I would think you could pull the fungus and compost it as a weed. You might want to wash your hands afterward. We lost a Norway maple tree last year, to windstorm damage, and there were something like a dozen large mushrooms in our front yard two months later, growing on the buried roots, I suppose. It turns out the mushrooms were of an edible variety. It took considerable reading to establish this as fact, and I also did a "spore image" on some white paper, to determine the color of the spores. I can't say if your mushrooms are edible, or not.

Fungi are an important part of the soil web. I don't think cup fungi attack living plants. I don't see what the problem is.

Ditto. Some fungi will damage plants, some will be benign and essentially unnoticed, and others will actually help plants to grow better. You can't assume they are all weeds.

Wish I knew more about this one, but I don't. Looks cool though! It will probably go away fairly fast, the fruiting bodies (the part you see above ground) are usually short-lived.

With it only near the plant in this photo, I would assume it came from the nursery where that plant was purchased.

I'm with Tox, it's very cool and since most mushroom type things have entirely different needs than plants, they rarely cause harm to the plant. Not impossible , but personally I would just enjoy it's short life span. This is the reason mushroom compost is sold when it's 'used up'( it's a waste product that the mushrooms can no longer use), and then is full of good things plants use.

My next door neighbor routinely brings firewood into town from his property. I pick up left over chunks, lay them here and there in my garden as accent pieces, and wait for spring or fall, as each one gives me odd mushrooms popping up. It's great fun to watch, though their show is short, and unfortunately they seem to only regenerate for about three years, then our in town climate or soil nutrients lack something they need, and that's the end of that particular show.

Side note.. ya ! This is a test post. Finally logged in with my new computer after a very long time when this site didn't cooperate. :)

You have to have fungi in your soil if you want it to be healthy. No fungi no health. Yes, it is a pity that they are not morels, but it would be worse without. To get rid of them, wait a week. But if I were you, I would feed them some saw dust, or chopped leaves.

It's not from the nursery plant because I have it in the new lawn also... When I do pull them, have to be careful because then give off this "puff" of I guess spores? Isn't there a organic way of killing them? I read maybe vinegar/water mixture or?

..
You're in Calley Forn Ya as our former governator used to say. Unless you're on a former bog or in the middle of a costal forrest up north, it's going to all dry up and go away by the end of spring. Enjoy the novelty while it lasts. If you're lucky, you'll get dog vomit slime mold too. I swear it looks just like dog vomit.

Pretty cool but that's just me.

to sense
..

You mushroom hater you. ;)

So it's the whole lawn. I misunderstood. Yeah, that's an investment and I can see why they bother you.

Since I only know about fairy rings, I Googled.. 'cause I've got the dog vomit slime right now in a compost bin. Been wondering what the deal is. Added the best link, though it does not have your cups.

Anybody know if it's something I added to the 'close to the house, winter add all the things' compost bin, that has caused my dog vomit.. which now looks like dog poop from a very sick dog ? I tried turning it a couple times but that just encouraged it. This time I put the lid back on and walked away. ewww..... Don't look so close is my current policy. It will die some day right ?

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74100.html

Unless you have some real reason to hate these mushrooms, I'd ignore them (or at most pick the mushrooms and toss them in the compost bin).

I had the same experience as ericwi above - when a tree dried, a certain type of mushroom came up after every moist night in dozens and dozens. They were inky caps that would dissolve into a black mess. After some digging on the internet, discovered that this mushroom was likely consuming the bits of roots that hadn't been pulled up with the tree stump.

So I'm guessing what's happening is that these mushrooms are fruiting like crazy due to the disruption in the soil from the landscaping - they're either actively consuming something in the old/new soil, or fruiting to try to spread to a new area (after their previous habitat was messed with).

It'll probably go away after a season, maybe two, and if not, not causing any harm anyway. Again, unless there's something that's bothering you about these apart from their proliferation.

I wouldn't worry about the dog vomit slime either - esp since there's probably nothing you can do about it. It's breaking stuff down too.

And if you want a positive spin, it just may be helping with respect to some metals and pollutants - it's known to tolerate hugely high levels of zinc by chelating it into inactive forms. There's a mention in the wikipedia article on it, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuligo_septica .

And it makes me feel better that the yellow pigment is related to that ability to fix the metals.

This post was edited by armoured on Sun, Mar 24, 13 at 21:08

Here is an organic way for you to kill the mushroom (or most type of fungi)--- nitrogen mixture. A mushroom farmer told me that fungi hate nitrogen and in fact they don't need any nitrogen to grow mushrooms. There are two ways to go about it:
1. Mix some urea or nitrogen fertilizer with water and spray/water the mushroom with it.

