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Coral Spot?
Sue & Mutton
Posts: 125
Hi. I thought it would be a good idea to prune my maple last year - yes, I've now bought some sharper loppers. I think this is coral spot. I've started to cut the diseased areas back but it has affected some branches back to the trunk so can't cut back any more and would be desperately sad to lose the tree. I suspect it only affects dead wood so I may already have sealed it's fate. Can you think of anything I can do to get rid of it? (or is it not coral spot?) thanks.
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Posts
coral spot is very orange so may be some different fungus. But that wood is dead, you can tell by the colour change. Cutting back to just above the last healthy bud is the best you can do. Don't leave stumps with no buds at the end, they will die back and the problem will persist
In the sticks near Peterborough
It's not easy to see from your photo.
I've not come across coral spot before, but it may be just scale insects.
If you lift one of the lumps, is there a cotton wool like substance inside? If there is then I'd say scale insects. Just brush them off with a stiff brush and ideally give the tree a spray with a Winter Tree Wash and a good mulch of compost in the spring and it'll be fine.
Maybe someone will be able to shed more light re. coral spot
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thanks Nutcutlet, the spots are very orange. It was fine before we went away for 5 weeks - no trace at all. Now it's back to the trunk in places so can't cut it back any more. Any thoughts on an alternative to cutting back?
Last edited: 15 January 2017 19:55:15
Pete8 - I wish it was scale insects but no, it's definitely an orange fungus.
What a pity.
I've had a google, and the only similar fungus I can see is coral spot I'm afraid.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
As you suspect, coral spot affects only dead wood so your only hope is to remove all the dead wood to well below the obviously dead bits and just above a bud. If this can't be done, or leaves nothing, then there is nothing you can do.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Nooooo! I was hoping someone would tell me that fermented ivy or some other really obscure thing would sort it. I'll cut back as far as I can I can but will see how it goes - I suspect the chain saw is in for some action. This is a good lesson in how not to prune and to always keep your tools sharp :-((
Last edited: 15 January 2017 21:03:27
In the sticks near Peterborough
coral spot infects dead or dying wood, it doesn't kill the wood to infect it, if you prune back into living wood (at a bud so more die back doesn't occur) you should be ok,
don't compost the stuff you chop off, i'd burn it and dust it around plants in the garden in the spring.