Do many of you have issues w/ it? It's an issue w/ pine stumps. The state forest requires treating cut stumps on logging of pines in my area, unfortunately most private timber sales aren't willing to pay for it. Today's mechanized harvesters are set up to auto spray stumps after cutting, but it's an added cost...but it's also a growing concern. It's a damaging fungus. Hopefully it's not in your area.

It’s a problem in WI but has been documented only once or twice in MN. Turns out there is a predatory fungus that feeds on Heterobasidion and it is much more common over here. At least, that is what the initial research indicates. So we haven’t had to deal with it.

I have heard about some loggers getting set up with spray equipment on their processor head. Sounds like a slick way to do it. I can see it being a cost up front and it takes an extra second or two on each tree. Last I heard you could use a mixture of water and borax to spray the stumps and that is a pretty cheap solution.

If you have pine that needs to be thinned you can go out and spray the stumps with borax. It’s best to do it every day while they are harvesting but the solution is pretty painless.

Interesting, does only affect pine trees?

The models say if it jumps to humans it could kill 250 Million people!

I meant this to be a serious post, as it isn't a joke here in Wi.

run, to my knowledge it pertains to pine trees.

As long as the stumps are treated within a certain period of time (i think like a day) it won't spread.

Aje, thanks . I know that there are joker's on here.

As a logger here in Wisconsin yes I am very familiar with it. The worst case of it that I know of was over by Stevens Point. Wiped out the whole 40 or 80 acre Red pine plantation. Had to clear cut the whole thing. Being enrolled in the MFL program the landowner then had to replant with something other than pine. State and all county pine sales is mandatory to treat cut stumps within 24 hrs. Some MFL properties too. Especially if it is a sale administered by a consultant. Usually to get the sale cutting notice ok'd by the DNR you will need to treat stumps. They have a map that shows where Anosum has been found in the state. If you are within 25 miles of an infected site you need to treat. DNR and county requires you to treat from April 15th thru November 30th unless the ground is snow covered. A private land owner can treat his own. I have had private land owners treat there own with Borax. They didn't spay. They just bought 20 mule team borax and covered the stumps with that, State and county requires that I treat with Cellutreat. Mix with water and a die so they can see the treated stumps. As a logging contractor I am required to do a lot more than a land owner. Cellutreat by federal law is considered a pesticide. I have to be a licensed pesticide applicator as an individual. Also have to license my business. Both are yearly. In order to be licensed I have to take a test. Which lasts for 5 yrs. Then need to test again. All these cost money. Then I have to purchase equipment to spray and also buy the product. I also have to keep records as to where I spray. How much area I spray and amount of product I use, concentration mixed. All daily. Then tale into consideration the loss of production due to treating. Some machines you can put sprayers on. I have sprayed with a machine. The 2 harvestor's I currently have I don't have spayers on. I use a back pack sprayer. Many logger's use them. A lot less maintenance compared to machine systems. So I do adjust the amount I pay for stumpage a bit. I personally spray all the pine I cut April thru November no matter the land ownership. I just think it's the right thing to do. Maybe if we would have been ahead of the curve and had some means to treat for the spread of oak wilt here. We wouldn't have the problem with that like we do. The ounce of prevention thing.

Thanks for the gr8 post. Very interesting to have your personal insight. I knew it was a pain but I didn't know all those details. The trouble I have around here is many people are rather recklace on private jobs.

If you leave the stumps untreated, will we experience another Bath tissue shortage? Just curious and nosy.

Well, it makes it much easier for the problem to spread if stumps aren't treated, so theoretically I would say it could.

Aje , much appreciated for your response.

I was cutting a survey line last weekend. I used the 20 Mule Team borax option. I just sprinkled it on the stumps. It's not technically 1 of the 2 options WDNR seems to recommend, but I seem to hear that it's worth trying the borax option, so I gues that's how I'll do it. Hopefully it works. It can be bought, cheap, at the grocery store. The rot is within 25 miles of me, and there's no cure for it once/if it hits your property. Unfortunately many do no treatment. I thought I heard small stumps don't need the treatment, but I guess I'd probably err on the safe side and treat all the pine stumps.

Update:
At an invasive workshop I attended today, they said Cellu Treat basically is borax

I'm thinking I should consider mixing borax w/ h20 in a squirt bottle rather than shaking it on the stump as a powder

All interesting.
I ran across this on Youtube just a couple days ago discussing boron, boric acid, and borax.

You folks in the discussion will find this beneficial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfBXtupgZKM

Thanks for posting

Has anyone had any new developments with Annosum Root Rot (HRD) on your pines?
The issue isn't going away.

There isn't a cure for it.

I have some White & Jackpine TSI to do--culling some of the young pine so they don't take over oak regeneration. Do you treat young pines, like ones that can be cut with a disc trimmer, lopper or handsaw? I suppose I could shake some borax on them too, but it will slow things down and I'm unsure it's necessary to treat the ~small ones

I think there is no need to treat younger stumps. Heterobasidion seems to require significant volume of wood, roots specifically, for the mycelium to establish and overpower the immune system of the host, let alone start producing fruitbodies. It probably outcompetes other fungi in the conditions when there is enough volume in the roots and the protective ectomycorrhizal fungi are repressed by poor soil conditions. It continues to grow saprophytically and fruit prolifically even when the pine is long dead, until the roots are completely decomposed, but I've only seen fruitbodies on partially decayed stumps that were at least 7 inches wide. Small trees probably don't have enough volume to support the fruiting. Heterobasidion does produce conidia that probably can persist in the soil but as far as I understand the main concern is the spores from the fruitbodies.


Some soils are just intrinsically bad for some pine species and Heterobasidion species will always be an issue requiring constant attention (borax, Trichoderma, etc.), or just giving up the idea of growing pines alogether or changing certain practices (how densely the trees are planted, and how much sunlight reaches the ground seems to affect survival drastically). Here, it's a key pathogen of the Scots pine, the most abundant and economically important pine in Eurasia. The Scots pine trhives on sandy low-nitrogen soils, from dry to bogged (peatbogs are also almost exclusively Scots pine), however if/as nitrogen levels rise it's outcompeted by deciduous trees and/or other conifers and Heterobasidion becomes more common. I rarely observe Heterobasidion in natural pine stands, but it destroyed several planted pine patches in my neighborhood where two key factors seem to have been neglected (wrong soil and insufficient/untimely thinning and insolation for that soil type).

Love me a smart woman!

Two points for Tatiana.