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Kill healthy mycelium.

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CrushnYuba

Well-known member
So this is a weird one. What kills fungus?
I have this 300 gallon pot that just got completely taken over by mycelium a couple years ago. It seems to have happened again.
It doesn't seem harmful to roots in any way. It totally colonized the pot and turned into one solid mycelium cake. If you have ever grown psilocybin mushrooms, it looks like that. Just healthy white mycelium all the way through. No slime. The problem is that it makes it difficult for water to penetrate the substrate.
Is there anything i can water through it that will kill fungi?
((Edit: it does seem to be psilocybin azurecens. Common wild psilocybin here))
 
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CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I don't have any right now. It all got chopped up and tilled in. It looked like a solid white mycelium cake. Doesn't look like much now. I didn't see it this year still it was chopped up.

When i saw it last year, it had today turned into a skid mycelium cake and shrunk down the soil allot. It like ate a ton of it. I seem to remember it fruited and grew mushrooms out of it.
 
Cvh

Cvh

Well-known member
Supermod
Personally I use Cinnamon (tea) as an organic fungicide.
It's well know for it and there is lots of info about it.
For example: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10658-019-01882-0

But I only have experience with it to (successfully) combat fungus gnats and as a anti-damping proactive aid. I have never tried it to kill off an entire Mycelium cake.

You can brew it (literally cooking) into a strong tea and try it to kill the Mycelium cake. Or topdress powdered Cinnamon on top of the soil to limit Mycelium growth.

Please Google for more info about the fungicide effects of Cinnamon. It truly works, I use it all the time.
 
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CrushnYuba

Well-known member
It is a good thing in normal amounts. This is just way too much. I think it's a mushroom fungus. It fully colonized the pot and it's not accepting water right.
 
Chunkypigs

Chunkypigs

passing the gas
Veteran
it's similar to when a potting mix gets too dry and doesn't want to wet, you can't kill it without killing the soil too.

break it up into small bits and pull some out, add to other pots. mix 20% normal soil into the one you are having trouble with, water it hard and cover with a tarp for a few days, the mycelium with absorb the water and re wet.

I let a tree service dump woodchips on my land and the old stuff is what I use for green compost, my piles get those areas of brick like mycelium in them all the time.

here a pic of some in a wheelbarrow full.I think the mushroom colonized stuff is very helpful in getting a dank product

picture.php


picture.php
 
C

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
Thanks bud! Yea, that picture is exactly what it looks like. Normally I'm stoked when i see that. The full pot is just way too much.
That's exactly what i did last time this happened.
This time, my friend just threw a wheel barrel full of dirt on top, chopped it all up and it eventually took water. I really wish i took some out before i added the new dirt and amendments but my friend didn't see it until it just wouldn't take water.

I wonder if there is something i can do to kill some off. Do you think maybe a really low ph water or some strong h202 would kill some?
 
L

low_and_slow

Member
Peroxide won't help, it won't damage a mat of mycelium enough to kill it back. Don't worry too much about it, these things do run out of steam eventually and die back. Once the primary food source it's using is exhausted it will probably cease to be a problem. If we know what species it is, we can narrow down the food source, but it's likely either a dung lover or a wood lover based on your description, saprophytic likely.

If you get mushrooms post pictures.
 
mexweed

mexweed

Well-known member
Veteran
I'd do like Chunky said and break it into smaller pieces to add to fresh pots, other molds and such have a much harder time infecting if there's mycelium dominating
 
C

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
Klompen said:
Sounds like you're putting waaaay too much food in your mix. Mycellium shouldn't be able to form a solid colony like that with the amounts of food normally found in a cannabis grow. Are you doing some sort of super soil?
Click to expand...

I don't know what super soil is.. But yea, its water only organic. I need to give it enough food to support a huge plant for 6 months. 10lb plants in only 300 gallon pots is pretty dense nutes.
 
Chunkypigs

Chunkypigs

passing the gas
Veteran
CrushnYuba said:
I don't know what super soil is.. But yea, its water only organic. I need to give it enough food to support a huge plant for 6 months. 10lb plants in only 300 gallon pots is pretty dense nutes.
Click to expand...


what mix are you using in those 300's this year?
 
Klompen

Klompen

Active member
CrushnYuba said:
I don't know what super soil is.. But yea, its water only organic. I need to give it enough food to support a huge plant for 6 months. 10lb plants in only 300 gallon pots is pretty dense nutes.
Click to expand...

Its my understanding that the exact definition of a super soil is that it is a soil mix into which enough food is added for the entire life of the grow. So it does sound like you've basically done a super soil. Ideally, all that nutrition should have been allowed to be colonized by the mycellium and then the resultant product used as food for the plants, but as it stands at the moment you may have mycellium competing with your plants in some regards(especially water consumption/retention).
 
Energenetics

Energenetics

Member
Klompen said:
Sounds like you're putting waaaay too much food in your mix. Mycellium shouldn't be able to form a solid colony like that with the amounts of food normally found in a cannabis grow. Are you doing some sort of super soil?
Click to expand...

Actually mycelium likes less nutrients. It could be killed by adding some chemical fertilizer or extra nitrogen that overpowers it.
The suggestion above about cinnamon, could be very valuable also.
 
Klompen

Klompen

Active member
Energenetics said:
Actually mycelium likes less nutrients. It could be killed by adding some chemical fertilizer or extra nitrogen that overpowers it.
The suggestion above about cinnamon, could be very valuable also.
Click to expand...

That's sort of a broad statement considering how many high-density food sources that mycellium is known to colonize. Its really the balance of water, light, and oxygen/co2 that govern how well it thrives on a given food source, but with the right conditions it can definitely colonize very "hot" sources. Cubensis for example will grow in straight horse manure that is sterilized, and cow manure if its hot composted for a few days and then sterilized. That's a heavy feeder of course, but there's definitely mycellium that voraciously devours what it can when the conditions allow it.
 
Energenetics

Energenetics

Member
I hear what u are saying but too hot will definitely kill most of them. Cubensis grows on composted manure so its not so hot. Straight shit will kill them for sure. I have grown them before and would dump the spent sub into the worm bin. It always goes away and doesnt regrow. Oysters or othe wood lovers will definitely take over a grow medium that contains wood chips. I have mycelium grow in my soil a few times but its always from the wood lovers. If it gets out of hand like what the original poster is experiencing, then it can definitely cause root rot. Been there...
 
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