Reply
Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,220
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Have You Had Stinkhorn Fungus in Your Garden?

I had never heard of them until this discussion and lo and behold, one popped up in my garden over the weekend!  I sprayed Round Up on it but haven't checked it since - gross!  Our weather has been excessively hot and humid this year.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,897
Registered: ‎05-27-2015

Re: Have You Had Stinkhorn Fungus in Your Garden?

@Equuleus I just saw this post. I think mine came in with the cedar wood chip mulch we used years ago. I had it once or twice many years ago. Our children had many unsavory jokes about them. They went away when we changed our mulch.

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,343
Registered: ‎06-15-2018

Re: Have You Had Stinkhorn Fungus in Your Garden?


@PA Mom-mom wrote:

@Equuleus I just saw this post. I think mine came in with the cedar wood chip mulch we used years ago. I had it once or twice many years ago. Our children had many unsavory jokes about them. They went away when we changed our mulch.


I was thinking that's where they came from  I'll have to remove it all and maybe some of the soil and put fresh soil down.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,322
Registered: ‎02-22-2015

Re: Have You Had Stinkhorn Fungus in Your Garden?

@Equuleus  Say it isn't so! I've mulched for the first time this Spring. Never heard of stink horns until this thread. Not anxious to have something foreign in my flowerbeds next spring.

 

Sounds like it takes some time for the mulch to "mellow" before fungus appear? I'll plan to aerate it (turn it over a couple of times when addings new plants. Hopefully that will solve the problem. Smiley Surprised 

Money screams; wealth whispers.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,654
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Have You Had Stinkhorn Fungus in Your Garden?


@BirkiLady wrote:

@Equuleus  Say it isn't so! I've mulched for the first time this Spring. Never heard of stink horns until this thread. Not anxious to have something foreign in my flowerbeds next spring.

 

Sounds like it takes some time for the mulch to "mellow" before fungus appear? I'll plan to aerate it (turn it over a couple of times when addings new plants. Hopefully that will solve the problem. Smiley Surprised 


Usually the mulch you purchase in nurseries or big box stores is already aged. You are more likely to get funguses seen on non aged mulch. If you buy non aged mulch — (trees chipped after being taken down) you can increase the decomposition or aging process by putting some high nitrogen (1st number is 20 & up) over the mulch. If you put non aged mulch around your plants, that mulch will start to take the nitrogen away from your plants, unless you add that high nitrogen fertilizer to it. 

 

 

☼The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. GBShaw☼
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,652
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Have You Had Stinkhorn Fungus in Your Garden?

@FastDogWalker2 et al, I got it for the first time this year.  I only had one and my guess is it came from new mulch.  Pretty gross.  LM

Honored Contributor
Posts: 38,157
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Have You Had Stinkhorn Fungus in Your Garden?


@blueroses47 wrote:

Are these those little white egg things?  I just discovered a bunch while planting a couple of new shrubs and mulching this past weekend.  I've gardened for years, and never before came across these things.  I didn't know what they were (hoping they weren't eggs from creatures from outer space), so I googled them and came up with a kind of fungus.

 

Why is this common all of a sudden ?   Or have I just been missing them in the past?  Anyway, they are weird looking things, that's for sure.  I was hoping they weren't harmful to man or plants.


 

 

@blueroses47  Plants like them.

They don't harm plants or cause disease. In fact, plants benefit from the presence ofstinkhorn mushrooms because they break down rotting material into a form plants can use for nourishment. ... Stinkhorns emit their odor to attract flies.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,220
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Have You Had Stinkhorn Fungus in Your Garden?

Found two more this am while I was doing some Fall clean up in the garden - yuck!