Recently I transferred 5 fountain grass plants from pots into my garden and I noticed that one of them had a light green fungi in the soil. I used the pots for new plants.

Today I have decided to evict the original plants again and move them to another part of the garden, but the fungi is still surrounding one of them. I am reluctant to move this plant again and am worried that:

1. the fungi is still in the original pot (now has Camellia in it);
2. the fungi will spread further in its current location (where I planned to put new native seedlings today); and
3. the fungi will spread to another part of the garden if I move this plant again (though I won’t mind throwing out, if necessary).

Image is here:
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq202/redanter/Fungii.jpg

Any advice will be greatly appreciated :)

most fungi are beneficial and some are a necessity. Potting mixes frequently have fungi present as the mixes contain a lot of non-decomposed matter and the fungi is breaking it down. I wouldn’t worry too much about it unless the plants look sick.

There are fungi and there are fungi. The one you got at first impression looks to be attached to the soil so hopefully its main job will be to decompose dead matter. So hopefully you should be alright. Especially if you bought good quality potting mix.

Like bg says, if you’re plants look like they are being affected then I would show some concern.

Thanks for your replies.

The plant looks OK i.e. the same as the ones without the fungi. I remember when I took it out of the pot, the mesh covering the drainhole had tiny mushrooms growing through it and the white stuff seemed to be concentrated in one corner at the bottom of the square pot. In its current location the plant is surrounded by pine chip/mulch and the fungi is definately concentated over these chips.

As a precaution, should I treat the soil anyway and discard the plant, or does this still sound good?

I’d rather treat the plant and toss the soil.

Or make up a weak solution of copper oxychloride and dunk the whole pot into it, treating both soil and plant.

Speedy said:

Thanks for your replies.

The plant looks OK i.e. the same as the ones without the fungi. I remember when I took it out of the pot, the mesh covering the drainhole had tiny mushrooms growing through it and the white stuff seemed to be concentrated in one corner at the bottom of the square pot. In its current location the plant is surrounded by pine chip/mulch and the fungi is definately concentated over these chips.

As a precaution, should I treat the soil anyway and discard the plant, or does this still sound good?

Don’t discard the plant, that all sounds quite normal. Where there’s mulch or potting mix, compost, there will be millions of fungi spore waiting to do their job in the garden.

Thanks PM and HP. I’ve had a close look at some of the roots of the plant and they seem unaffected. The fungi seems to be on the decomposing matter only. So I will ignore it, but still try to relocate the plants to an area where it wouldn’t matter so much if there was in fact a problem, just in case.

Speedy said:

Thanks PM and HP. I’ve had a close look at some of the roots of the plant and they seem unaffected. The fungi seems to be on the decomposing matter only. So I will ignore it, but still try to relocate the plants to an area where it wouldn’t matter so much if there was in fact a problem, just in case.

It is better to err on the side of caution when it comes to fungi… however, me thinks you’d be alright in this case. try the Copper Oxy, it won’t hurt too much.

Sounds to me like the fungi is probaly in the pine bark mulch?