Mushrooms will not kill your plants. So lets put the question another way: Are mushrooms good for houseplants or any plants? The answer to that one is a firm yes. Mushrooms in potted plants is a sign of a good active relationship between the plant soil and the plant. They will help your plants grow better as they break down organic material in the potting soil into readily available nutrients for the plant.
So it really comes down to aesthetics as to if you want to have the mushrooms there popping up around your plant every now and then. And that is fair enough because aesthetics is important too.
Why Do Mushrooms Grow Around My Plants?
Sometimes mushroom spores may exist in the potting soil that you either made up yourself that included organic material you got from your compost pile or from a potting mix you bought from the store. Even if you use a soilless mix, spores can be introduced through the air or by being brushed off clothing or other objects.
So it is inevitable that mushroom spores will be present in the soil you plant in. It is more a case of the conditions that foster the spores to develop into full mushrooms. The mushrooms themselves are the fruiting bodies of those spores that given the right micro conditions, will emerge as mushrooms growing above the surface of the soil.
he issue that often triggers mushroom growth in this scenario is overwatering, so it acts as a bit of an indicator on if you are watering your plants too much. Also, in summer, just having warm moist humid air can be enough to have mushroom growth in your potted indoor plants.
How Do I Get Rid Of Mushrooms Growing Around My Plants
If you really want to get rid of the mushroom growth around your plants, you have a few options short of the rather drastic and some would say an unnecessary measure of using some sort of fungicide to engage in an all-out war with them :
- Try watering it less. As stated above, this is a big cause of mushroom growth around plants. It is good to let the soil dry out periodically as a natural part of your plant’s watering cycle. This also works to suppress excessive
- You can simply pull out the fruiting bodies as they come up through the surface of the soil. If you take this approach, make sure you use gloves or wash your hands thoroughly afterward as you are unlikely to know if the species of mushroom is safe to touch or not.
- I sometimes put wood chips, bark chips, or some other organic material on the surface of the soil around the plant as a thick mulch to discourage the mushrooms growing up through the surface of the potting soil.
- If the plant is in a smallish pot, you can scrape away the top couple of inches of potting soil that is likely to contain the active spores and replace it with fresh potting soil.
- Move an indoor plant to a less humid environment to discourage the mushroom spores growing into fully-fledged mushroom growth.
- Repot the whole plant in fresh soil.
- In regard to the nuclear option, you can soak the whole plant and soil in a fungicide. This is really not recommended because you will kill off so much important natural biology that occurs between the plant the mushrooms that are an important part of a healthy plant.
Of course, with all these approaches, you always run the very high chance that whatever you do, it will only be a temporary solution because those clever little spores will just find a way back in there again, then you’re back to where you started. So I say just go with the flow and marvel at the wonder of nature at work. That’s what I do.