# Mushrooms growing near new vines after mycorrhizal use



## we5inelgr (Sep 29, 2014)

Hi all,

I just planted some vines in my backyard about 2 weeks ago, and initially watered them with a mycorrhizal product called Great White, to help encourage/establish root growth.

There used to be a small peach tree near where a few of the vines are now planted. The tree was cut down about 4 or 5 years ago and the trunk (about 3&1/2" dia.) and some roots remain.

Just today, I noticed an explosion of mushrooms near some turned up dirt where one of the peach tree roots is.

I realize that the mycorrhizal I applied to the soil would encourage fungal growth. I just didn't think about the possibility of it encouraging fungal growth on the surface in the form of mushrooms.

My question is, *should I be concerned with the mushroom growth near the new vines?* If so, how should I remove/control them while leaving the mycorrhizal intact near the new vine roots?

Thanks.


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## garymc (Sep 29, 2014)

Sounds like the mushrooms are one of the fungi that promote root development. Maybe you should harvest some to put around your other plants. I got a lot of little mushrooms smaller than the diameter of a pencil eraser around some plants I had used Bio-Tone Plus on. http://www.espoma.com/p_consumer/tones_overview.html#.VCoQQBYzLug


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## oregondabbler (Sep 30, 2014)

We5, its hard to say just from your description.


None of the species listed on the online description of Great White will form a mushroom in the sense that we all think of. Some (scleroderma, pisolithus) form "earth balls", a brownish pear shaped bulb that forms above ground. Others (rhizopogon) form underground truffles but are not good to eat. Most of the species (glomus, paraglomus, gigaspora) don't form a fruiting body. So, its unlikely that the mushroom you see are from your inoculum

I don't think you need to be concerned about mushrooms forming where a tree root used to be that is near where your vine is now. I don't know how we could identify this mushoom on line but a photo would be a good place to start.

The Bio Tome that GaryC mentions contains almost a thousand of species of fungus plus organic fertilizers. The mushrooms could have come from the Bio Tome or were the result of growth from the fertilizer. There is no telling now.

I would think that at the very least the growth of mushrooms around the place where you inoculated your vine with micorhizals tells you that the area has not been treated with a fungicide that would prevent your treatment from taking.

lots of words, but just two cents. FWIW


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## we5inelgr (Sep 30, 2014)

Many thanks guys, for the reply's and information. I appreciate it. 

Here are some pics. The first one shows the old peach tree stump in the lower center part of the picture.

What do ya think? No issue for the vines? I certainly am not interested in eating them, I just want to make sure they will not be detramental to my new vines


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## oregondabbler (Sep 30, 2014)

This is pure speculation based on photos, take everything with a grain of salt and maybe some lime and tequila if that's your thing. Come to think it, maybe I will too.

I'm not good enough at identifying mushrooms to just know what those are. Those mushrooms are pretty old and they are unlikely give you a spore casting. But they do kind of look like something to be concerned of.

What killed the tree? Did the peach tree wither or otherwise do badly? The reason I ask is that there is a mushroom (genus Armillaria) that is a pest in orchards and can persist in dead tree trunks or roots. If you cut a healthy tree down, then I'd be less concerned. If the tree was sick, then maybe that was what was wrong. Grapes are susceptible to Armillaria. It's not like this is the plague and will certainly spread to the grapes but it can.

The recommended control for this kind of pest is to remove dead stumps and roots from infected trees and get rid of them, don't compost them. They also talk about removing soil and replacing it with un-infected soil. Uh, yeah like that's helpful advice. See link below if you want to know more:

http://ipm.illinois.edu/landturf/diseases/armillaria/

There are plenty of other species of mushrooms that look like the ones in your photo that are simply scavengers and do the good job of decomposing dead wood. In which case, these are helpful mushrooms and will break the wood down so that it becomes fertilizer for your grapes.

Sorry I can't be more specific. If you suspect that these mushrooms are baddies and can move the grape, maybe now is the time to do so. Wash the soil off the roots and re-plant the grape away from the dead wood. If not, I don't know what to say except wait and see what happens.


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## we5inelgr (Oct 1, 2014)

thanks for the additional info od...it got me searching around a bit more. 

according to some mycology info I've read, they are most likely not Armillaria (because the tiny, young vines would be in quick decay), but rather something like Psathyrella. but hey...what the heck do I know about mushrooms and mycology. haha


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## we5inelgr (Oct 1, 2014)

oregondabbler said:


> What killed the tree? Did the peach tree wither or otherwise do badly? The reason I ask is that there is a mushroom (genus Armillaria) that is a pest in orchards and can persist in dead tree trunks or roots. If you cut a healthy tree down, then I'd be less concerned. If the tree was sick, then maybe that was what was wrong.



Sorry, forgot to address this part of your post.

