Artillery Fungus, Serious

[Wassachu]

This is a serious fungus that's virtually impossible to remove. It's caused by decaying wood chips. Please refer to: http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/artfungus/artilleryfungus.htm
When they built my house in the woods in 2003 they cut the trees down, hauled off the logs and chipped the branches blowing them into the woods in a huge pile. Later I stored my 22ft boat near this pile on the edge of the woods. The next summer I started to see small hard shelled spots all over the boat on everything including the galvanized trailer. Scraping these spots leaves a small black tary substance. I haven't found anything that removes these stains from my fiberglass. I have a huge list of cleaning agents and chemicals that failed including: bleach, acetone, MEK, paint thinner, On/Off bottom cleaner(contains a mild acid), rubbing compound and on and on. I've had two pro's look at it and the final opinion is to use 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper, sanding wet, followed by a good rubbing compound, a buffing compound or polishing compound and then wax. A lot of work. Articles I've read on this all talk about spots on cars and home vinyl siding. My boat is a 1990 so the gelcoat has seen a lot of sun and needed more wax so that made it worst.
Spores from the decaying wood chips a propelled about 20ft in the air and are attracted to the sun or anything that reflects the sun, a white boat. I have thousands of these spots from the hard top to the keel on glass, aluminum, stainless steel and fiberglass.
This thread is to alert as many as possible. Please keep your valuable toys away from wood chips. I'd hate to see anyone go through this.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

Good info

 

[180shabah]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

....Please keep your valuable toys away from wood chips....

This includes that nice pretty mulch that everybody pays extra to have in thier yards. The old mulch should be removed, cleaning the "beds" down to bare earth before new mulch is added. Very few people(including landscape companies) do this. They simply add a thin layer right over top of the old. This is bad for a couple of reasons - first, when the old is not removed, you get decay, rot and.....ARTILLERY FUNGUS!!! Second, the continuous decomposition, add a new layer, decomposition, add a new layer..... increases the ground height effectively burying the rootball of your plants, trees etc. deeper every year until they are too deep to be viable.

 

[jspringator]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

I knew there was a reason I used rubber mulch.

 

[vess]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

Thanks for the info- I was wondering what those awful blotches were. I can't get them off my siding, and when they are on my car I can carefully pick them off with a razor blade. I may have to look at using stone instead of the mulch I normally get. I have yet to have them on the boat, but I will keep a lookout for them now. Yikes.

 

[steelespike]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

Sounds like that stuff may be right in the pores.
I wonder if plain old salad oil might soften it up.
I've had good luck on all sorts of stuff,pine sap, roofing tar,
old dried automotive grease,oil and water based paint when not quite dried.
I've used it to clean lots of stuff off my hands leaves them nice and soft.
It may leave an oily spot give it a try where it won't matter.Let us know how it works.

 

[Wassachu]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

Thanks for the input. I've been told that mulch dosen't decay quite like wood chips because mulch is mostly ground bark. I use cedar mulch up next to my house with no problem. I have talked to someone who ended up replacing some of his vinyl siding because of this fungus. Most vinyl siding has a texture and can't be sanded.
I'll try the salad oil. I'll try anything and have tried most things. I have these spots everywhere and some areas can't be sanded like non-skid decks. Anything is better then sanding. I'll avoid using muriatic acid, too many metal parts, stainless steel, aluminum and my galvanized trailer that could get damaged. That was suggested in another forum.

 

[amynbill]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

Don't confuse wood chips with bark mulch. Most of the more expensive mulches are shredded pine bark or other asst. bark mulches which are different from the pulpy wood mulch that is blown out when chipping up trees.

 

[Wassachu]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

This Fungus is serious enough that it needs to be posted again, up front where it will be seen. It's a lot of work to restore the surface of my boat. I'd hate to see others go through this.

Again, Please refer to: http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/artfungus/artilleryfungus.htm

 

[redfury]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

Great info, but what do you do with the old mulch? Compost it?

I think I'll stick to rock around the house instead of mulch. The only mulch I've got is some black walnut around my flagpole.

 

[Wassachu]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

This thread needs to be revisited. Artillery fungus is active in the Spring and Fall.
Please refer to: http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/artfungus/artilleryfungus.htm

The "Only" thing that I've found that removes this fungus is 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper sanding wet. I have a huge stock of products that have failed. Pressure washing was no help. My boat finish is oxidized from too much sun and not enough wax so I'm paying for that now. I bought the boat new and it has seen wax but not enough.

This fungus attaches itself to cars, vinyl siding, motorhomes and trailers and boats. I had one guy tell me he had to replace some vinyl siding because siding is textured.

Keep your toys away from wood chips. I'd hate to see others go through this. SERIOUS STUFF

 

[Wassachu]

Re: Artillery Fungus, Serious

This is a serious fungus that's virtually impossible to remove. It's caused by decaying wood chips. Please refer to: http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/artfungus/artilleryfungus.htm
When they built my house in the woods in 2003 they cut the trees down, hauled off the logs and chipped the branches blowing them into the woods in a huge pile. Later I stored my 22ft boat near this pile on the edge of the woods. The next summer I started to see small hard shelled spots all over the boat on everything including the galvanized trailer. Scraping these spots leaves a small black tary substance. I haven't found anything that removes these stains from my fiberglass. I have a huge list of cleaning agents and chemicals that failed including: bleach, acetone, MEK, paint thinner, On/Off bottom cleaner(contains a mild acid), rubbing compound and on and on. I've had two pro's look at it and the final opinion is to use 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper, sanding wet, followed by a good rubbing compound, a buffing compound or polishing compound and then wax. A lot of work. Articles I've read on this all talk about spots on cars and home vinyl siding. My boat is a 1990 so the gelcoat has seen a lot of sun and needed more wax so that made it worst.
Spores from the decaying wood chips a propelled about 20ft in the air and are attracted to the sun or anything that reflects the sun, a white boat. I have thousands of these spots from the hard top to the keel on glass, aluminum, stainless steel and fiberglass.
This thread is to alert as many as possible. Please keep your valuable toys away from wood chips. I'd hate to see anyone go through this.

It's Spring and this fungus is active again. Trying to spread the word. Once my boat is uncovered from the winter, I'll be scrubbing away. Still haven't found anything that removes these stains easy. GoJo, an Orange Pumice Hand Cleaner works almost as good as 1000 grit sandpaper. Nothing was that good.