Treating Honey Fungus with Armillatox

Treating Honey Fungus - Armillaria mellea - is considered impossible in today's anti chemical world.

Many seem to think that Armillatox, once the stalwart cleanser for gardening use, is not available for eradicating the bootlace fungus - a scourge of gardeners, forever.

I have to admit I wasn't too sure either so a call to Armillatox soon put me on the right track.

Armillatox cannot be claimed as a Honey Fungus treatment but because it is exactly the same formulation as it was in the days when it was called a Honey Fungus treatment (in fact, Armillatox was invented for this purposes - hence the name) that as a side effect of using the chemical as a soap based garden cleaner, Honey Fungus can be treated.

Honey Fungus is actually a helpful pathogen because it helps nature accelerate the destruction of dead wood. By attacking the lignum and cellulose and breaking it down to glucose, which insects are then able to digest, valuable nutrients are then returned to the soil.

By treating the lower trunk of a healthy tree with a 20:1 solution of Armillatox and water, a tree or shrub can be inoculated against the 'bootlace' Rhizomes reaching your trees, the Rhizomorphs will surface, sporolate and send the resulting mycelia in search of dead and decaying wood.

Armillatox is available from Amazon

Comments

[Nick Steele]

Its a bit of a grey area, and probably never going to get tested in law, but isn't it still illegal to use as a pesticide, because it hasn't been approved ?

[Philip Voice]

Nick

I think it is more to do with EU definitions than actual application methods.

It must be impossible to legislate on. However, I would assume that if a contractor advertised and openly advised that they were applying Armillatox to treat Honey Fungus then that would clearly be wrong.

It would be a lot harder to stop a contractor using the material as a tree wash who adds the line, 'please note, as a side effect, this treatment is known to control Honey Fungus.

(these are my thoughts and not advice)

This might be of interest.
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/safe_use.asp?id=1255

[Nick Steele]

Its a crazy situation isn't it ? Following the letter of the law its illegal, but it works, and nobody will ever get found out so....

I'd love to see the court case where the gardener claimed he was just giving the tree a bit of a clean with this wonderful soap based cleaner, and it was simply a coincidence that the tree had honey fungus......

[Philip Voice]

Interesting .PDF advising on Honey Fungus and wood chip mulch http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSWebsite/files/78/780dad1d-f92c-4025-b589-713070519442.pdf

[Colin Rogers]

We have a hedgerow path that has been repaired with wood chips that now are seen to have bootlace fungus. I am not too concerned, except for the fate of a walnut sapling near contaminated chippings. A friend has walnut trees and bootlace fungus never had any problems, with the walnut trees and treated his nearby roses with Armillatox. He also has floods. Perhaps walnut trees are resistant, perhaps honey fungus is killed off by floods? I have the option of leaving the sapling alone, re-planting on our flood-plane, and/or treating with his left-over Armillatox. Any suggestions?

[J Kelly]

I used Armillatox for 2 years to no avail to stop my leylandii hedge from dying. It had no beneficial effect. What did stop them and other plants dying was a Bayer systemic fungicide. Nothing has died since.

[Anders Matteeson]

It works! I have been using Armillatox for several years and I have no doubts that it works.
Example 1
My Conference pear tree started to lose it's leaves and looked very sorry for itself. 20 litres of diluted Armillatox poured on stem and roots near the tree and after a couple of weeks it had new leaves growing. This was 3 years ago and it is now a beautiful tree.

Example 2
A holly tree growing in my hedge was losing masses of leaves. It was difficult to get to the stem, due to the hedge. I took a chance and through a bucket full (12 litres 10% dilution) into the hedge, not expecting it to work. It did. Already after a month or two I could see new leaves developing. Today this is also a beautiful tree.
My privet hedge also seems to have survived the attack of honey fungus, although some plants died and had to be replaced. Today the hedge is healthy.

[S Smart]

Please someone tell me how I can get rid of dog stinkhorn the smell is driving me crazy. I dig up the offending fungi but it always comes back in the vicinity of my hedge. Is there a fungicide that can deal with it?

[Rostam Siamak]

Is MMC Pro a good substitute for Armillatox when it comes to treating for Honey Fungus