Chestnut Blight

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Joanna Savage

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Chestnut Blight
« on: December 06, 2014, 07:44:35 AM »
It is chestnut harvest time here and again yields of flour are down, a continuing trend. From my internet reading it seems as though Chestnut Blight or Canker, Cryphonectia parasitica, might be the cause. It is a fungal infection and as far as I can see, the best hope of control is a biological mechanism, hypervirulence. This is a fascinating concept whereby a virus helps to renew the health of the tree, either by attacking the fungus itself, or aiding the tree in some way to overcome the effects of the fungus.
These particular forests are at about 350-1000 metres in Provincia Pistoia. Now I must set out to find the local knowledge to find more about the problem. I read that Chestnuts host other dieases such as Phytophora so maybe I am misinterpreting the symptoms.
Up til now I hadn't thought about viruses attacking fungi.
Any comments would be welcome.