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nafex - [NAFEX] Danger to fruit trees from oyster mushrooms

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  • From: Andriy Palamarchuk <apa3a@yahoo.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Danger to fruit trees from oyster mushrooms
  • Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 13:05:49 -0700 (PDT)

I was entertaining an idea of trying to grow Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus
ostreatus), for example from this kit http://www.fungi.com/kits/indoor.html .

Online search shows that these mushrooms can attack live trees as well as
dead material. Want to share the results of my search.

Has anybody seen Oyster mushroom attacking fruit trees?

"Wood Decay Fungi in Landscape Trees"
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74109.html gives this list:

acacia, alder, ash, beech, birch, chestnut, elm, eucalyptus, fir, hackberry,
holly, horse chestnut, linden, magnolia, maple, oak, pecan, persimmon,
poplar, spruce, tulip tree, walnut, and willow

... and this description of the disease:

"Fungus decays heartwood and sapwood, causing a white, flaky rot. Infections
occur through open wounds and decay is most extreme when wounds are large. A
cluster of shelflike mushrooms, each 2-8 inches wide, is produced annually
and can indicate localized decay or heart rot that extends 10 feet in either
direction. The mushrooms are smooth on the upper surface with gills that
characteristically extend down along the stalk on the lower surface. "

It can attack grapes:
http://www.apsnet.org/pd/SEARCH/1995/PD_79_1187C.asp

And, most dangerously, Oyster mushrooms can attack toilet paper!
http://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/ecology-woodrot.html

:-)

I'll pass growing Oyster mushrooms for now.

I would not be surprised if Oyster mushrooms has actually different
subspecies, some of which are not parasitic at all. This is the situation,
for example, with Honey mushroom (Armillaria mellea). It turns out there are
more than a dozen of species, which are hard to distinguish from each other.
Some of these species were found to be purely saprophytic, others are very
virulent.

Andriy







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