With all the rain and heat this summer, I've had various kinds of mushrooms and fungus growing in my pots, including some of the semrpervivum and jovibarba. I thought I'd share a pic of one of the fungus colonies of interest that showed up in one of my small fruit pots. I realize this is a bit off topic, but its a really neat fungus.

This is called "Birds Nest Fungus" and growing in a pine bark mulch.

Fungus among us is a good things in most cases.
That is such a cool picture twit. Are those little seeds in the pods?

I'm told they are containers of spores - want some? I forget the exact terminology, but I thought they were seeds initially, too.

Would love some. I have a decaying tree stump that could be a new home for some of them. They are so fascinating.

If you don't want any fungus growing in the pots use a mulch of either lava rock or small gravel like turkey grit.

Jacki,

I don't have an issue with fungus in my small fruit pots, such as blueberries, currant, gooseberries, cherries, etc. I am very pleased with the results I get from using pine bark as a mulch and will continue with it. It suppresses weeds, helps maintain a slight soil acidity and looks nice.

However, I do not want it growing in semp and jovi pots. So I use fired Fuller's Earth, chicken grit or decorative gravel in semp and jovi pots as a top coat and try to keep a fast draining mix. However, it has been so unusually wet/humid this summer that I have had various types of mushrooms pot up in some of the semp/jovi pots. I take that as a sign to move the pot to an area where it can thoroughly dry out. Unfortunately, the winters here can be very drying. Lately, if you ignore last winter, we've been having winters with little or no snow cover. That makes the semps and jovi's dry out too much, and some winters I've had losses due to drying. As such, I'm a little reluctant to make the soil mixes be any faster draining than they are. This winter, I'm going to move some of my plants into one of the hoop house rows, and cover with plastic. Since the plants will be shielded from the wind as well as the snow, and will be in contact with the ground, I hoping that the drying out issue will be resolved.

I had not thought of using lava rock. Around here, it is available as pumice, which would be too fine or chunks about 1-2", which would be too large. However, I'll check around to see if there is a size in between. I may also try crushing some and screening.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm always willing to give new ideas a try.

-t

I'll be waiting for your comments after you try some different mulches.

Jacki, I don't understand your last post. I already use FE, chicken grit or gravel as mulches for my semps.

Oh sorry T, I was referring to your comment about crushing the lava rock mostly, as that's my all time fave mulch. It is too big for some things, especially seedlings, so if it works using it crushed that would be fabulous. It would be interesting to do a trial with several different ones, on similar plants just to see if there was one that stands out as more successful.

Ok, now I understand. I'll put some crushed lava rock on my list to try as a semp mulch. May take a while, as most of my semp work is done for the year. I don't like to fuss with them much with winter around the corner and 90+ temperatures at the moment. I'm mostly playing human statue in front of the AC unit the past few days anyway. No snide comments about how I'm dressed, please!

Wow, you are still having weather that hot twit? Is the hurricane suppose to affect your area?

...and here I am, contemplating (and resisting) putting the woodstove on! You just can't win!

Jacki, that is why your semps are so beautiful. Those cooler temps work well for them (as you know).

Lynn, Yes, its still that hot here. Saturday is supposed to bring a break in the heat, with the highs only getting to about 70 for a few days after the change (20+ degrees in a few hours). I imagine that the hurricane will probably send us a lot of rain, but that will depend on how big the storm remains by the time it gets here and how far out to sea. Our weather is typically dominated by what happens to the west, so it might not be much of an issue. I've been watering the garden for the past two weeks, even giving the semps and jovis some, since we finally dried out. Really weird summer here - hope the winter remains boringly mild.

VERY weird summer here also. Everything feels so upside down in the weather department.

I'm so excited about the weekend. We're suppose to have a high of 78 degrees on Sat. After the 100's and 90's, that sounds fantastic to me. I'm not a lover of real hot weather....I love the 50's and 60's.....

Wow, I am excited for you Linda. All that heat and high humidity is tough to live in, for both people and plants.

I don't hold out much hope that our winter will be boring