Black Knot Fungus In Edmonton

Have you noticed black growths on your trees branch ends? Or black lesions forming in the trunk? Well if you live in the Edmonton area, you’re certainly not alone.

Black knot is a disease that effects most trees with a pitted fruit (including berries). 

Although not generally fatal to the tree, black knot does present a number of challenges for the property owner:

• Contagious
  • Spreading through the air using spores; black knot travels quite literally like wildfire. Though the efficiency of transmission also means its less of a concern, since there’s no areas in Edmonton totally free of the fungus. Your tree is unlikely to be a significant vector for spread if left standing.
• Incurable
  • Since the actual fungus lives inside the wood of the tree (the growths being the fruit or mushroom portion), once infected, a tree will be a host to the fungus for life. This means you can prune the growths off, but they will return every year or two, making for a relatively high maintenance tree.
• Unsightly
  • And finally, if you’ve seen them, you know. Nobody wants a tree that seems to be growing dog poop on their property.