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| I am a new homeowner and therefore new to gardening. This is my first spring in our house. We have mulch covering a number of flower bed on our backyard. One day, after a heavy rain, I noticed a moist yellow pile laying on top of some of the mulch. My first though was that some mammal (a racoon or skunk) had gotten sick adn thrown up. After a day the moist yellow curd became a slightly puff orange/peach colored mass, then became grey and wilted. After later rains, a few more yellow "piles" have appeared, gone through these changes, and wilted.
I suspected this is some kind of fungus or mold. Could this have been placed as part of the hemlock mulch I used? Should something be done about it? If so, what would you suggest? Will this hurt my flower and shrubs in the area? Thanks,
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by susanzone5 z5NY (My Page) on Sun, Jun 26, 05 at 15:34
| Sounds like a slime mold...one of nature's decomposers. |
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- Posted by trish(tkcrn@hotmail.com) onThu, Jul 13, 06 at 22:39
| I recently have found the same bright yellow mold on my mulch in my flower beds. i have never seen any thing like it before. i took pictures of it and have showed it to many people and they haven't either. i have had 4 piles of it and it keeps coming back in different places. if you find out what it is, please let me know. thank you. |
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- Posted by Jeff Zaref(jzaref@post.harvard.edu) onFri, Jul 14, 06 at 6:45
| I since found out it is yellow slime mold, called (appropriately) by some the dog vomit fungus. Gross, but totally harmless. Scientific name: fuligo septica. Here are a few good web pages: http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/june99.html http://waynesword.palomar.edu/slime1.htm When I first saw it, I thought my landscapers had put down contaminated mulch. Not true, it just happens, especially in wet damp weather. Good luck! Jeff |
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| I've got it, too. New hardwood mulch. Some orange, some yellow and some black. It goes away eventually. |
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- Posted by Kevin(Ktb815@sbcglobal.net) onMon, Aug 28, 06 at 23:34
| I have just had this type of mold. I've been using all types of mulch at my home in Indianapolis, IN. and have never had this. But my home I'm working on up north about 50 miles around Nobelsville had just grown this type of mold and it was a fresh supply that we had just got at the end of July. When I went to clean it up, It gave a fine brown dust that wouldn't absorb water nor would water knock down the dust. A'm I still talking about the same kind of mold? |
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| Probably. You've seen the images, you can decide best. The fine brown dust particles are spores. ;-) Remember...not to worry. |
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- Posted by kris(spoongebob16@yahoo.com) onMon, Oct 8, 07 at 21:30
| I work at a daycare where this same type of mold is appearing on an almost daily basis. So I read on one of the follow-ups that it is not harmful, but my question is if this would affect people with mold allergies? |
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- Posted by Betsy(cartison2@aol.com) onFri, Feb 25, 11 at 19:09
| I have a bright yellowish, orange mold on top of my mulch pile. It has black holes in it and some kind of black liquid weeping out of the black holes!! It is scary. Could anybody help me and tell me what it is and if it is dangerous. Thanks! |
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- Posted by samtheman(samtheman@yhoo.com) onMon, Apr 25, 11 at 3:13
| Wear gloves and a mask and scoop out with a shovel. Mix one quarter cup bleach and about one and three quarter cups water mixture and pore it on where the mold was and where the spores still may be. In other words ....remove and kill :B |
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| Please don't pour bleach into the soil. You have one of the stinkhorn fungi, not dangerous, and simply requires removal of the fruiting body with your shovel. Attempting to sterilize the area with bleach is futile...and bad for the soil. Keep your eyes open for more of these mushrooms and remove them before they get to the point you've seen this one. Spores are located in that slime. The actual fungal organism is an expansive net work of mycelium and hyphae located in the soil and mulch layer, busy at work decomposing organic matter. Stinkhorns of many different kinds are almost always found in the mulch. Breaking mulch down into the good stuff that plants can benefit from is the 'job' of saprophytic fungi. |
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- Posted by John(cjchasse@charter.net) onWed, Jun 15, 11 at 21:06
| I have the fungus growing on my plants. Is this dangerous for eating and should the plant be destroyed. |
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| I just want to reiterate that this slime mold is harmless. Gross, but harmless. Just think if it as the Blob and smile. I've included a link that has information about their biology. Did you know that the whole thing you see is a single cell? Fungi are really important to your garden. Yes, a few make your plants sick, but many, many more help build soil, provide nutrients to your plants, and one type (mycorrhizae) have a symbiotic relationship with 95% of plants that makes them grow better. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Slime Mold facts
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| Why do people keep posting questions without reading the thread (which answers their questions) first? (I read the whole thread and it doesn't answer this question.) AND I came here because I found a yellow dog vomit slime mold on the compost pile today & wanted to verify. Very cool stuff. |
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- Posted by purpleinopp 8b AL (My Page) on Fri, Jun 29, 12 at 9:57
| Truly a question for the ages...! |
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| I'd personally like to thank dirt for dredging up this ancient thread, lol. |
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