Moss murdered by mushrooms

[swords]

Hey folks, generally I always say "no sweat" when anyone asks about shrooms growing in their potting mix or planted vivarium, as it hasn't been a problem in the past as the mycellium burns itself out after whatever it's feeding on is exhausted. However, in this particular instance what the mycellium was feeding on was my beautiful live moss, not peat or orchid bark which is already "dead". So now the moss in several of my pots is totally dead & yellow - still puffy but not green and growing. Will it come back if I leave it alone and just keep flushing it or should I swap it out with new moss? I really hate to move the plants since they've only been potted for a few months at most but it looks so crappy compared to the pots of live moss.

One positive aspect of the shrooms is that it seems to have kick started my U. humboldtii which began putting up numerous leaves after sitting there looking bored for a year or so!

 

[thez_yo]

I had that happen in a heli-pot - the sphagnum moss just barely survived and still looks crispy 2+ months later

 

[Sig]

Hmm... Mushrooms growing on sphagnum... Do they happy to stain blue?

 

[swords]

SIG,
LOL Nope, they're just any number of common LBMs I guess.

Thez,
The moss isn't crispy (thankfully) it's still puffy but blonde / brown but not growing anymore and not looking great. Gonna try a light fertilizer flush on the "weird" pots and see if the moss greens back up, glad it's only about 3-4 small pots that I can see so far.

I had no idea sphagnum could sustain mushroom life - I assumed sphagnum was pretty nutrient devoid. Generally I get it in fresh orchid bark (around the 2-6 month mark) but this was in the sphagnum, whether it sprang up from the live sphagnum or the dead Chilean stuff I'm using as a moisture base in the HL chamber I couldn't say. I pulled out all the mycellium infested moss I could find in hopes of stemming the tide.

 

[BigBella]

I'd leave the moss and give it a chance to grow back. Generally the sphagnum spores are far more resilient to conditions than they are given credit . . .

 

[vraev]

I noticed something like that happened to my sphagnum once temps heated/changed. But eventually the moss came back. Its only if you start noticing algae or slime on the moss, you can think about removing it.

 

[RL7836]

I had no idea sphagnum could sustain mushroom life - I assumed sphagnum was pretty nutrient devoid.

Mine also get mushrooms. I suspect that it's the dead lower sections that support the growth. Most of the LFS in my tanks grows well with or without the fungi but I've had a 2 tanks where the moss died soon after I placed it in the tank and those 2 tanks (out of about 10 or so) never grew any LFS again. (although the very bane of my existence - liverworts - liked the conditions & thrived).

 

[swords]

Temps aren't raising even though it's summer. The HL chamber is controlled by a Zoomed Hygrotherm to stay 75*F days and 50*F nights with 95% RH. Otherwise my apartment is very warm, LL plants in an enclosure damn near grow themselves.

What I did notice on my fertilizer flush tonight is in the 3 most affected pots with absolutely "no" green sphagnum (2 x N. inermis and a dubia) is some other strain of moss is still green so the mushrooms only went for the sphagnum totally ignoring this other species (makes it easy to pluck out the strands of non-sphagnum). I will leave them for a while and see if the sphagnum rebounds, since it's not crispy just blond looking as if I'd used dried.

Ron,
I hope I don't get the no-live moss curse, now that I have good crops of it growing I love the stuff! Gonna start a new bin of live moss tonight actually...

 

[Dexenthes]

I am experiencing the same problem at the moment! Mushrooms have been sprouting up all over the place in my tank. I haven't been doing anything about it because I didn't mind seeing the fungus growing in there. But it is starting to kill some of my moss, and has infected some of my live potting moss.

I wonder if I should act on it soon. :|

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Ever thought to use physan 20 to kill the fungus? Has anyone used it on neps before? I have on orchids but not neps. Supposed to kill mold and fungus. I wonder if it will work on that kind of fungus?

 

[RL7836]

Ever thought to use physan 20 to kill the fungus?

For the most part, the 'cure' is worse than the disease (imho)

For a number of years** I used various fungicides in an attempt to eradicate some fungal issues that were plaguing me (& not just the cheap fungi-resistant retail stuff --- some were over $100). Lessons:

- I did not enjoy dealing with toxic chemicals
- although treatments 'worked', the stuff always came back - eventually (& based on some research - it always seems to come back & the chemical companies plan for it)
- eliminating fungicide usage & inoculating media w/ Trichoderma has simplified my life
- with the exception of this one type of shroom (not that I'm good at differentiating), my fungal issues have mostly gone away ((as he knocks on wood))((repeatedly))
- if growing CPs required regular fungicide usage, I'd probably exit the hobby

** spent a lot of time pondering why none of the native CP stands I'd explored, seemed to be troubled by truly pathogenic fungi (the scope of these musings are beyond the mini-thread-hijacking I've already enacted (my apologies to Swords) and are probably best left to some future bar-side convo).

 

[Exo]

I've had issues with my hawaii sphagnum moss doing the same thing...minus the mushrooms....seems that warming temps are the culprit....it seems to like steady temps. My other types of sphag seem unaffected.

 

[swords]

I've got a couple pics now:


N. dubia you can see a tiny mushroom poking out at about the 1 o'clock position. This moss was all green before the shrooms.

The inermis moss shared the same fate:

And jacquelinae's moss

The whole HL tank moss is still pretty green overall but where the shrooms popped up the moss turned yellow (some of the pots are fresh like the two in front and the heli) so that moss has only been potted for a week or so.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Wow Nice setup there Swords! Loving it!

 

[swords]

Grrr... the shrooms just keep popping up. I think I may have to bite the bullet and repot the infested ones to try and minimize any more spores / mycellium spreading before all my moss is toast. Since posting the overall pic a couple more pots have gone blond/brown and have shrooms poking out of their bottoms.

 

[The Griffin]

Are the three that got struck the worse the three hanging in the back?

 

[swords]

Yes, but it began with the first mushroom appearing in the U. humboldtii pot on the tank floor.

 

[Not a Number]

Don't use Physan 20 on Sphagnum moss. It kills almost on contact. Physan 20 appears to be copper based which is also very bad for many Carnivorous Plants.

 

[JB in Utah]

It's important to remember that mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of undersubstrate fungus. The fungus must have spread from your U. humboltii into the substrate that you have under the plants and then up into your pots.. This would explain why it's popping up everywhere.
I have some experience with growing mushrooms but unfortunately I have never had any experiences relating to this. Once a substrate has proven to be a breeding ground for mushrooms, it's almost impossible to get rid of them - you may have to get all new soil. And as NaN has stated, copper-based fungicides are lethal to many CPs, especially Neps. Beautiful setup, I hope you'll find a solution that will solve your problems.

 

[kulamauiman]

might be good application for trichoderma