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Moss, Ferns & Cryptogams

mushrooms invading my garden

14 years ago

When I planted my garden this year I used cotton burr compost for the first time. Now that it's been a few weeks since tilling the garden I seem to have these tiny mushrooms sprouting everywhere. They only grow in the early morning and seem to have disappeared by about 11am or so. The pictures below were taken at about 7am.

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mushrooms1sb4.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mushrooms2kj1.jpg

How can I get rid of them? Do they pose any threat to my onions or tomatoes? And does anyone know what type of mushrooms these are?

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Comments (3)

greenlarry
14 years ago
I can't get those links to work. Try entering them in the URL box
bambuda
13 years ago
Should not be a problem. Actually is usually very good. Obviously you have invited a saprophyte (=lives off of dead material) into your garden, by adding the cotton hull waste. Whether the mushrooms you have are edible or not is another matter. In my opinion it is beneficial to have mushrooms. Very few will attack garden plants (none I know of), but at the same time they help to reduce the stress on your garden plants by connecting the mulch together with their mycelium strands. This seems to effectively widen the reach of your plants' root systems. Most mushrooms are very beneficial organisms. Generally, we have the Brits the thank for our "fungal phobia". Most other ethnicities regard fungi as something good. A large majority of mushrooms are not poisonous. Respect them, they do an extraordinary job. Just don't eat any that you are not absolutely positive of-- and be sure to always cook the ones you do know. There is some good info in "Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms can Help Save The World" by Paul Stamets. And lots of good websites on the subject, just do a google search.
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taz6122
13 years ago
greenlarry the links work fine. Paste them in your browser NOT your search box.
tomatodisaster I had these same mushrooms growing in my garden last year and my plants did great. The spores were in miracle grow garden soil so I'm sure they are not bad for any plants. They don't get big enough to eat and frankly I would not try. I did a search and found several that looked the same. Without an expert in fungi it's hard to tell what they are.

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