Fungus Amongus, or "BRAAAAINS..."

Friday, May 1, 2009

Interesting / gross development I found yesterday...

I was out watering my gardens and noticed that along the side of one of the beds, the interior dirt was pulling back from the board. As I looked closer, I discovered that there was some of this nasty thing lovely gem growing down under the dirt, against the board, between the board and the main part of the bed.

The pulled out version looks like somebody's old macaroni that was cooked too long and got stuck together, then buried in the dirt. Trust me, this is no macaroni. It was actually not just along the edges, but ALL THROUGHOUT the beds. In the beds, it looked sort of like a whitish brain form sticking up through the surface of the dirt, once I started watering the beds and washed the top layer of dirt off. Yuck!! John and I tried to dig it all out, but I'm sure it will grow back in some places, and is probably still in there in others that we didn't find.

The spores must have come in with the dirt for those first two beds, which was sourced from a different place than the second set of two beds (the last two beds still sit empty, looking exactly like they did in my recent post showing all six... no time!).

Does anybody know what this disgusting thing could be? Anybody know how to get rid of it without killing off all my veggies? Are my veggies even going to be safe to eat after they've been growing next to this stuff?

At this point I'm a bit horrified and grossed out.

I think this is what it is, but John doesn't (because it supposedly only grows out west): http://www.mushroomexpert.com/sarcosphaera_coronaria.html

Here is what he thinks it is:
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/ductifera_pululahuana.html

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions? Help!