Weird and Stinky Fungus in Your Mulch? Get Rid of It Quick
Have you found a bunch of weird and stinky fungus growing in your mulch (like the stuff in this picture)? Get rid of it quick with this super-simple hack.
Weird and Stinky Fungus in My Mulch
This stuff is nasty and stinky. Gonna show you how to get rid of it quickly and safely. But first, a really fast story…
A couple of years ago, I was spreading some wood chip mulch around in a couple of my garden’s planting beds. This was not mulch that I’d recently purchased, but stuff I’d had sitting in bags, outdoors under our oak trees, for a couple of years. The plastic bags themselves sported a number of minor holes and tears.
When I opened the bags, the first thing I noticed was a strange smell. Tough to describe. “Not good” is the best I can do just now. When I started to spread the mulch from these bags around in the planting bed, I noticed something else: smoke – or at least what looked like smoke. As I spread this not-good-smelling mulch around the bed, whispy white “smoke” swirled above what I was spreading and eventually drifted out over other parts of the planting bed. It even wafted over the borders of a couple of other nearby planting beds. At this time, all of my existing planting beds had already been previously mulched with wood chips that looked and smelled just fine.
Within a few days of spreading this strange-smelling, smoking mulch around, I noticed weird looking growth popping up out of the planting bed in the immediate vicinity of the newly spread stuff, and also in the areas to which I watched the “smoke” drift. This weird growth, which I assumed was some type of fungus (mushrooms?), was tan in color, sort of cup/saucer-shaped, and growing in dense clusters in the mulch of the planting beds. I grabbed a specimen, separated it from its ranks, and pulled it up.* It had no roots, stem, or stalk, was somewhat slimy/rubbery to the touch, and was stinky. I disposed of this particular individual in a trash bin. A couple of days later the stuff had spread. And after one rainy evening, I discovered that it was spreading to new, uncharted territories throughout my garden.
*A few important notes of caution: The toxicity of this fungus is unknown. When dealing with any fungus, the following instructions must always apply: 1) Always wear gloves when handling any fungus. 2) If you discover this, or a similar fungus in your own garden (or elsewhere), DO NOT INGEST!!! NEVER ingest any fungus without absolute, expert proof of its identification and absolute, expert proof of its non-toxicity. Play it safe and presume that any fungus is toxic. 3) Always wash your hands after handling any fungus.
What Exactly is this Weird and Stinky Fungus Growing in My Mulch?
Know thy enemy… I had to find out what this stuff was. I talked to a few of my friends at various nurseries in the area and did a bunch of research. I hit paydirt on the internet. To the best of my ability, I measured my pics against the shots I found on various online articles, and I compared my field notes with my internet reading. I was pretty damned sure the stuff belonged to a genus of fungus called Peziza. (According to Wikipedia: “Peziza means a sort of mushroom without a root or stalk.”) It’s a pretty huge genus and I can’t be sure which species, exactly, was growing in my garden, but I thought it could possibly be Peziza varia. Further research explained the stuff’s population explosion after the rain (rain water spills into, up, and out of the cup-shaped fugus and carries spores out into the mulch when it splashes out) and the “smoking” mulch phenomenon (airborne spores).
I was almost certain that I had Peziza fungus growing in the mulch of my planting beds. And it was spreading. It killed a couple of my immature perennials by basically swarming over them. Plus, it stunk. I had to do something.
How to Get Rid of It Quick: The Hack
I did a bunch more online research and came up with a brilliant method of quickly getting rid of this stuff. The solution? Sodium bicarbonate. More commonly known as baking soda. Turns out that most fungi don’t like alkaline conditions. They can’t tolerate alkalinity in the media in which they grow, and they can’t tolerate alkalinity if it’s poured directly all over them in the form of – you guessed it – baking soda. That’s right. Baking soda is a basic (alkaline) chemical compound, and a whole lot of fungi – especially the various kinds that grow in soil or mulch – don’t like it. In fact it kills them. (Click here to read a really interesting, and highly technical study regarding the effect of soil pH on fungus.)
