Is this the same fungus you have?

Here is The Mushroom Expert's more scientific guide to identification of Honey Mushrooms.

Yes it's the same fungus, whilst the fruiting body's are good to eat, it's the root system that attacks the tree, it has tips that break through the outer bark and into the cambium layer, and works it's way up and killing the tree!

Nancy, Ive just spent half an hour replying to your response, and just before hitting post, I accidentally refreshed the page!!!
I'll reply again later when I have time and the patience to tight it all again!