I found what looks like Armillaria mushrooms growing on my 7 years old flower bed, that is located on top of an old oak stump. Currently it affects Veronica flowers only, but my fruit trees is just 10’ away from that spot. Anything else other then removing the visible part of mushroom and affected plants can be done to prevent its spreading to my fruit trees? Will spot copper application help at all?
I actually found that they growing in “witch circle” all around the flower bed, affecting several veronica plants along the border and also popping up from what appears to be just soil. I am starting to really worry about my small orchard…
The fungus needs wood/roots with intact bark to survive, so digging the roots out is about the best you can do I think. Pick all the mushooms as small as you can and seal them in a plastic bag so they don’t make spores. Getting a fungicide absorbed into those roots would be impossible I think.
The fungus can live a very long time on roots underground, a maple tree that was killed about 10 years ago sprouted honey mushrooms out of what was still left of the roots when they were cut to dig a hole to fix a water leak roughly 30 ft. from the stump.
1 Like
Thanks, the question is - which roots… I can dig the herbs and flowers… But the stump itself - no way… It was like three feet in diameter. When I tried to rearrange plants on my flower bed last year, I tried to make a hole with a stump root on the way. I thought after 6 years it should be all rotten and I can chop it. But it was strong like metal… I had to dig my hole in different place. So I guess I have to hope for the best and do nothing. The funniest thing, I pick wild mushrooms and honey mushrooms as well. And they are not that easy to find in the woods 
. And here you go - growing right on my property and it doesn’t make me happy.
