Mushrooms Sprouting Out Of My Smart Pots?

[HippyFarmerT]

Hey friends! I came across this little guy while watering today. He is probably a half inch in size. Does anyone else ever have little white mushrooms such as these sprouting from the sides of smart pots? It's happening on a pot with basil in it, though cannabis has been in the soil too, I'm just curious to know if it's due to good soil biology or possible bad soil biology. The basil is doing really well and I grow in 3 gallon pots of home grown vermicompost. Maybe it's because of the coco in the media? I've heard of coco sprouting mushrooms but idk! Anyone have inputs? :) thanks

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

Spores deposited on your smart pot, most likely floating in the air when you opened your door and floated in or was already present in your media. They only need moisture, fresh air and nutrients to grow. If you look at spores under a microscope they look like moving living creatures, the spores reproduce and mutate into mycellium, the mushrooms then sprout out of this mycellium. So you must have some mushroom mycellium growing in your soil and it has reached the outer edge of the pot and sprouted a mushroom.
It can actually be good for your soil, adding organic matter but can also attract a whole slew of pests trying to feed on the mycellium and feeding on your roots in the process. If your soil has beneficial microbes then you shouldnt be worried about pests anyway.
DO NOT EAT!

 

[HippyFarmerT]

@DrMcSkunkins thanks for such an informative post. I do indeed have quite a variety of beneficial microbes in my soil. I will keep an eye on it though and if anything looks crazy, will try to control population/balance microbes. I only have my 60x handheld scope to look at things but am getting a standalone microscope in November, so if they are still around or poppin up then, I'll look at some more closely then. And get to take a much better look at the ratios of microbes in my soil. Thanks again for giving me some answers!

 

[DrMcSkunkins]

It looks poisonous but if you would like to see the spores when you get your new microscope just wait until the cap opens a little more then cut the cap from the stem with a sharp knife and put it on a piece of aluminum foil veins down with half of the foil loosley folded over to keep off the dust. Let it sit for a day and take the cap out of the foil and discard. When you get your microscope you can add some water to a bit of the spores and put a drop on a slide to see the weird action.

 

[tinderthumbs]

I just did a post about 2 days about this as well been getting a lot of mushroom in my coco soil had death caps lol happens when u doing a lot of watering