Port Jackson Fig, fungus on bark

[Albo]

Hi all,
I have a PJF that has some dead areas that have recently developed fungus.
Just checking if this will eat live wood or cause any other problems.
I don’t mind it being there unless it will cause issues.
Any advice appreciated.

Regards,

[melbrackstone]

Way I see it is the dead area is going to rot anyway, may as well look decorative in its many iterations.

[shibui]

Not a fungi expert so I can't ID yours to know definitively if it's limited to live or dead wood but the vast majority of wood fungi are feeding on the decaying wood and don't harm the living parts of trees.
Fig wood tends to be very soft so rots quickly when dead and exposed to the elements. You probably need to decide whether you want a hollow trunk tree or a full trunk. Left alone the dead section and probably a bit more of the interior will rot away to leave a hollow trunk. Or you might choose to speed up the process and carve out some of the dead wood.
There's a range of treatments that can be applied to dead wood to preserve it if you don't want it to hollow out. If you can preserve the dead wood for long enough the adjacent cambium may be able to grow over the dead section.

[Albo]

Thanks for that.
If it’s not going to bother live wood I’m not too concerned at this stage.
I’ll let it grow until next year before making any big decisions about carving.

[TimS]

Yeah some kind of bracket fungi it looks like. Dead wood under there, it won’t be harming anything live and looks cute; I say leave it. Any carving you do will look really new, so better to let nature do it over time imo

[Rory]

Personally I'm in the opposite camp. I would be getting rid of that and the dead area of the fig. Deadwood on a fig never seems to go well for me. It encourages rot and I remove it. Each to their own though. Fungi growing like this can be a sign of something bad underneath. I'd remove all the rotten or rotting area and spray with Rid-Rot.

[TimIAm]

Maybe you already know, but it's also worth thinking about why it's rotting. Looks very damp (i can see it is obviously just watered, but too much damp possibly a cause of the damage?).

[Albo]

I went in and removed the dead areas with a knife. I figured it was probably retaining moisture under the bark. Was a bit of dark, soft dead wood. Was easy to remove and easy to see where the live areas started. Should dry out better now.
New growth is nice and healthy.
I quite like this chonky fig.