Armillaria Root Rot

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Armillaria Root Rot (ARR) is caused by Armillaria tabescens, Armillaria mellea, and other Armillaria spp. The fungus attacks the vascular cambium of the crown of the tree which effectively girdles the tree. In the fall, clusters of honey colored mushrooms may appear at the base of infected trees. Infected trees will have white and yellow fungal mats between the bark and wood.

Currently there is no known resistance within the domesticated peach germplasm. One interspecific hybrid between peach and plum “MP-29” was released by Dr. Beckman developed at the USDA (Beckman et al., 2012). There is a current USDA SCRI grant spearheaded by Clemson University: “Solutions to the Armillaria Root Rot threat affecting the U.S. stone fruit industry” which is a multi-disciplinary, multi-university effort to develop short and long term solutions to armillaria root rot. To learn more about the current efforts of this grant, visit their website.