We bought the tree at a local nursery, about 10 years ago. It was a "4 in 1", meaning, 4 types of peaches grafted onto 1 trunk. 2 yellow flesh varieties and 2 white. It sounded interesting, so we got it and planted it. It did just okay, for about 4 or 5 years but never produced even decent fruit in quality or quantity. After about 5 years, it looked like it wasn't fully prospering despite adequate fertilizer and water. It wasn't looking like it was dying, just not getting any bigger, greener and the fruit was always small and we had codling moths. I don't recall ever seeing any mushrooms on/around/near that tree or where it's roots were. Perhaps it had more to do with it's Frankenstein look/nature (4 in 1) than anything else. 

So, we cut it down and put some raised boxes for vegitables (which did great, too great). They attrached lots of field mice that dined on the greens killing off much of the vegies year after year so I got tired of feeding them and trying to rid with with various traps. 

Took those out about a year ago and now we've got vines.


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## Deezil (Oct 2, 2014)

Those mushrooms are probably just the fruiting bodies of the fungi that formed a symbiotic relationship with the peach tree. I wouldnt think they're anything to be overly concerned about, but they simply hint at the fact that you have a healthy soil environment with active fungal populations. 

You probably didnt see mushrooms much while the tree was alive, possibly because it was providing enough habitat for the fungi during its growing, that the fungi didnt feel like it needed to be spreading faster than the roots would allow (which causes them to fruit).

Mycorrhizal fungi dont form mushrooms, as was pointed out


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## oregondabbler (Oct 5, 2014)

Just setting the record straight, many mycorhizal fungi do form mushrooms. None of the ones in the Great White mix referred to earlier in this thread form mushrooms. For example, the prototypic mushroom in dancing mushrooms scene in Fantasia is a mycorhizal mushroom -- Amanita muscaria or the Fly agaric. This fungus forms a mycorrhizal assosocation with pine, spruce, and fir, among others. 

From David Aurora's book, Mushrooms Demystified, "as a rule, mycorrhizal fungi cannot grow without their hosts." 

The mushrooms shown growing around the vines are from the peach tree that is four years gone almost certainly were not a mycorrhizal associated with the tree. Most likely they are benign scavengers returning wood to the soil and won't cause any problems. wei5lngr was asking if they could be a cause of concern and yes they could but not likely. 

But this is a moot point because the vines are in the ground and they are going to do great. And I'm sorry if deezil, who knows more about making wine than I'll ever know  feels that he got stepped on here. Time to go drink some beer.


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## Deezil (Oct 5, 2014)

oregondabbler said:


> Just setting the record straight, many mycorhizal fungi do form mushrooms. None of the ones in the Great White mix referred to earlier in this thread form mushrooms. For example, the prototypic mushroom in dancing mushrooms scene in Fantasia is a mycorhizal mushroom -- Amanita muscaria or the Fly agaric. This fungus forms a mycorrhizal assosocation with pine, spruce, and fir, among others.
> 
> From David Aurora's book, Mushrooms Demystified, "as a rule, mycorrhizal fungi cannot grow without their hosts."
> 
> ...



I have no problems standing corrected, lol.
I know more about wine than I do about mycorrhiza, for now.
I appreciate the education.

Another book to look into too


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## we5inelgr (Oct 6, 2014)

Thanks for all the great replies and information guys. It's very educational and I appreciated it!

*Update:* The mushrooms had started to shrivel up and die (first pic) a few days ago.
Then, yesterday, I applied another round of the mycorrhizal product_ (per product recommendation) _late yesterday, and this morning I found a new round of mushrooms growing (next two pics).

So yeah, it seems like the mycorrhizal solution is feeding the spores/mushrooms that were already presents on the roots of the old peach tree. At least, that's how I'm understanding it. 

_All three pics taken this morning. First pic is simply a close up of the bottom group of old mushrooms in the 2nd pic showing old and new._


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## oregondabbler (Oct 7, 2014)

Thanks for the follow up.


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## we5inelgr (Oct 16, 2014)

*Update:*

The mushrooms from that second round, have long since died off.

I had contacted the company that makes the Great White product, nearly 10 days ago, and just heard back from them.

FWIW, here is was they said:



> The mushrooms very likely are from the Great White. I am not sure what type they are but they are good for the soil and the roots.


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## oregondabbler (Oct 16, 2014)

Well, they ought to know. Its good to get closure. 

Give those vines a hug and tuck them into bed before they go to sleep for the winter.


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## we5inelgr (Oct 16, 2014)

oregondabbler said:


> Give those vines a hug and tuck them into bed before they go to sleep for the winter.



Indeed!  

I can't wait until next year to see how much of a structure I can get to grow. Hopefully I will have shoot's to tie to the fruiting/cane wire.


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