Experimental Infection of Small-Diameter Trees with Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) in a Postagrogenous Birch Forest

In the Plyussky district of the Pskov region, an experiment was carried out to infect birch trees with the Chaga pathogen Inonotus obliquus in an 18-year-old postagrogenic birch forest. After 10 years of the experiment, sterile bodies of Chaga were found on six out of ten trees, swelling of the bark was found in one tree, and one tree died from Phellinus nigricans. Infected trees continued to grow at a rate no different from the rest of the forest. Sterile growths were mainly located above the inoculation site. The study showed that the production of Chaga raw materials can be considered as an additional form of forest management in the Non-Black Earth Region of Russia.