fungus invasion - ideas on stopping?

I planted a flower & herb garden on a sunny spot in my yard in 2007. It's contained by the driveway which has a boxwood hedge lining it & stops at the side of the garage, the other border is a sidewalk. The grass in this area was always patchy & almost nonexistent. I have had wonderful success in getting daylilies, sage, basil, rue, hyssop, lavender, etc to grow here. But I noticed this weird stuff that suddenly appeared in 2008 at the edge of the bed, closest to the driveway & boxwood hedge. Each year ist is spreading inward despite my best manual efforts to remove it. I've talked with the local extension service & they took samples. They actually came to the house when I told them it was growing up in my daylilies & surrounding them - I first spotted it at the base of the boxwoods. What I learned was this is some type of "shelf" fungus that probably originated from a tree/trees that had been removed but the roots remained - they are decomposing in the ground & this is a fungus (?) that is living in the roots, that stuff I see in my plants is the fungus reproducing -- at least this is what I got from the conversation. He said it wouldn't hurt my plants but I could remove it since it is unsightly & smells. He said also said it wasn't toxic to the herbs. It starts out a small, white bumps near the plants or in between the stems/fans & then grows into a cauliflower looking growth that turns into what you see above. It's very firm & difficult to remove. First it was just in the daylilies on the edge of the bed but now it's moving in & is appearing in the sage, the coreopsis, hyssop, etc. I try hard to pull it off of the plants but it's impossible to get all of it without completely destroying the plants, plus it also pops up just in the soil as it's moving in. It appears in early June, seems to grow actively through summer, then slows down in the fall & disappears until the next season. Any ideas on how to get rid of it? I'm afraid to take starts on any of the daylilies because I'm afraid I'll introduce this stuff to other beds - it's nowhere else in our yard. I have more photos but wasn't sure how to attach them. Any ideas, I'd sure love to now deal with this once & for all since manually trying to remove it is incredibly time consuming & not very effective. Thanks.

Did your county extension person give you any suggestions as to how to get rid of it?? I'd be asking him. Since it's spreading, I think it is a concern. Fungus can be hard to get rid of.
Hopefully, someone can here can help you.

No, he just said I'd could pull it off if I wanted to but no other suggestions. That's why I thought I'd try here, to see if anyone else has dealt with a similar situation.

I suppose you have looked on line?? Did he give you the name of the fungus? Do you think he really knows what it is? It's interesting that he actually came to your home.
I think you need to take another picture of the fungus if possible. It's not real clear.
I would re-post it on this forum again.
I would also post it on the master gardener forum. Maybe someone can give you a direction.
I sure don't know what it is and like you, I would want to get rid of it.
Just brainstorming with you.

I thougth I put more pictures up but I don't see them...here's what it looks like when it first starts

The it grows......

Here it is again.....

And again....the extension rep never called it anything other than a "shelf" or "conch" (I think) fungus. Just said it was like what you find it the forest growing out of decaying trees. He was puzzled that it was coming up in the daylilies which was why he came out to actually see it. I'll post on the master gardener forum & call them back again to see if they have other advice but it didn't seem like any was forthcoming when I spoke to them originally.

Have you noticed the mulch getting very hard and and/or turning white just below the surface?

Okay, I did a little research. When you said "conch" I started there. I wonder if this is what you have?
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/ganoderma_applanatum.html

It's a mushroom. I guess they are experimenting with it for medical purposes. Also, it's a perennial.
To get rid of it or to reduce it, I think it would be good to allow more air, drier the better, to circulate around the bottoms of the plants and cut back on watering. In other words, reduce the moisture. This is just my opinion. I'm no expert.
The official name is "Ganoderma applantum". It's nicknamed Artists Conk.
IF, this is what you actually have.
Keep us posted what you find out.

Did you receive all that rain that Nashville had about a month ago?? Do you think you got it from all the rain?? Just brainstorming.

