A few months ago after putting out a 1/3 inch layer of coffee grounds on a new vegetable bed, I saw this yellow orange funk that looked like a blop of foam sealing, but it wasn't. I figured it was because I put out too much grounds and tried to ignore it. A week or two later I noticed a black puff that came up when the water spout hit the foam spot.
This week it is back. This picture is a blob I found yesterday.
Here is a second blob I found on top of a pine cone.
Is this not a harmless sacrophytic growth using the grounds as food? If I am right, it will go away when the food source is used up.
Here is a third blob that showed up a day earlier. It seems like it is a pasty color the first day, then turns to gray the second day. It gets darker & flatter till it blends in with the dirt.
I am thinking it is a fungus/mold type thing that produces spores (the black cloud). With all the rain lately it may be reproducing again. Is this an OK part of trying to grow organinc and do some "no dig" layering of organic material/mulch stuff or should I be scooping it up and throwing it away. The first set of blobs were in a bed that had a layer of newspaper, grass clippings, then coffee grounds. The new spots appeared on top of broken down pine straw.
Let me know what ya'll think!
Thanks!
Tabitha
Your plants are not in danger in any way. Spores for these things are everywhere, just waiting for the right conditions to sprout and grow. Just like cold germs. Use a fungicide if you want to, but it sounds like you are "organic" and would not want to do that. If the stuff is ugly looking, remove as much as you want to so you feel better, but it will blend into the ground eventually and you'd never know it was there.
There is something in your mulch or in your soil that it likes to feed on. That's all it's after. It's something that is decaying but not yet totally decomposed. This is gross, but it's kind of like maggots liking dead flesh and not living flesh.
The black puff is just spores that puffed out like smoke when you hit it with the water. I have this from time to time and also another kind that looks like dog barf (disgusting, I know, but that's really what it looks like). They don't harm the plants and will disappear on their own. I've never treated for it, but I'm sure a fungicide would work.
You can sprinkle them with dry garlic powder (like you get at the grocery store) and they'll go away if you're really worried about them.
I'm not worried about them if they don't harm the plants. I am more curious than anything else. I have never seen anything like it and would be interested to know what it is and how it grows.
Dry Garlic Powder?????
Is this a Vampire Fungus??
:-)
morganc, great line!
madrid, just Google saprophytic fungi soil.
I've heard it called Dog Vomit Fungus. When I see it in my flowerbeds, I take it as a sign that all is well (same with seeing mushrooms). Being organic isn't always pretty. :-)
Carla
Indeed Dog Vomit Fungus is what I heard it called and the name is certainly appropriate. I've had it in black, neon orange, and a color that looked like sour dough. It's interesting, but ugggggly.
Here is a link that seems to explain it. I had it a time or two also.
http://herbarium.usu.edu/fungi/FunFacts/SlimeMold.htm
It looks like pictures of fuligo septica, a slime mold whose common name is dog vomit slime! How funny! I will take it as a sign of a nice healthy garden with lots of decomposition going on. Thank you for all your information and help figuring out what it is!
This link had some pictues of it in different stages:
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/slime1.htm
i get this too and i read that it is harmless but i like all the explanations y'all gave--i do not like to squirt it because it blows that fine black dust around and i worry that the dust is bad to breath or could start a new fungi somewhere else--i think after reading this that i have the answer to both concerns--
