# How to kill weird fungus in mulched flower bed.



## chrisn

I have had this problem also and discovered that there really is no control.

"Sometimes very little can be done to control nuisance fungi other than to spade the mulch into the surface soil layer followed by soaking with water."

This is what I found. It will normally dry up and go away after a couple days of sun if left alone..


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## ccarlisle

Again, try changing the soil pH...you know fungi are very sensitive to soil pH and can only grow where the conditions are just right. Learned that from mushroom farming...either add lime or ask your neighbourhood plant nursery either for an analysis, or some product to alter the pH. All you is a 1/2 pH unit shift to make the soil uninhabitable by fungi. If your soil is high on the acid scale, raise the pH by a unit. If low, raise it; if you don't know, do an experiment using milk, or vinegar or baking soda.

:whistling2:


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## Leah Frances

My neighbor is a Master Gardener and she told me that it is Slime Mold, Fuligo septica, also known as Dog Vomit (descriptive, ain't it). They yellow patches are younger, they age to brown. According to her, they are a normal product of decomposition and they will not hurt my plants. According to Wikipedia (font of all knowledge :wink they feed on the microorganisms present in decaying plant material (especially mulch, but sometimes in leaf debris in gutters). 

And, FYI, they are not really a fungus... " Today, slime molds have been divided between several supergroups and not one of them is included in the kingdom Fungi. In more strict terms, slime molds comprise the group of the mycetozoans (myxomycetes, dictyostelids and protostelids). However, even at this level there are conflicts to be resolved. Recent molecular evidence shows that the first two groups are likely to be monophytelic; however the protostelids seem to be polyphyletic, too. For this reason, scientists are trying to elucidate the relations between these three groups."

Myscomycetes - hee hee. That's fun to say.


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## ccarlisle

Oh I see, slime moulds and yeah, dog vomit is a good name for it. It is clumped together as moulds - although technically it isn't.

I've seen it most often due to too much watering...what did your friend say to do about it?


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