2.Have guys pee on the thing.

Haha rott. I have dog vomit slime mold too. Last weekend my neighbor and I were talking and he was concerned about the local wildlife. He thought there miht be something wrong with the racoons because they kept throwing up in his yard. I just had to laugh.

Shaggy manes (or shaggy ink caps) are edible when young. Wish I had a big patch. However the inky cap (a different species) is less edible, especially when consumed within hours of ingesting alcohol. Read all about these two at Wiki if you're interested. (and don't eat mushrooms unless you're absolutely sure what they are, including a small taste test).

Armoured,

Thank you so much for the help about my dog volmit slime. I followed the link you provided and went from there. Found this:

quote:
The plasmodium of Fuligo septica is transparent, like an egg white. In fact the plasmodium is gathered and eaten in Mexico! Usually the plasmodium comes out at night and is collected by moonlight in jars. The plasmodia are brought home, where they are mixed and eaten like scrambled eggs!!

Whoa !!!!!

So I have taken the lid off my slime in order to 'appreciate' it. Sadly it seems it may be on it's final legs. The back side looks really bad and is turning black. Though now with light again, things no longer change. It will be interesting to see what happens next. This is definitely the weirdest fungus I've run into.

Here is a link that might be useful: More about our dog volmit

For those who may not be familiar, a note about flushes of mushrooms over a large area: many of them are actually the fruit of a fungus, most of which lives underground as microscopic threads permeating the soil (aka mycelia). This explains why a dead tree may have mushrooms sprout all around it the next year: the mycelia are decomposing the woody roots (which fungi are much better at than bacteria).

Mushrooms usually only last a few days, but the mycelium will live for quite a while down there. In fact this can be very beneficial to your soil. Just don't start thinking that you've killed anything when you pick them or pour vinegar on them. You're only hitting the fruit on an upside-down, invisible tree. :-]

The shaggy ink cap is coprinus comatus, and is rightly considered one of the finest mushrooms. It can not be found in stores because it rots in literally 20 minutes once picked. It is so delicate I cook it with only salt and some grease, nothing else. If steamed within minutes of picking, it will last in the freezer. I can only enjoy the few that come up in my garden or in the lawn, but several years back there were huge flushes on the grounds of a nearby school (2 minutes walk from the back of my yard). Those were the times! There is really no reason to pick them if you are more than 5 minutes from your stove, and the pan should be already warm when you get home (bring your cell, call your wife ahead). Unless you are really stupid, shaggy mane is distinguishable from every other mushroom, specially if you pick younger ones near the messy ink blobs that the old ones become.

The one that gives you intestinal discomfort is coprinus atramentaria, but only if you drink alcohol with it (it deactivates the enzyme responsible for breaking down alcohol). It is not toxic per se. It pains me to see people waste all these wonderful, healthy wild foods. Why can't I have a lawn overrun with mushrooms?

Is cup fungi good for us or bad for us?

I am just 8 years old you know? And that comment I sent was so anyone of you knew the answer so I could know I could get the answer right in my science exam and I would have a higher chance of getting full marks, so if any of you know the answer please tell meeeeee!

Thanks!

Is your question about eating these fungi or their place in the ecosystem?

Some cup fungi may be poisonous to some people while others would not be, it depends. As a general rule fungi in soil is beneficial to us since they help digest the organic material in soil and make nutrients available to other plants.

kimmq is kimmsr

There are of course many cup fungi around the world. It appears some are edible but many are not. According to this site:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/cups.html

some may not just be decomposers of dead organic matter, but are actually symbiotic with certain trees.

I have this fungus growing in the seed starting mixture I purchased from Dollar Store in early February to get my flowers and vegetables started indoors early. It has sprouted in about 1/3 of the seedling pots.....so far. (Dollar Store was only store that had seed sprouting mixture at that time.) The mixture I later purchased at Walmart doesn't contain the spores - only seedlings growing in those pots. I take it from reading this thread that there probably isn't any harm to be done to my seedlings by this fungus--at least, I hope not.

cunucubeach The presence of above-ground fungi is a result of the right conditions, steady moisture being one of them. If they were mine, I would only be concerned about the seedlings being too wet and gaining that bad fungi that kills the seedlings (dampening off disease). Withholding water for a bit would be my next task.

Otherwise, I love seeing fungi anywhere, any time any time in the garden. The soil is alive and moist. We're pretty dry here, so when I see shrooms, I know I've done something well.

bon

This is probably just a harmless fungus decomposing the shredded wood in your seed starting mix. Good advice about not letting these seedlings stay too wet though.