Coral spot fungus is considered to be a damaging fungal infection which is known for attacking woody plants that later results to the death of branches. In this educative article, you would find out more about coral spot fungus, how you can be able to spot it on shrubs and trees and also what can be done to ensure that this fungal infection does not affect your trees and shrubs.
This fungal infection that affects woody plants is called the NECTRIA CINNABARINA and this fungus is capable of causing disease and infecting shrubs and trees. It commonly attacks;
- Sychamore
- Hornbeam
- Chestnut
- Beech
- Hazel
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In the case of coniferous trees, this fungal infection isn’t possible but that doesn’t mean that attacking such trees isn’t a possibility. This fungal infection is quite powerful as it causes branches to die back on shrubs and trees but one unknown fact is that plants which are already weak are most likely to be attacked by this fungal infection. Pathogen infection, environmental stress and unfavorable growing condition are capable of causing a plant to grow weak and this in turn makes it very vulnerable to a fungal attack.
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How To Identify Coral Spot Fungus
One of the easiest ways anyone can get to identify coral spot fungus on their shrubs or trees is through the die back of branches and what this means is it isn’t possible for a shrub or tree to get infected before the fungus causes any damage. However, it is quite impossible for coral spot fungus to get treated because till date, no effective fungicide has been developed yet. Die back in branches most of the times tends to affect smaller branches, branches that are already broken or branches that have been pruned. The death of a branch shows you the fungal infection itself.
You would see coral colored or pink-colored blobs on woods that are already dead and over time, they would get to turn harder and darker. Each coral-colored or pink colored small blobs would have the size of about one to four in diameter.
How To Prevent Coral Spot Fungus
Since no one has been able to come up with a treatment or cure for coral spot fungus, what needs to be done is taking necessary steps to ensure that the shrubs and trees in your garden do not get infected. One of the ways this fungal infection can easily attack shrubs and trees is through damaged branches and pruning so you need to avoid damages that can possibly arise through various means and also ensure that pruning is done only during dry weather condition.
You should carry out pruning at the collar of plants and this is because the cut tends to heal quickly at that spot and that way, fungal infections would not get to affect the tree. Once you spot coral fungus on any deadwood of shrubs and trees, what you should do is cut out the branch. Failing to cut the branch off would only encourage the spores tos spread therefore infecting other trees around. Infected branches should be destroyed too.
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