One way to do it. To kill Peziza, you can mix baking soda in water and pour it directly on the individual specimens, and in and around the medium in which they’re sprouting. I’ve read various suggestions for the right mixture, and between two and four tablespoons of baking soda per gallon of water will evidently do the trick. I don’t use this method, primarily because pouring an alkaline agent – in liquid form – into the mulch, and the soil beneath it, could potentially create a change in soil pH that could prove damaging to my garden’s plants. Most of the perennials growing in my garden prefer a slightly acidic soil, and I try to maintain slightly acidic soil conditions uniformly throughout my garden (with a few exceptions). I prefer to use what’s behind Door Number 2.
Door Number 2: How I use Baking Soda to Get Rid of This Stuff. I sprinkle the baking soda directly onto the fungal growth. Kills ’em instantly. You can scoop the whole soupy, dead mess right out of the mulch with your (gloved) hand within the next day or two (if you’re concerned about the baking soda raising your soil’s pH). Quite honestly, I’ve left the baking soda-covered, dead/liquefying individuals right where I’ve killed them and haven’t had any bumps in pH levels. You can just leave your own baking soda-covered, dead and dying fungal specimens right where they’re at. That’s exactly what I did. (I told you this was quick and easy!) An additional note of caution: Do not get the baking soda directly onto any parts of your plants. I accidentally dumped some on a young Campanula and, in spite of my efforts to clean it up, the plant died within a few days. Be careful when you apply it to the fungal growth!!! I purged the genus Peziza from my garden by sprinkling baking soda directly onto the fungal growth, wherever it reared its head.
Confirmation and Affirmation
My quest to purge my garden of the Weird and Stinky Fungus of the Mulch (has sort of an ancient-Scottish-legend thing going on when it’s in caps, no?) was not undertaken without some questions and doubts. I wasn’t worried about the effects that the baking soda applications might have on my garden, or on the environmemt in general. I knew that, when used judiciously, the alkaline powder would have no negative impact on either. One question I did have concerned my identification of the invader. Was it really Peziza that I’d wiped out in my garden? And I had a pretty serious qualm about my killing of a living organism which was simply following its own biological imperative. (I have a hard time killing any living thing, and I felt more than a little guilty about killing this stuff.) Finally, my conscience was further troubled by my uncertainty of this genus’ (assuming it was indeed Peziza) conservation status. In my attempt to save my garden’s perennials, did I sacrifice an endangered organism? The profundity of my doubts (and feelings of potential guilt) precluded my writing and publishing anything on this subject here on The Renaissance Garden Guy until now. I knew that my solution was effective, and would no doubt prove helpful to others dealing with the same issue, but was it ethical? Was it legal? In terms of my actual fungus eradication efforts, the point was moot. I’d already used baking soda to rid the land of the Weird and Stinky Fungus of the Mulch. But was it prudent – and lawful – to let everyone else in on this success, and my method of attaining it?
Fortunately, I knew exactly where to turn in order to find answers to these questions. My friend Ann, who lives in Bridge Lake, British Columbia, Canada is an expert in mycology. She possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of this subject and often elaborates on the biology and physical attributes of esoteric (as well as common) examples of Bridge Lake’s various indigenous specimens. She’s also a keen observer – and lover – of all organisms great and small. In addition to her expertise in mycology, her knowledge of botany, zoology, and entomology is amazing. I know if I’ve got a question about any of these subjects, Ann’s THE go-to. I’ll also add that she’s an avid reader and lover of great literature. In my humble opinion, Ann’s the real deal. A true renaissance woman. In any case, when I asked Ann about an identification of my brand of fungus, and voiced my concerns regarding the genus’ conservation status, she put my mind at ease. She informed me that the photos I’d sent her did indeed substantiate a Peziza identification, and that the genus was in absolutely no danger of extinction. As a result, I was able to 1) breathe a sigh of relief, 2) reconcile myself to the fact that it had been necessary to sacrifice the fungus – which was indeed Peziza – in order for the plants in my garden to survive, and 3) write this article knowing that my actions did not lead to any global extinctions.
And here we are.
I’m grateful to Ann for her expertise, and for her friendship. She’s a fascinating, incredibly knowledgeable, and entirely gracious lady. I had the excellent fortune of meeting her last year on Twitter. Since meeting her, we’ve corresponded on a number of subjects, and I’m continually amazed by the breadth and depth of her knowledge and expertise. I highly recommend checking out her content there, and giving her a follow. Her Twitter handle is Ann in Bridge Lake, and you can follow her at https://twitter.com/AK_BridgeLake. I guarantee that you’ll be pleased to make her acquaintance.
