The vibrant honey coloured toadstools at the base of any plant can usually signify the presence of a root rot fungi called Armillaria mellea. This recognizable toadstool with the ring on the stalk causes a white rot in woody plants and is a long lived and soil borne parasitic fungi, which wreaks havoc on many precious garden plants. Initial symptoms of the disease are failure of leaves to appear in spring, wilting of foliage, reduced number of leaves, die back in the crown and prolific flowering or fruiting. Further confirmation of the disease will be the profusion of a white fungal sheet of mycelium underneath the bark revealing a distinct mushroom smell. In addition the presence of bootlace fungal strands in the soil around the root collar of the tree can also be considered significant. The bootlace fungal strands are the main form of this pathogen’s movement and they move in a subterranean manner through the soil in the upper 200mm from one susceptible plant to the other.

The predisposition and subsequent stress of garden plants appears to be the key trigger in the success of this pathogen. A tree stressed by lack of water, soil nutrition, compaction or physical injury is more likely to contract honey fungus than one which is regularly watered, ‘boosted’ with fertiliser or relieved of compaction using the latest supersonic ‘Root Invigoration’ technique. In essence good plant husbandry reduces the incidence of both pests and diseases.

The use of supersonic compressed air in the form of ‘Root Invigoration’ is a key component in the arsenal of tools used to repel the advancing army of bootlace strands which can heavily infest the soil and move from one debilitated plant to another. ‘Root invigoration’ applies compressed air to the soil to de-compact and rotavate erstwhile compacted and un-manageable heavy soils. Soil amendments can then be added to the backfill and rotavated again to create a fertile, oxygen laden and porous medium in the top 300mm of soil. It is at this point where the battle with HONEY Fungus begins as it has now been established by researchers that the bootlace strands positively dislike the intervention and disruption of the ‘Root Invigoration’ technique and the subsequent de-compacted soil environment. An open de-compacted soil does not suit this ‘Fun-Guy’s’ modus operandi and it has been shown that if Root invigoration is applied to known susceptible garden plants then the chances of these plants contracting Honey Fungus are greatly reduced.

The effects of this treatment on any woody plant are significant in terms of plant health but especially on the advancing menace of Honey Fungus.