Strange Mushrooms...

[grubbysoles]

Hi all,

I recently bought some compost from the local tip, as it was pretty cheap (and yes, I DO have a compost bin, before you all tell me off for buying compost!!). I've been using it to get some seedlings going for the veggie patch before I plant them outside, but these weird little mushroom things keep sprouting here and there in the compost. Does anyone know what they are or why they would be there?! I've never seen this happen in any other compost - only this cheap stuff from the tip. Am I going to poison myself if I keep growing seedlings in this stuff!?

Many thanks, enjoy the sunshine today.

[jim]

Dear Grubbysoles,

Fungi are a natural agent in the decay and recycling process of compost. Don't worry about them and don't eat them until someone proves to you the mushrooms are safe!

Have fun in ther garden!

Love and Peace
Jim

[peak_oil]

Would it be possible for you to post a picture of the mushrooms?

I might be able to tell you what they are.

[grubbysoles]

OK, I'll try to post a picture (although I'm not too good with that advanced level of computer use!). I've been weeding them out as soon as they sprout so I'll let a couple grow big enough to take a photo. Some of them seem to shrivel up and die before they get very big, although this might be a result of my, urm, rather sporadic style of watering.

[Enormous Sage]

I had mushrooms sprouting up through my veggie patch when I mixed in a load of wood chippings with the soil to try to give it some substance. It did, but the resultant crop of weird mushrooms was impressive.
They didn't seem to harm anything and didn't show up on the list of poisonous funghi in my *a-hem* SAS Survival manual, they looked like wood mushrooms to me, but I left them alone to be on the safe side.

Maybe the compost you have has a lot of wood chippings in?

From experience, it tends to be a spidery mould that kills off seedlings (damping off?), rather than mushrooms.

[sleepyowl]

I'm thinking about growing mushrooms on the tree stumps to help them rot down but want something a little different

[grubbysoles]

Hi Enormous Sage. Yes, the compost does seem to have a lot of wooden stuff in it - I'm often having to budge little sticks and things out of the way. Perhaps that's why. There are 2 new weird mushrooms coming through so I'll post a pic in a couple of days, when they are all grown up.