There's now two mushrooms sprouting next to my pepper plant *sigh*

[Jennifer]

So I went out in the garden this morning and I found two mushrooms sprouted right beside my hot pepper plant. I watered the plants on Thursday morning and then Friday and Saturday we got a decent amount of rain (I watered kind of heavily as I didn't believe the weatherman) and am expecting some more rain maybe in the next few days. I water on Mondays and Thursdays and tend to do so heavily as we have had outrageous heat here with nighttime temps staying above 85 and daytime temps in the mid 90s or higher with a heat index (tons of humidity here) over 100 daily. By Thursday typically the soil underneath my mulch felt dry enough for another watering, but I guess with the rain (Friday's rain was a lot) it was too much.

Is there anything I can do or if I move the mulch will I see a bunch of fungus (afraid to do so)? I've never had the problem of over-watering before (always the opposite ) and I would love to save the plant. Didn't see any other mushrooms or any of the other plants looking problematic, but the garden is on a small slope in the yard and the pepper plant is at the end where it probably gets the most run-off. Some of the leaves fall off to the touch and some of the new pepper buds/flowers have turned brown.

 

[thistlebloom]

I"ll admit up front that I don't know a lot about fungi, but I don't believe they are harmful to other plants. The spores are everywhere, and grow when the conditions favor them. Just pull them out, your pepper is likely stressing from the weather.

Move the mulch and let the ground dry a bit if you like, but really, you have nothing to fear from the mushrooms.

 

[momofdrew]

I would move the mulch to let the ground dry out some...let the sun kill off the fungi and then maybe put fresh mulch back on...

 

[lesa]

I do not consider that a problem, at all... If I see some type of mushroom/fungus- I just break it up, and go on my way. It surely will not hurt your pepper plant.

 

[dickiebird]

So I went out in the garden this morning and I found two mushrooms sprouted right beside my hot pepper plant. I watered the plants on Thursday morning and then Friday and Saturday we got a decent amount of rain (I watered kind of heavily as I didn't believe the weatherman) and am expecting some more rain maybe in the next few days. I water on Mondays and Thursdays and tend to do so heavily as we have had outrageous heat here with nighttime temps staying above 85 and daytime temps in the mid 90s or higher with a heat index (tons of humidity here) over 100 daily. By Thursday typically the soil underneath my mulch felt dry enough for another watering, but I guess with the rain (Friday's rain was a lot) it was too much.

I don't know where in St. L you are but I'm 30 mi. west, out hwy 30, and didn't get enough rain Fri to settle the dust. No rain at all Sat.

THANX RICH

 

[Jennifer]

Hey Rich--I live in the city of St. Louis and we got a lot of rain at once for a bit on Friday, the typical too much too soon thing that happens often here. We are expecting to be getting some tonight so I probably won't be watering tomorrow! The storm might not have went south enough to hit you in Cedar Hill, I didn't pay much attention to the radar.

I am relieved to hear this is nothing to worry about--my first thought was a fungi was going to kill all my plants and I had mold and everything down there! The first year I put soooo much more effort into my garden and I keep having all these problems. Just my luck!!

 

[thistlebloom]

Don't consider your mushrooms as a problem Jennifer, they are actually a good indication that you have good humus content in your soil.

 

[wifezilla]

I have shrooms in parts of my garden. No biggie. It's been raining a lot. The plants around the shrooms look just fine

 

[Jennifer]

Thank you all!

The mushrooms are now gone. I did some deep digging as I have lots of mulch on top of my soil and some of that black garden cloth to protect against weeds (it's doing a GREAT job since my stuff is right in the dirt) to check down there and see if anything looked problematic (especially around my hot pepper plant which doesn't look like it's doing well). Everything looked fine, the soil looked like, well, dirt, and wet (from the rain). I did this yesterday and I still haven't watered and won't for a while now. I did put some fertilizer added to a bit of water right on the roots/soil of my pepper and tomato plant to possibly help bring the pepper back to life and speed up production on the tomato (possibly due to the worms the newer tomato fruits take much longer to ripen and are smaller in size).

 

[wifezilla]

Just a heads up on the fungus near your garden plants... it may be a GOOD thing.

"Beneath your feet, plants and fungi are exchanging nutrients in a marketplace where generosity is rewarded and cheating punished. The two kingdoms were known to exchange nutrients at root level now, researchers have shown that they have evolved ways to enforce fair trading.

In almost every habitat on land, fungi intertwine with the roots of plants in mutually beneficial relationships known as mycorrhizal associations. Fungi provide plants with phosphorus they can't get from the soil on their own; plants provide fungi with carbohydrates. Many different plant and fungal species will often be linked in a single mycorrhizal association; and within such an association, several different fungi often colonise the roots of a single plant."
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20786-plants-and-fungi-share-fairtrade-underground-market.html