ERC for this coming spring

[Joe Dupre']

I found this ERC late this spring and have been babysitting it since then. I pruned it back a bit, took some shovel-deep cuts around the perimeter and have been fertilizing it every 2-3 weeks. I piled up some fallen trees around it to hopefully protect it from the blasted road crews. The road crews are responsible for the character of the tree, so I can't hate on them too much. LOL. The trunk looks to be 2-2.5" in diameter and has some nice character. Hopefully it will go undamaged until collection next spring.

Normal ERC notoriously has a rather boring trunk line. I seek out the battered specimens for their character. Definitely not Rocky Mountain juniper or Shimpaku class trees, but they are local and I love them.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

No obvious signs of rust on the lower trunk either, that's a good thing!
Keep an eye out for it though! It usually pops up after some spring rains, and it essentially means that even though the plant will live and wouldn't infect other junipers directly (but will through intermediate hosts) that the plant is doomed because the bark will explode with fruiting bodies every year.

 

[Joe Dupre']

No obvious signs of rust on the lower trunk either, that's a good thing!
Keep an eye out for it though! It usually pops up after some spring rains, and it essentially means that even though the plant will live and wouldn't infect other junipers directly (but will through intermediate hosts) that the plant is doomed because the bark will explode with fruiting bodies every year.

Well, that hasn't been my experience. The ERC in my avatar had a golf ball sized fruiting body about 3 years ago. I applied straight from the bottle Fertilome Triple Action liquid. It went away and never came back. Fingers crossed.