Look
for these typical parts of the Dry Rot Life Cycle:
1.
Strands - called 'hyphae' - like thin tree roots -
silvery
grey to off white - brittle when dried out
(unlike
Wet Rots, where Strands remain flexible).
2.
Skin - called 'mycellium' - dirty off white colour with
tinges
of yellow or lilac at the edges (NOT brilliant white, like some Wet Rots)
3.
Mushroom - called a 'fruiting body' or 'sporophore'
-
flat rust red coloured centre area with fleshy edges in
off white to silver grey, may have flashes of yellow or purple.
The
rarest form to find.
4.
Dust - called 'spores' - rust red colour, like very fine talcum powder,
often covering everything
around as if sprayed in a brown/red paint.
Rarely
found.
5.
Wood shrinkage - called 'cubing' - the wood cracks deeply
along
its length and less deeply across its width, forming 'blocks' or 'cubes',
with loss of volume and sometimes curving
(unlike
Wet Rots which can form lots of much smaller cubes
with
even cracking along and across the wood grain).
It
is unusual to find all of these together in one attack area,
so
try to uncover the full extent of the rot and look closely for
each
type of symptom. Remember that Wet Rots,
which
require higher moisture contents,
can
often be found in the same area simply because some parts are wetter than others.
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