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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Advice for apricot failure?

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  • From: "kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Advice for apricot failure?
  • Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:05:36 -0500

Armillaria mushrooms usually don't come up till fall, but another name is "shoestring fungus" as after the bark falls off the dead tree, there are long black strings underneath.  I'll tell you something weird about this mushroom though.  I ate some in England in 79, and then I just didn't really see them in the US till about 96, when they came up EVERYWHERE throughout the woods in our area, around Cookeville 20 miles to the north, and Monterey which is 12 miles east and a couple thousand feet higher.  During that time we went to a Permaculture get together at Adam and Sue Turtle's 150 miles southeast of here and there were Armillaria mushrooms everywhere there too.  I pointed to a cluster and asked Adam what they were.  He said there was a book in the house, but I said I'm sick of keying out mushrooms and I'm at a damned Permaculture meeting where someone should be able to just look at them and tell me.  (I figured I knew what it was anyway, but would like confirmation seeing as I hadn't eaten them in 15 years.)  He said ask Michael, so I did and Michael took one look and said "Honey Fungus" (its gastronomic name).  Then he said they were coming up everywhere in Virginia where he lives. 
    What are the odds of one type of mushroom appearing in huge quantities over such a large area without some driving force behind them?  Was it the weather that year?  Do they synchronize their fruiting, like pecans do, to improve pollination and reduce pests on off years?  Was there a big die off of trees in the year or two before or after that flush of  fruiting bodies?  As our property had been logged some 5 years beforehand, could it be that every place the mushrooms appeared had been logged recently enough to feed their mycelium on dead roots for years waiting for the big bloom?  Seeing as we saw no effect on trees in the years AFTER the fruiting, and we know perfectly well that the mycellium had to be spread thoughout nearly every square foot (at least in every square yard) on our property and millions of other acres to produce that many mushrooms, could it be that Armillaria is unfairly blamed for killing trees?  Maybe it infests them all a little bit, but only kills the weak ones.  Any opinions welcome.   Donna



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