mulch madness

I put down mulch from two sources in May. With the heat wave of two days it has bloomed some real strange stuff...starts out as bright yellow caviar-like, and overnight it transforms to beige blob-like ick...remember the fake rubber throw-up from childhood. I think this stuff is a fungi of some sort, but not the mushroom shape variety. Anyone growing anything similar? And what does one do with it. Yuck. My grown daughters are grossed out, too!

yeah, believe it or not it is known as 'dog vomit mould' or something like that. Same thing happened to me one year. I would just aim my hose at it to clear it out a bit, but I never was able to stop it from happening.

ps ... it is from the mulch, if I'm not mistaken.

I just saw some bright yellow mold on an old piece of wood by my firewood. Probably same kind of thing. I hope you don't have TOO much. I think it'll stop soon . Last year I got cup fingus on my mulch- cute little tiny cups with a few black seeds in each cup.
PS Loved your thread title!

And beware of Artillery or Shotgun Fungus that can be in mulch. If you start to see little tar like specs on objects around the house that's what it is. Our cars were getting it from where I work and it took us the longest time to figure out what it was and where it was coming from. Really hard to get off, especially if you don't get it right away! Here's an article about various types of mulch fungus including the "dog vomit" ewwww! http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/ipm/disease/mulchfun.htm

Thanks for the information...I am relieved to know what that growth is. The hyperlink was helpful. By the way, I am heading to New Orleans in early July for one week of home repair. I have heard that the stuff they are clearing away from Katrina is being turned into mulch, also, and to BEWARE. That was going through my mind when the "caviar" began to appear. Thanks again.

The "dog vomit" stuff is not as bad as those stinkhorn mushrooms...yuck...though I have read some pretty funny stories related to stinkhorn mushrooms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinkhorn

I often get free mulch from Fairfax County (and sometimes Loudoun County), but I seem to consistently have more mushrooms and fungus show up in purchased mulch. I am not sure why that would be.

- Brent

Thanks for this thread. I was wondering if my cat was throwing up all over the garden! I'm glad to know that he is innocent - this time.

This message was edited Jun 30, 2007 10:06 PM

LOL

Slime molds! Another fun thing you might find in mulch piles... I kept one for a couple weeks once in a petri dish... fed it oatmeal, then we got creative and fed it oatmeal dyed different colors with food coloring... it was quite a patchwork-looking (and much larger) blob when we released it back into the wilds of State College, PA! That's what happens when you take a botany course from a really fun professor who tells you all sorts of crazy plant stories... he started out each class with a little show & tell "plant of the day!"

I just googled and found this DG thread because of a discovery of eggs (or egglike things?) mentioned on a recent thread... it's a long thread, but a fun read! http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/693951/