Thanks everyone for sharing your ideas. I'm not sure if it's exactly like the mushroom pictured in the link that birder17 sent since I usually try to remove it on a regular basis. In response to Pwagner12, I do notice when I first see it, it appears as small, hard whitish bumps coming up through the mulch - and the mulch does deem to come up in clumps and has white in it, this is hard to describe but it is obvious to me because the mulch in this bed is black so it stands out. I usually end up removing the white bump, the surrounding chunk of mulch & soil because if I don't remove it, it turns into more of this stuff! - is this significant? And, yes we did receive all that rain in May, but this stuff appeared long before then so I don't think it's a result of the floods. I will keep trying to figure this out & will share with you all what I learn. Again thanks for all the ideas thus far.

JGinTN: go to the tree and shrub forum. If it's a tree fungus, they will probably know something about it. There's some really smart guys over there that know a lot of stuff. Just tell them to look at your pictures on this forum or even better, put the pictures over there. birder

According to our local garden line expert this is a fungus that grows just below the surface of the mulch. I also have black mulch and fight it constantly. It's suppsed to be a good sign indicating high levels of organic matter in the mulch. It looks like scrambled eggs or yellow ooze and then turns light brown. If you hit it with a stream of water you can see the spores release. The problem with the fungus is it will eventually cause the mulch to be extremely hard. Once it hardens forget it...I had to dig quite a bit out. You can leave it alone...he says it's not a bad thing or you can turn the mulch before it gets hard and soak the area with a fungicide like Consan. Don't bother spraying it once it gets hard. He calls it Scrambled Egg Slime Mold, Saprophytic Fungus or just plain Slime Mold. Hope this helps.

By the looks of that photo - it doesn't look like that bright yellow slime mold. (I have heard it called dog vomit mold) I researched it last year because when I would disturb it with a hose or yard tool, all those spores (like a grey floating fog) would fly up and I was afraid it would like the warm, dark, moist environment of my LUNGS.

The slime mold doesn't make 'mushroom' formations. And in the photo uploaded - it looks like a mushroom.

I do know it isn't a slime mold - I had that once & it is totally different than this stuff. I will post this on the tree forum & see what they say. Again thanks so much for all the help, you all are so much help & sharing ideas I would have never thought of! Will let you know if anyone has ideas on the tree forum.

I love the gardener support here. Two heads are better than one.

Here is my suggestion: 2 tablespoons of baking soda, 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, 1 tablespoon of shampoo, 1 gallon of water ..... and spray spray spray

I have all those ingredients....can you explain what the combination , ie what does each component do? Do you think this might get rid of my fungus? Do I have to worry about it harming the plants? Thanks for your help! Jill

The baking soda kills the fungus ... I think the oil and shampoo helps it cling and the water is for diluting. I have sprayed twice this year on most of my plants .... including squash tomatoes peppers brocolli strawberries roses and flowers like shasta daisy butterfly bush and others .... did not spray on my cacti or daylilies

some leaves turned brown and I cut them off and trash them .... plants look fine now

I also sprayed two days later wirh 1 tablespoon to a quart of water because some of the squash was no longer throwing out dark green leaves.

This message was edited Jul 1, 2010 7:36 PM

Thank you for the explanation. I'll mix some up this weekend & give it a go!

Keep us posted.

I think Birder17 correctly identified my fungus....I found a piece of growth under my pineapple sage that I missed before & it had been growing for awhile before I found it - looked just like the artists conk pictured. I received another suggestion from the tree forum, they said the fungus would go away once the decomposing roots were gone so to hasten the disappearance of the fungus, hasten the decomposition of the roots with a high nitrogen fertilizer & water (similar to when we compost). Will look into that strategy as well to find out how that will effect my plants since I don't want to damage them. Will continue to keep you posted on any new developments. Once again, thanks for the ideas & help.

Yes, you have to be careful with the fertilizer. I have burned plants more than once. It sounds like it's going to be a rather slow process. I'm glad you received some information that may help.