Artillery fungi usually feed on wood mulch but aren't much interested in bark products. But any kind of organic material is fair game. These pesky organisms will even grow and feed on old wooden benches, siding, old window frames, etc. I had the devil of a time figuring out how a woman's car kept getting splattered while it was parked in her garage. I finally found the tiny mushrooms happily growing on the unpainted window casings of her old, out of repair garage.

My usual suggestions included switching to pine park nuggets or (better) pinestraw. A light top dressing of bark or pinestraw on top of the wood mulch can greatly help, too. I hate to recommend stone products but that would completely solve the problem.

As for removing those sticky periodoles (spore packets), no one has been able to solve that issue, can you believe it? Best idea so far is to scrape them off or use a power washer, then come back with the magic eraser after the periodole surface has been scraped off somewhat. The magic eraser can remove the stain left behind.

wonder if you could sterilize it .. before use... and kill the spores???

back in the day.. i got a dollar store turkey pan .... dampened media ... covered with alum foil .... made a few holes ... and heated it in the oven until steam started coming out ... i figured steam at 212 degrees was probably overkill... but good enough ...

it amused me.. the worlds biggest peat based jiffy pop ... lol ...

took me weeks to use up what i had sterilized ....

its always easier.. to avoid a problem ... as compared to curing a problem ....

ken

I had been using bagged ($$) "Orchid Bark" which I assumed was fungus free. Assume nothing!!! Many homes around here use wood mulch/bark products in their yards and this could have come from anywhere, and those airborne spores happily found a home in a damp hosta pot that has decaying bark. The little yellow mushrooms are smaller than mustard seeds.

-Babka

i used to suffer thru fungus gnats.. growing under lights in winter ....

until i started sterilizing EVERYTHING ... my idea was.. if i started as a sterile operating room .... then i could limit or avoid a lot of problems.. like gnats.. algae ... etc ...

so in fall.. i started with the light rack.. then the pots.. then the tools.. then the media ... and then cleaning the seed because the wings might carry stuff ....and the watering pots .... and water jugs.. since i wanted room temp water .... etc.. etc ...

and then repotting soil ...

ken

I am happy I have a brick house.......can’t see them if they are there.

Ken —- do you use straight bleach to disinfect?

Sorry to hear about the fungus Babka. I hope you will be able to get rid of it.

First time I'm hearing about this. I've got lots of moist wood mulch all over the place and never thought about anything like this happening. Sorry that this showed up at your place, Babka.

Me too! The fungus won't hurt your plants, but keep an eye out for tiny, stuck tight dark brown dots on light colored things and then go looking at any decaying wood. I have lived in this house since the mid 70's with and this is my first experience with it. Hopefully it will be my last.

-Babka