Coral Spot Identification

Coral spot’s small orange-pink pustules are very distinctive. The fungus is active and producing spores almost year round, but you mainly see it in Winter.

What is Coral Spot, and How Bad is It?

Coral Spot fungus, Nectria cinnabarina, is mainly saprophytic, meaning it eats dead wood. But it can become a serious parasite if it enters living wood through damaged bark, pruning cuts, or because the plant is weakened by other diseases or factors such as drought stress.

• This can happen to almost any woody plant: some of the most susceptible are currants and figs, maples, horse chestnuts, hornbeam, beech, walnuts, and lime trees.
• Infected branches die back, and if it’s not stopped, the whole plant can die.
• By the time you see the colourful spots appear on bark, that part is already dead.

Coral Spot Treatment

Coral Spot is easy to deal with:

• Simply remove the infected branch, and burn or bin it.
• Paint the pruning cut a sealant such as Medo or Prune & Seal.
• Remember to disinfect your pruning saw or secateurs with alcohol in between each cut to avoid transferring the fungus from one branch, or tree, to another.

Coral Spot Prevention

Prevention is always better than cure, so practise good garden hygiene:

• Collect and burn or bin all fallen and dead woody material, and prune out dead wood from trees.
• Mulch around your trees every Spring: healthy trees are less susceptible to disease.