Juniper Shrub Fungus/Disease

douglasfir

Prospect
Joined
Mar 6, 2013
Messages
14
Location
B.C.
Hey everyone! This is my first thread here! I have a nice Juniper Shrub I transplanted about two summers ago from a friends yard. A little history first, When I dug it up, I used a small gardening trowel, and a twig to clear away soil so as to be as careful to not to do any unintended damage to the root system. It was growing in some of the hardest, rockiest compacted soil I have ever come across in this area (lived here all my life). Any roots that were cut, were washed with a garden hose, and pruned back to good laterals with very sharp secateurs. I planted it in a large 20? gallon plastic pot, and added mulch about 1.5 - 2.0 inches deep. Since then, all has been well, I watched it very closely and noticed no dieback whatsoever over the last couple years. It put on new growth the spring after the transplant and kept on doing well. This spring, it did the same, nice new growth. The pot it's planted in is under the canopy of a large Western Hemlock, so it definetly is not in full sun, but does receive a good amount of sun every day. But the day before yesterday I went to look at it, and noticed what appeared to me to be a fungus growing on some of the branches, maybe 5 as far as i've noticed. The area of the branches where the fungus is, appears swollen and has small soft, deep red/brownish fruiting bodies protruding through the bark. I haven't noticed any dieback on any affected branches. But I'd really like to know what this fungus is, a likely prognosis, and what to do about it. I will most likely be pruning out the affected branches, and burning them. But I'd really like to get everyones opinion and go from there. 8) I will note that there used to be a second stem originating from out of the ground that was removed before I found the shrub, which is decaying. And also, there are two bark wounds that occured just after I noticed the shrub was there which I believe were caused by a lawnmower driving over the base of the trunk, which I traced with an exacto knife, and cleaned with water, nice healthy callus has been growing since. I've attached some pics and can take more if needed. Sorry for the long winded post, but I just wanted to provide as much pertinent information as possible.

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Are you confident that they are fruiting bodies, not something like a gall?
Its sorta hard to make out what is what, exactly, to me.

Where are you in BC?
 
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The growths are not hard like wood, they are very soft and flexible to the touch. But at the same time I cannot say for sure if they are or are not fruiting bodies. I haven't seen anything like it on this species before. I'm in South Surrey B.C. about 10 minutes from the Washington State border.
 
The swelling looks like one of the Gymnosporangium type rusts. Possibly J. clavipes or a related species. When they "bloom" they will have bright red or orange eruptions that may dry to a darker color. My best guess anyway.
 
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I did some reasearch on Gymnosporangium today, and found that Gymnosporangium Clavipes seems to fit the description quite well. The growths on the cutting I took in the first picture have grown significantly in less than 24 hours! despite being severed from the host. Thanks Underwor! I'm going to prune out and burn the affected branches when/if it ever stops raining here, and drys up a bit.
 
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  • #8
Hi Butch! I think we met in the New members thread a few weeks ago, but my Names Dan :-) I checked out the thread you suggested and made a few changes to my profile.

One thing I can't seem to find out about, (done a fair bit of searching), is if this disease is likely to recur after having the affected branches removed?
 
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