User avatar
jedson
Full Member
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 4:26 pm
Location: Bangor Maine

what is this mushroom

All at once a LOT of mushrooms started showing up in my garden. Probably they are from the town transfer station where I get my mulch. Would like to know what they are. (My default position is that all mushrooms I don't buy at the grocery store are poisonous.) These are between some rows of beans. I am inclined to leave them alone unless they are likely to cause a problem. Any info and or advise would be welcome.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13274362/photos/mushrooms_1.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13274362/photos/mushrooms_2.jpg

User avatar
vegetable-gardener88
Full Member
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri May 27, 2011 9:59 am
Location: UK

I don't know what they are but I get them in my garden - I think they come from spores in the manure we get. If I get to many I just pull my foot allow and they break off.

tomc
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2661
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:52 am
Location: SE-OH USA Zone 6-A

As a guess only, inky caps. Where ever there is (or was) wood you will find the fruiting body(s) of mycellium.

Spring is often wet enough for fruiting bodys to form.

User avatar
MissMeshow
Full Member
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 2:33 pm
Location: Grand Junction, CO

This is not the inky cap I am familiar with, which are a lot thicker and have a cap that kind of looks shaggy. But of course there are a jillion different kinds. Growing up my family just referred to these types as LBMs (little brown mushrooms) and stayed away from them just in case. In the world of growing viviariums mushrooms are welcomed guests and a sign of a well established tank, but I guess in a situation where you don't want toxic shrooms to get all over your food I would just stomp them.

cynthia_h
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7500
Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 7:02 pm
Location: El Cerrito, CA

I share the OP's policy that "all mushrooms not bought at the store [farmer's market, etc.] are toxic." These *may* be harmless; if children or pets live in your household, though, I would pick them and toss them into the trash.

If there are no children or pets in the house, view the shrooms as an experiment: how many days do they grow before either dying or just becoming a complete annoyance?

When I added my compost to the raised beds for the first time in 2008 (new beds), spindly black mushrooms sprang up. But each day they would die, so there was no danger of my dogs getting to them, even to smell them. *whew*

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

User avatar
jedson
Full Member
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 4:26 pm
Location: Bangor Maine

You make some good points, Cynthia. I have no children or dogs around to worry about so I think I will just do as you suggest -- watch them and see what I learn from them. They are very beautiful, actually. I like to see them peeking up beneath other things I am growing. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13274362/photos/00004.jpg . If they seem to be damaging something, though, I guess maybe I will take some action.

But they do not seem to be possible sources of food. I looked up mushrooms in Wikipedia. They said, "Don't gather mushrooms that are difficult to identify, unless you have expert knowledge. This applies especially to the mushrooms of the genus Amanita or Cortinarius and "little brown mushrooms."

No two ways about it. What I've got is little brown mushrooms.

jedson

User avatar
Kisal
Mod Emeritus
Posts: 7646
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:04 am
Location: Oregon

I get those in my yard every year. All over the place. Some guy once knocked on my door and asked if I knew I had psylocybin mushrooms growing in my yard. I just said "no" and closed the door. I seriously doubt that's what they are. :lol:

None of my pets or the wild animals I rehabbed ever paid any attention to them. They go away when the ground dries a bit. :)

amyb1984
Newly Registered
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:08 am

mushrooms are digusting!!!!!

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Ah, but mushrooms/fungi are very important part of an organic garden biology. :D

A couple of links for background info:
https://www.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Fpaul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=43

:wink:

tomc
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2661
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:52 am
Location: SE-OH USA Zone 6-A

amyb1984 wrote:mushrooms are digusting!!!!!
They are part of the micro-herd of living things we need in a garden to keep it fertile.

Mycoriza have a mutualism thing going with living (and dead) woody plants.

If the fruiting body (mushrooms) of mycoriza are objectionable to your esthetic, simply pick them and compost them. They do not hurt row crops.

User avatar
jedson
Full Member
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 4:26 pm
Location: Bangor Maine

They do not hurt row crops.
Good info. I sort of like them, myself. So I can do nothing at all about them. That's the kind of action plan I like. I do know enough about mushrooms to know the ones I have are not one of the species that produces psilocybin, nor are they inkycaps. Just some kind of little brown mushroom -- to be admired but not eaten.

jedson



Return to “Organic Gardening Forum”