I have some kind of Armillaria growing around two of my trees - apple and bush cherry in the same area. I have woodchips under the trees and I see the mushrooms on them 3rd year in a row. Mushrooms do look like Armillaria, but do not form large clumps, it is more like 3-4 mushrooms in a clump with clumps going around the tree. This year I removed the woodchips and going to replace them with new ones. I wondering if anything can be applied on the soil before it to suppress the mushrooms. I am still not sure if the kind I have is the one that lives on live tissues or on dead. It is possible they already infected roots, and grow from there or they could grow on the woodchips. Trees do not show any signs yet. Also, from what I read, they seems to not attack cherries, so I hope they are on woodchips. But I still want to get rid of them.
To my knowledge Armillaria only grown on dead or dying trees and stumps, not in wood chips. If there are or were any larger trees within 50’, they could be growing out of the roots of those trees. I could be wrong, though. Do you have any pictures of the mushrooms, particularly of where the stem meets the cap?
They are all dead now, black. I know how edible Armillaria looks like. The ones I have looks a bit off. Their leg is not high enough comparing to adult cap size. And they do not form large groups like on stumps. But they do have partial veil and scales on the cap. What I do not remember is how gill attachment looks like.
I had to look it up. According to Armillaria mellea (MushroomExpert.Com), the gills should be “attached to the stem or beginning to run down it.” I’ve never eaten the Armillaria, though I’ve found a bunch. Do you like it?
I loved them back in Russia. Here we picked them couple times, they do not taste the same, at least not like I remember. Too slimy, and some off taste. (But they were edible, ha-ha, obviously). We decided not to pick them anymore.
It sounds like this species, not thought to be as bad of a parasite as mellea.
I think you nailed it.