When transplanting some pot plants I've noticed that there is a fluffy white
fungus type of material on the decomposing matter in the soil. The plants
themselves haven't been very healthy and I wondered if the white stuff was
in some way responsible for the poor health and very limited growth of the
plant?

I've put the old soil to one side in the hope that I will be able to reuse
it come next spring. I guess I am hoping that the fungus will die off as it
has no moisture now.

Does anyone know what this might be and if it's a problem, how to remedy it?

"Cynthia" wrote in message
...
When transplanting some pot plants I've noticed that there is a fluffy
white
fungus type of material on the decomposing matter in the soil. The plants
themselves haven't been very healthy and I wondered if the white stuff was
in some way responsible for the poor health and very limited growth of the
plant?

I've put the old soil to one side in the hope that I will be able to reuse
it come next spring. I guess I am hoping that the fungus will die off as
it
has no moisture now.

Does anyone know what this might be and if it's a problem, how to remedy
it?



There are many fungi in the normal microbes in healthy soil. Most of them
are useful in that they are part of the natural cycle of breaking down dead
organic matter so that it can be reused. Some are harmful to living plants
and so not desirable. Unless you can get a friendly mycologist to take a
look you are unlikely to be able to tell the difference, even a trained
person might not be able to do it by inspection. Unless you have reason to
believe you have harmful fungi I wouldn't worry about it.

David

In article ,
"Cynthia" wrote:

When transplanting some pot plants I've noticed that there is a fluffy white
fungus type of material on the decomposing matter in the soil. The plants
themselves haven't been very healthy and I wondered if the white stuff was
in some way responsible for the poor health and very limited growth of the
plant?

Was it potting mix? You often get fungi growing on the little bits of pine
bark in potting mix.

Your plants might have grown poorly because the fungus was a baddie, but it's
more likely that they had too little/too much fertiliser or water.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

"Cynthia" wrote in message
...
When transplanting some pot plants I've noticed that there is a fluffy
white
fungus type of material on the decomposing matter in the soil. The plants
themselves haven't been very healthy and I wondered if the white stuff was
in some way responsible for the poor health and very limited growth of the
plant?

I've put the old soil to one side in the hope that I will be able to reuse
it come next spring. I guess I am hoping that the fungus will die off as
it
has no moisture now.

Does anyone know what this might be and if it's a problem, how to remedy
it?

It could be any number of things ... but healthy soils contain fungi and it
can be beneficial as well so unless the plants were showing signs of fungal
attack maybe not??

Also on a side note .... beware white fungi - I learnt the hard way that
sometimes what looks like fungi on first glance is actually Funnel Web web.
(But that was this Qlder on a uni field trip to NSW and having to take
detritious samples and not knowing much about arachnids at the time
Amanda

FlowerGirl wrote:
"Cynthia" wrote in message
...

When transplanting some pot plants I've noticed that there is a fluffy

white

fungus type of material on the decomposing matter in the soil. The plants
themselves haven't been very healthy and I wondered if the white stuff was
in some way responsible for the poor health and very limited growth of the
plant?

I've put the old soil to one side in the hope that I will be able to reuse
it come next spring. I guess I am hoping that the fungus will die off as

it

has no moisture now.

Does anyone know what this might be and if it's a problem, how to remedy

it?

It could be any number of things ... but healthy soils contain fungi and it
can be beneficial as well so unless the plants were showing signs of fungal
attack maybe not??

Also on a side note .... beware white fungi - I learnt the hard way that
sometimes what looks like fungi on first glance is actually Funnel Web web.
(But that was this Qlder on a uni field trip to NSW and having to take
detritious samples and not knowing much about arachnids at the time
Amanda





If the material was mushroom compost its quite likely leftover mushroom
spores.
It could also be too alkaline?
That causes deficiencies in the soil and could cause the symptoms you
write of....
Also there could have been too much artificial (liquid) fertiliser
added, which shows up as salts on the surface mainly.
Plunging the pots into water can remove some the excess. And is also a
quick way of reviving dried out plants....
A soil test kit for testing alkaline or acidity would be part of the
answer. Otherwise repotting the plants in known quality mix would solve
the problem, usually.
If theyre annuals I would get the good stuff in future...

"Jonno" wrote in message
u...
FlowerGirl wrote:
"Cynthia" wrote in message
...

When transplanting some pot plants I've noticed that there is a fluffy

white

fungus type of material on the decomposing matter in the soil. The
plants

If the material was mushroom compost its quite likely leftover mushroom
spores.

i had white threads in my veggie patch for about a month after i put
mushroom compost in it, so this is definitely possible !! it freaked me out
for a while, but it seems to have gone away by now.

otoh, for o.p., it could just be crappy potting mix with unrotted organic
material in it that's going mouldy. it seems increasingly difficult to get
nice potting mix these days & i don't know why that is. i suspect it's
partly the fad for putting in so much bark chips & less nice loamy stuff,
but also i've had a few with gobs of gunk(?!) in there that just weren't
rotted down yet, as though the manufacturers have simply lost patience with
making it properly. the mix i bought recently seems better (to my ignorant
and evidently old-fashioned eyes :-).
kylie


It could also be too alkaline?
That causes deficiencies in the soil and could cause the symptoms you
write of....
Also there could have been too much artificial (liquid) fertiliser added,
which shows up as salts on the surface mainly.
Plunging the pots into water can remove some the excess. And is also a
quick way of reviving dried out plants....
A soil test kit for testing alkaline or acidity would be part of the
answer. Otherwise repotting the plants in known quality mix would solve
the problem, usually.
If theyre annuals I would get the good stuff in future...

In article ,
"FlowerGirl" wrote:

Also on a side note .... beware white fungi - I learnt the hard way that
sometimes what looks like fungi on first glance is actually Funnel Web web.
(But that was this Qlder on a uni field trip to NSW and having to take
detritious samples and not knowing much about arachnids at the time

Ouch! And was that *detritus* samples?

But enough of me laughing at the higgerent banana-bender -- tell us the story!
Then I'll laugh a bit more because I'm so sympathetic...

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

I've been using Amgrow Pot & Peat and all my plants have gone into it -
herbs, hibbertia, potato vine, frangipanis & cycad. I'll have to check the
ph of the soil and see if there are some plants which need a change.

The fungus was in a terracotta pot which had an old oregano plant in it and
I also found a fair bit of it in the large pot of hibbertia.

I had two pots of hibbertia using the same potting mix. The plant in full
sun flowered continually, it's roots didn't grow much this summer and it's
leaves filled out only slightly and it had the white fungus. The other
hibbertia which had no fungus was in a slightly cooler position, still very
sunny though, it never flowered, but it built up an impressive root system
and filled out it's leaves and even grew a few new stems.

The fungus in the oregano pot was all around the inner surface of the pot
and mainly over the outside of the compacted rootball, it didn't appear to
be living on anything in particular. The hibbertia fungus was in the soil
and yes, it stuck mainly to bits of cut root and bark.