I once attended an AA seminar where Roland (?)Fox and Lynne Boddy did a
fantastic double act on fungi, most of it straight over the heads of the
audience but....
They showed agar plates inoculated with Armillaria and saprophytic fungi
commonly found in woods an guess what, the saprophytes were antagonistic to
the Armillaria, is this common knowledge, not seen it mentioned here or
again, can anyone shed further light on this issue. It seems to back up Ted
and others who see dead wood as good and would explain why old woods with
fallen timber are not dead woods, even when in Oregon.
Guy Watson.
Forestry Officer.
guy.watson@xxxxxxxxx.gov.uk
Trinity Road,
Cirencester GL7 1PX
Tel: 01285 643643 Fax: 01285 644561
-----Original Message-----
From: Andersonarb@xxxx.com [SMTP:Andersonarb@xxxx.com]
Sent: 31 July 2001 13:14
To: UK Tree Care
Subject: Re: Mulch, Fuel, Firewood; whatever?
In a message dated 31/07/01 12:25:08 GMT Daylight Time,
alanreevesuk@xxxxxx.co.uk writes:
<< The key for me is the fermentation process that occurs
naturally in organic deposition with lots of other
fungi competing and producing antibiotic substances to
combat pathogens. As Percy Thrower and Mr Smith used
to advocate, it's the composting and turning over at
least two years that makes for good mulch.
The thought of chipping an Armillaria riddled stump
and liberally applying the freshly prepared inoculum
still fills me with horror. Ditto Meripilus >>
Yeah, my brain mills these things over and concludes something very
similar
Alan. However two years? is that excessive? How long does it take to rot
down
thoroughly? I've left woodchips on the truck overnight and had them
steaming
thoroughly the next day. I heard ADAS were going to do some research but
then
heard no more.
Now when it comes to spreading a freshly prepared inoculum from an
Armillaria
riddled stump it sounds bad, but doesn't this 'latent decay fungi' theory
suggest that the fungi are present anyway? And when it comes to this
principle how did nature cope? I assume that some trees died of Armillaria
in
the wild and presumably they shed their 'riddled' parts beneath them. The
trees survived despite this. Mind you I suppose the 'pioneers' colonising
the
space were probably different species to the 'climax' trees, maybe
Armillaria
resistant?
I believe that the largest organism on the planet is a patch of Armillaria
in
a wood in Oregon somewhere. Not knowing what sort of Armillaria is a
problem
but the wood still sounds like its a wood, not a dead wood! Armillaria
just
doesn't seem to work like that although I accept that I may only see
things
from my narrow view. (Sorry out with Ted Green on Saturday!)
Sorry to hear about your slipped disc. Touch wood; I've never suffered
back
problems much, disc trouble sounds horrible.
Cheers.
Bill.
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