Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Cultivation => Composts => Topic started by: vanozzi on November 04, 2009, 04:51:49 AM
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I'm worried !!
About 4 months ago, I bought 8 cu. metres of composted recycled green waste to put on my lilium beds.It was applied at maybe 25cm deep (8"), ie not dug in but used as a mulch.All liliums, trumpets,OT's, orientals etc,have come through it fine (species are elsewhere).
Yesterday I saw this pinkish blob at the end of one row and just thought someone had tossed something over the fence, but this morning when I went to investigate, I found 3 different sized blobs of fungi, yesterday's one looked as though it had already spored and was drying up, but one other was very fresh looking, more pink in the morning at 11AM when I first checked them out, now a little yellowish at mid afternoon when these pictures were taken.The large fresh one is about 20cm x 30cm and about 35mm thick.(8'' x 12" + 1'' thick).
I've phoned the supplier who "will get back to me, "--I think he will as they are a major company here in Melbourne, but they didn't produce it, but bought it in.
Any ideas of what it may be, if it's harmful and what treatment could I give my compost if I'm really concerned that I may have introduced harmful organisms to my patch.It looks as though it grows and fruits in maybe 2 days.
Here are 4 pictures of the blobs.
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Paul, I don't think that you need to be too worried about the fungi. They are a nuisance but I don't think that they will harm the bulbs.
This is one of the problems with municiple green compost, there is all sorts of 'rubbish' in it. If I have green waste material from my garden that I do not wish to put in my own compost bins then I send it to the councils recycling centre and I guess that everyone else does, also. The trouble is that we are being forced into using this stuff when we buy soil conditioner. It used to be just composted bark, but no more. It is now a mix. Yeah, I can already hear the peat users saying 'I told you so!' ;)
The fungi only live for a few days as visible organisms so I would try picking them off as they appear and binning them.
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I'm actually quite fond of the surprises that show up in mulch and await them with my camera (lovely stinkhorn the other day). They are TOTALLY natural and are just doing their job....
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Fungi always grow on decomposing organic substances. Just doing their job and turning stuff into better soil. Some of them look pretty scary though!
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Thanks for the replies guys.
The "technical consultant" concerned with the production of this compost has assured me that I have nothing to worry about.He also said that the compost is heated in excess of 55c and held for longer than 3 days.This effectively kills any harmfull organisms and any seeds.He declined to identify the fungus unseen, so I have emailed the pictures but have had no reply to date.
Searching the web, I am now pretty sure that the fungus is Fuligo septica, which is a species of plasmodial slime mold.Most infomation that I found says that it is harmless to humans, however wikipedia says "This species is known to cause asthma and allergenic rhinitis in susceptible people."
I quite like this compost actually as I thought it ideal for stem rooting liliums.The bulbs are in the soil with soil on top, then 20cm of compost for the stem roots to feed through.Also given that Melbourne had over 46c last growing season, the liliums need that covering to survive.We are also still on water restrictions, 155 litres per person per day.The last 4 days have seen the hottest November in 100 years of records, so what this summer is going to bring.... :(