Mushrooms are just a sign that you have good healthy soil! If they bother you, just pluck them out as they appear.

Mushrooms are definitely not akin to garlic mustard, giant hogweed, or purple loosestrife in their invasiveness or annoying factor. A second to the previous poster in that you should simply remove what bothers you.

I'm no fungi expert, but it seems to me that many mushroom and toadstool like fungi tend to grow and complete their cycle in short order, vanishing almost as quickly as they appeared.

FataMorgana

cool...I'm somewhat less worried about them now. :) I thought they would be something that would multiple like crazy & take over the soil, killing the plants. I will just remove them as I see them then. Thanks! I'll post a follow-up to this topic if they get worse/annoying.

Wish I could gorw mushrooms that easy! Looks like your soil is VERY rich and high in manure and compost. I wouldnt eat them, unless you know they are a good kind. You can also get mushroom spores and grow them in the cooler weather indoors in a box in your cellar. They love darkness too. I used to get a box of white button grow kits which were just the spores adde to some high level black fertilizer/compost, and placed in acardboard box lined with a plastic bag. They grew about a month, (several each day), then pooped out. Was a fun experience

Some time out in the full sun should kill off both the mushrooms and their spores. Most fungi prefer cool, damp, shaded areas, and they don't like the sun.

What surprises me is that your seedlings have survived the conditions!

Use the mushroom-y soil in your garden. I agree with the others that it will be wonderfully rich in nutrients. It would make a good starter for a compost heap.

Well, they didn't seem to have returned in much force when I checked the plants this morning. There were a few stray ones (about 1/3rd of what I found yesterday morning). Thanks all for the input. Some of my soil in these pots is slightly recycled (old roots & plant pieces mashed up into it), so that may have had something to do with the mushrooms. My plants have survived the conditions just fine. The beans are not seedlings (in fact, producing beans as we speak...should have some in a week or so). The cucumber seedlings are growing at quite a pace (inch+ a day). The lavender is quite slow going, but I saw 4 little plants trying to pop through the soil this morning, so they're on their way. They will be the ones I keep the closest eye on to make sure the mushrooms don't affect them.

As mentioned, once it gets hot and sunny, the mushrooms die out. Usually they are only growing in very rich organic soil with high levels of natural nutrients. Once the soil as had roots and plants, these 'esential' nutrients are usually much less, so the possibility of more mushrooms returning may be very low. They certainly don't affect the plants growing nearby.

Yea, I think I got them in the beans cuz the plants are still young (even though they're producing already) & therefore not using anywhere near as much soil space & nutrients compared to what they'll use when they're adult plants. The other 2 cases are seedlings, which are seedlings, so they're not using much soil space or nutrients either.

One thing about beans, peas and that family. I use a soil innoculent when planting tyhe seeds. It adds a culture of live fungus that attaches to the roots of the beans and peas to help them absorb nitrogen better. I must say that after about 5 years of using ths product I have never been dissappointd with any yields of beans. Last years 10 yellow wax BUSH bean plants yielded me more than 6 gallon bags of frozen beans.

Yellow wax bush is what I'm doing right now. I'll have a handful of beans by early next week (2 plants) & they are barely over a month old! :)

re seedlings and damping off. I read sometime ago on an eco forum (forget which one) that pure chamomile tea, diluted, poured on the soil will kill the fungus that kills the seedlings. I've been doing that for years now and have not had a problem since. I just splash some water in the cooled tea to dilute just a little.

I use an bean innoculent in the seed holes. It gives me nearly double the amount of harvest. Its used for peas too. For me, damping off can be really well contolled by a biofungicide.

Here is a link that might be useful: BIofungicide for soil.

The mushrooms have all but gone away in everything except the Lavender seedling pot. I have bookmarked that site though, ksrogers. I'll check it out a bit later. Looks to be pretty sweet.

Hi! I like dogpaws chamomile tea idea to use as a soil treatment to prevent damping off in young seedlings. I have read that too, but, fortunately, have not had much of a problem, probably because I use a special no-soil seedling mix like PRO-MIX for germinating those seeds that I start early inside. Most of my veggies, basils and other annual herbs, are direct seeded into the garden--so much easier, but I do sacrifice having an earlier crop... If I do have a damping off problem, I'll probably try the chamomile tea first because it's something that I have in my kitchen, even in early spring, and by June my chamomile is blooming in the garden. I assume that you'd use the dried blossoms to make the tea,but think you could probably use bought chamomile tea bags,for the soil soak. I pick the blossoms and dry them myself-- such a nice appley smell--as that's what I use for tea, (and I used to use as a hair rinse, but I've given up on that now that the gray hairs are overtaking the red ones!) Did you know that the old herbalists called the annual chamomile the "plants' physician"? That's why I grow it as a companion plant in my veggie garden...
Re. the mushrooms in the seedling and other pots: I second or third the others--don't worry about it, unless they endanger the other plants, so just keep picking them out...