What in the world is this thing??

[countrymyst]

Hello all! I'm new to this board, but my first impressions tell me this is the place to be!! No matter how long you've been gardening, there are always questions (and other folks to help!)...

Anyway, this is a new one on my husband and me. He planted salad mix seeds into wheat straw bales, with a layer of good soil and compost on top. Seeds were sprouting and starting to grow, then this thing showed up:

[img]https://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh13/countrymyst/DSCF6293400x300.jpg[/img]

It started out looking like a cheesy white cauliflower-ish thing...then a day or so later it looked like the photo. It eventually turned dark, and my husband flipped it off of the bale and got rid of it. After that, the salad started growing like it was on steroids! We've since had the same thing show up on the bale next to it, where another variety of lettuce is planted.

Husband doesn't want to eat the gorgeous salad that has grown since (well, neither do I, really!)...does anyone have an idea of what it might be?? It looks toxic, but is it??

If anyone has any ideas about what this might be, I'd sure love to hear them! Thanks in advance...

[Kisal]

Although I wouldn't recommend that you eat the growth, I seriously doubt it's made your veggies poisonous. It looks like a type of slime mold to me. Sometimes, slime molds are called Dog Vomit fungi. Not appealing, but quite descriptive.

[applestar]

According to this article, some people eat them: https://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/chicago_gardener/2007/06/dog-vomit-slime.html

[countrymyst]

@ Kisal: LOL!! That's a great name for it...we were calling it "previously eaten nachos" eeeew!!!

@ applestar: Thank you for that article!! Very informative...will pass it on to my husband...though I still don't think we'll eat it, especially after this quote from the article:

"To answer everyone's most urgent question first, it's utterly harmless to people, pets and plants. In fact, Fuligo septica is edible. Native people in some parts of Mexico gather it and scramble it like eggs. I hear they call this dish "caca de luna," which I will let you translate for yourself, and which is an even more entertaining name than dog vomit slime mold."

[rainbowgardener]

"caca de luna" I love it! I'm not sure what the point of planting in to the straw bales was in the first place. Given that bales are compacted, it seems almost guaranteed to give rise to mold/fungus issues in rainy weather.