The wrap-up. So, sports fans, here concludes another RGG article. I hope this one was interesting and helpful, though I also sincerely hope that your own gardens aren’t being haunted by Peziza, the Weird and Stinky Fungus of the Mulch. But if anyone’s garden is currently hosting this organism, you can take comfort in the fact that you now have a foolproof, 100% guaranteed game plan on tap to get rid of the stuff. And it’s a game plan that’s perfectly lawful, ethical, and safe. Baking soda, carefully and judiciously applied directly onto this fungus will punch its ticket, for sure. It’s all good. Would you have ever thought that getting rid of that weird and stinky fungus in your mulch could be so easy?
Before I sign off, and with fall and winter just around the corner, I’ll leave you with a few links to some useful info. If you’re a rose grower and you want to prep your roses for the winter, click here to read my helpful article (rose winter care actually starts now). Looking to start winding your garden down in anticipation of the cold months to come? Click here for some good info. And, if you’re anything like me and you’ve neglected (or you’re planning to neglect) getting all of your potted perennials into the ground before the snow flies, click here for a sure-fire way to overwinter them outdoors.
One final thing…
As my subscribers here already know, I’ve been threatening to unleash a video on The Renaissance Garden Guy YouTube Channel. And now, after several months of excuses, there actually is a RGG video ready for you to wince your way through. And I can’t think of a better platform from which to spring it on you than an RGG article about weird and stinky fungus. My moviemaking skills are horrible, my stage presence is even worse, and the overall effort can at best be described as oafish. But if you keep your expectations really low, you’ll get through it just fine. It’s only a little over 4 minutes long, and thankfully, yours truly is out of camera range for a good chunk of it. It was shot in my garden in the early spring of this year. Check it out if you’re morbidly curious. (Look at it this way: at least it beats 4 straight minutes of a COVID test nasal swabbing.) There’s always a link to the channel right here on this site’s homepage, but for the sake of convenience, here’s one directly to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcAWDgDYHMY&t=10s
See you at the Oscars!
That’s it gang. As always, I thank you for your kind interest and your very patient indulgence.
Cheers, and Happy Gardening!
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I have had some fungus growing in my mulch. Mostly in spring. The baking soda idea is a great one. Who knew. I’m curious about your YouTube video. Can’t wait to watch it later tonight. Thanks for all the info John.
Thank you for having a read of the article, Alegria – I appreciate it! The baking soda hack is unbelievably effective. And if you use it judiciously, it’s also safe and harmless to the environment. As far as the YouTube video goes, my effort was amateurish (as I’m sure all continued efforts will be, as well), but why not have a laugh or two at my expense? Seriously, Alegria, I truly appreciate your kind interest and your always insightful and lovely thoughts and comments. Thanks again!
Great info as always
THANK HEAVENS FOR BAKING SODA!
Yep. It worked perfectly!
Your video added greatly to your excellent writing skills.
Thank you kindly, Rick! I truly appreciate that. I’m hoping the two media will effectively complement one another. I appreciate your reading the article and tolerating the video! As always, very truly appreciated!
I guess you can really do a lot of different things with baking powder! I had no idea, but that was a great tip. I will also be checking you out on YouTube. Good luck with that venture,I know you will do a great job.
Thank you so much, Kevin. I do want to clarify, however, that the product that I’m recommending is baking soda. I’m not sure about the efficacy or suitability of the use of baking powder for eradicating this fungus from the garden. I am definitely recommending the use of baking soda. Again, I can’t recommend baking powder for this particular use because I know nothing about it. In any event, I thank you for your kind thoughts and for your interest. I truly appreciate it, Kevin. Thanks again!
Extremely helpful, very well explained!!!
Thank you for all the knowledge you provide 🙏😊🌸🌸🌸❤️
I thank you, Roxxy for your interest and your kind thoughts. I’m so glad that you liked the article. I was really fortunate to recieve some expert information from Ann. When it comes to the subject of mycology, her expertise can’t be beat. Once again, Roxxy, thank you so much. Your interest, kindness, and support is dearly appreciated.
This is very interesting and informative. Thank you for adding to my garden knowledge. As always I enjoyed this!
Thanks so much for looking it over, Sharon. It’s always good to know about not only the “good and pretty” aspects of gardening, but the not-so-pretty and often problematic issues, as well. As they say, knowledge is power. And this simple hack really does work perfectly. Thanks again, Sharon!