Rust...rusty soil.... fungus?

[blenderbender]

Hi... this is my first garden since relocating to Western Pennsylvania from Alaska. After over a week of humid and rainy weather, I awoke this morning to find the soil in my garden with what appears to be a patchy, rusty coloring. It is almost everywhere, not just in a particular area. I've read some about rust fungus, which it looks like, but it is just on the soil and not on any plants thus far. I'll attempt to post a couple pics. If anyone has an inkling what it is, and what, if anything I should do about it, I'd be most appreciative.

thanks.... Gary

[applestar]

I thought I'd read a post by a Pennsylvania member here that there is a lot of iron in their garden soil because of naturally occurring iron in the soil as well as ...um. Fallout? -- that might not be the correct term... from the smokes from iron processing in the by-gone era.

I couldn't find the relevant post/thread, but in the course of wider searching, I found this website which may be helpful to you. I'm curious to learn what you find out.
https://www.pennystone.com/soils/index.php

[blenderbender]

Thanks applestar.... can't say I gleaned a lot from that link, but appreciate your efforts. I'll update if I come up with anything useful from other forums.

[rainbowgardener]

Did you say this stuff just appeared and your soil wasn't like that before? To me that mitigates against the iron in the soil/ fallout theory, because it would have been that way already. I would guess fungus also, especially with the rain connection, but I don't know what kind.

[blenderbender]

Did you say this stuff just appeared and your soil wasn't like that before?

Yes, it was not there until this morning. I asked my neighbor if she has seen anything like it in her garden and she said yes, but when we went down and looked at hers there was nothing to be seen. It looks just like some of the images if one searches for "rust fungus", but all the images are of plants and leaves which is why I'm a little befuddled. I am querying Penn State Ag testing lab to see if I can have a sample tested. Thanks!

[imafan26]

I think you have a soil fungus that bloomed with the rain. There a millions of fungi and bacteria that normally live in the soil. The fungi and bacteria aid decomposition of organic matter and that is a good thing. The soil fungi rarely infect plants. If the plants don't show signs of the same "rust", I would not worry about it.

My guess is that you have a relatively acidic soil. Fungi are more prevalent than bacteria in acidic soils. Most plants prefer slightly acidic soils, unless you are growing rhodies or gardenia which absolutely love acidic soil.

[blenderbender]

Thanks.... since I am seeing no migration to plants so far.... I've pretty much quit thinking about it.