Ganoderma run amok - HELP!

[miamicuse]

I think there is a ganoderma butt rot happening in my yard.

Two weeks ago, I have a mature, 50 feet tall royal palm that is 24" in diameter at it's base, with a white mushroom protruding at it's base.

After identifying it as ganoderma butt rot, and that palm being less than ten feet from my house, two feet from a fence, and five feet from a fish pond, I decided to cut it down as hurricane Isiais was approaching south Florida.

Now it is a stump.

I understand the soil is permanently infected and I cannot plant another palm there, ever.  So here are my two questions:

(1) Since this palm was so big, how big are the roots below grade?  The entire root system is infected right?  Does it mean I cannot plant another palm within ten feet?  twenty feet?

(2) Can I grind up the palm stump?  Or will the grinding kick the fungus infected soil everywhere infecting more palms?  I have a few Chinese fan palms nearby within ten feet.

Thanks in advance!

[miamicuse]

After cutting down this royal palm, I started to examine all the palms inside my property more carefully.

I found a fungus at the base of a cluster of areca palms.  Is this ganoderma or some other kind of fungus?

 

Is this ganoderma?

The areca palms are about twenty five feet from the royal palm.  does that mean all the other palms in between are infected already?

anything I can do to prevent the spread of this?

[waykoolplantz]

i was told everrthing must be rinsed with alcohol..all tools and shoes

[miamicuse]

5 hours ago, waykoolplantz said:

i was told everrthing must be rinsed with alcohol..all tools and shoes

Should I pour alcohol over the cut stump of the royal palm?

If I grind that stump up would that spread the fungus spores everywhere as the machine chew up the infected stump?

[miamicuse]

Is the mushrooms growing on the base of the areca palm ganoderma too?  These look a bit different from the typical growth I am hoping this is just a normal fungus.

[miamicuse]

Another question, I have a series of Chinese Fan Palms near the now removed royal palm.  I do not see any growth on them yet.  Would they also be attacked by the ganoderma fungus?  Will it help if I spray some alcohol at the base of these palms now?

[redant]

I have had Ganoderma in my yard for years, some palms seem to get it, other right next to it don't. I don't believe you can do much to stop it but grinding the stumps probably a bad idea. I have planted small palms right next to where an infected palm died, so far they all seem fine. 

[hbernstein]

16 minutes ago, redant said:

I have had Ganoderma in my yard for years, some palms seem to get it, other right next to it don't. I don't believe you can do much to stop it but grinding the stumps probably a bad idea. I have planted small palms right next to where an infected palm died, so far they all seem fine. 

Traditional best practices include not replanting with another palm on the site of the infected one. Other than that, the Ganoderma is in the soil and there's no predicting where or when another palm will be infected. At Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, there's an area that had a number of mature palms. One by one, they were being lost to the fungus, but that was measured in decades. No new palms were being planted. It was slowly becoming a palm-free zone.

[Astrophoenix]

The second mushroom  species foto, is not ganoderma in my humble opinion. Its a "normal" forest mushroom. 

Edited August 11, 2020 by Astrophoenix

[tropicbreeze]

The "mushroom/toadstool" part of a fungus is only a small part of the organism. The spores are dust-like and carried in the wind so there's no stopping them. There are fungi that 'eat' other fungi and generally in any soil they balance things out. If you leave the Roystonea stump alone it will rot away and the Ganoderma's food source will be depleted. Other fungi might even knock it right out as it weakens. As has been mentioned, there are palm species not susceptible to Ganoderma that you could try planting in that area.

[Valhallalla]

Here's a link to a very good thread on ganoderma. I have occasionally seen conchs I believe to be ganoderma in my yard in Hollywood. They typically show near where a non-palm plant has been removed some time in the not very recent past. I have never had it affect any of my living palms that I know of.

 

 

[miamicuse]

On 8/12/2020 at 8:26 AM, Valhallalla said:

Here's a link to a very good thread on ganoderma. I have occasionally seen conchs I believe to be ganoderma in my yard in Hollywood. They typically show near where a non-palm plant has been removed some time in the not very recent past. I have never had it affect any of my living palms that I know of.

 

 

Thank you for the link.  I read through it, and I think I am having a larger infestation in the area.

Not sure what I can do.  Sigh...

[miamicuse]

Well, I think I have a serious problem. After I cut down the 50 foot tall royal palm, and carefully picked up the debris from the removal and paying attention to surrounding plants. I noticed three more findings that are really concerning.

{1} About ten feet from the royal palm, I have some concrete step stones. I found what looks like Ganoderma fungus growing on the side of one of these step stones! They are not growing on palms, but on the ground and on the step stone.

(2) I have a series of six pairs of Chinese fan palms, planted six feet, twelve feet, eighteen feet etc...from the royal palm. One of them, about 12 feet from the royal palm, has another fungus coming out of the ground near the base. I assume this is also ganoderma, but coming up from the root of the palm?

(3) Finally, there is a palm (coconut palm I think) stump about fifteen feet away, the stump has started to rot, no idea how long ago the palm was cut down. I have fungus coming out of the rotted stump.

I think this is an indication the entire area is infected with this fungus? Anything I can do except to hopelessly to allow it to do it's damage?

[Mike Evans]

It is the fungus among us.  Spores are everywhere, in your bed, in your ears, between your toes, and flying around 1000's ft in atmosphere.  A lot of those pics do not look like ganoderma.  I have cut down lots of royals and other palms in the garden and every stump had mushroom (ganoderma) looking growth on them as they decomposed.  I always tried to knock the conch off before it set spores.  Some I just missed.  What you see is the flower (conch), try to pull it before it seeds (spores).  I have never had any gamoderma kill my live palms, just as @redant stated.  I have also placed clear or black plastic sheet over stumps to cook it to death.  I think you are getting a little paranoid.  It is nature, and you will not stop fungal growth, just live w/ it.