You may have come across articles about "getting rid of mushrooms in your houseplants soil" or that "mushrooms growing with your houseplants is actually a fairly common problem"; – PROBLEM?! We don’t see it as a problem, but more of a sign that your plant is very happy and is living in a healthy, mini ecosystem!
Mushrooms don’t harm plants, but we do have to highlight that these kinds of mushrooms are toxic for humans and animals. So please do not eat them and if you have any furry friends and small children, keep them out of reach!
All of our blends use a base of Coco Coir which is buffered with Mycelium. Mycelium is the vegetative part of any fungus and the Mushroom is simply the fruiting body. The mycelium lays low, spreading its micro-fibrous body underground to continue digesting sugars and plant waste. When it’s sufficiently grown and the soil is rich from its digestive leftovers, they’re ready to pop out a fruiting body, a mushroom! They only hang out when the soil (and therefore plant) is happy. This is one of the reasons you may find the odd mushroom popping up from time to time, but don’t hang around for too long. Side note: Mycelium comes in many forms, so if you’re worried, pop us a message and we’ll help you out.
But how else does mycelium help our plants? Mycelium creates a system of fibres which together connects all the mini ecosystem in your plant pot into one big network! The network works hard to help absorb water, exchange minerals and nutrients which helps to build up your plant’s immunity. In the wild, this network is on another level. By creating these huge underground connections, this allows other plants to communicate with one another. If a nearby plant is fighting off some nasty bugs it can communicate to other plants, delivering support via nutrients exchange, so other plants can build up their defence system! I mean, that’s pretty cool!
If you’re ever worried or concerned about mushrooms, please pop us a message and we’ll help you! There are different types of ways to keep them at bay, but this would mean using fungicides and a fair few treatments. If you’re not a big fan of mushrooms, we 100% recommend watching the documentary on Netflix called "Fantastic Fungi". I’m sure you’ll start to see how insanely cool mushrooms are. The next time you see a mushroom, be sure to take a moment to bask in it’s glory and remember it’s a good thing, because it won’t be too long until that lil’ cutie is gone.
