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Suddenly found little mushrooms growing in your house plants and wondering how they got there? Wonder no more! Keep reading to learn about how to get rid of mushrooms in your house plants and what causes them in the first place. Plus, we’ll provide you with some top tips on preventing them from coming back once you’ve managed to remove them, so you don’t have to keep going through this process again and again.
Stay tuned until the end where we’ll also answer some common questions people have about mushrooms growing in house plants.
What are Mushrooms in House plants?
The most common mushrooms found growing in house plants are Leucocoprinus Birnbaumii. They are little gilled mushrooms that come in varying shades of yellow. They feed off the decaying matter in your house plant soil and don’t directly cause any harm to your plant, so some people choose not to get rid of these mushrooms growing in house plants. These pesky little mushrooms are often nicknamed flowerpot parasols and yellow house plant mushrooms because they are so commonly found in plant pots.
The growing season of Leucocoprinus Birnbaumii is from June to October so this is the most likely time that you will find them popping up in your house plants. However, in environments like toasty greenhouses and warmer houses, they can grow all year round.
What Causes Mushrooms in Houseplants
Mushrooms love damp soil. Any house plant that likes to be kept moist creates the perfect conditions for mushrooms to grow! If you tend to overwater your plants, your chances of developing mushrooms are much greater.
Mushrooms grow from fungus spores - if your house plant has mushrooms, it’s more than likely the spores were already in the soil when you bought it or they could have been on your clothes or one of your houseplants.
How to Get Rid of Mushrooms in House plants
Follow our step-by-step guide on how to get rid of mushrooms in house plants to eradicate the problem as easily as possible.
Step 1: The first step of getting rid of mushrooms, as with many cases where your house plants have become home to something undesirable, is to separate them from the rest of your plants. Mushrooms can be a bit tricky to permanently get rid of because their spores are so tiny and easily transferred. To prevent passing the problem on, make sure to quarantine your plant until you’re certain the mushrooms are gone for good!
Step 2: Remove the mushrooms and scrape off the top layer of soil to remove the spores. Make sure that you wear gloves when removing the mushrooms in case they are a toxic variety and to stop the spores attaching to your hands and spreading further. Usually, mushroom roots will grow ~2 inches down into the soil so try to remove at least this much to stop them from coming back. Throw this soil away into a garden waste bin straight away and put a fresh layer of soil on your house plant.
Step 3: If mushrooms keep returning to your plant after following these steps, completely replacing the soil. First, remove the plant from its pot and get rid of as much of the soil as possible. Washing the soil off the roots can also help get rid of all the mushroom spores. Then, wash the pot thoroughly, making sure that the pot is properly dries out. If you’ve tried this step and mushrooms keep coming back, add a chemical fungicide to the pot (although we don’t usually recommend this, as they aren’t very planet friendly).
How to Prevent Mushrooms Growing in House plants?
Since mushrooms love damp conditions, being careful not to overwater your house plants can help to keep them at bay. If your plant’s soil is relatively dry the environment won’t be so conducive to mushroom spores thriving.
It turns out that plants love cinnamon just as much as a winter hot chocolate! Sprinkling cinnamon on the soil of your house plants can be a great natural way to prevent mushrooms growing in house plants. Cinnamon is a natural fungicide that can potentially inhibit the growth of mushrooms in house plants. Cinnamon can also be used as a repellent for ants, and to kill common pests like whiteflies, so it’s a great all-round treatment for your plants. Plus, it smells great, so it acts as a beautiful natural fragrance in your home too!
Adding pebbles to your house plants helps aerate the soil and prevent infected plant matter getting to the soil. Improving aeration and drainage makes the soil less inhabitable for fungi like mushrooms, however, you will need to water your plant more frequently because it’ll get drier quicker. If you have a layer of pebbles on all of your house plants, if one comes in that contains mushroom spores, the spores are less likely to spread and infect your other plants. You can get lots of different coloured pebbles to put on your house plants, making them a pretty feature around your home!
Frequently Asked Questions
Are mushrooms growing in house plants toxic?
Some are and some aren’t! A lot of the mushrooms growing in house plants mildy toxic. They won’t kill you if you eat them, but they will cause significant digestive upset. However, since some of them are considerably more toxic than others, both to humans and pets, it’s best not to take the risk.
Mushrooms in house plants are also difficult to tell apart, so it’s advised not to eat them. If you have mushrooms growing in your house plants, make sure you keep them out of reach of children and nibbly pets until you’re certain they’re completely gone.
Do mushrooms growing in house plants cause damage to the plant?
No! Usually, your plant will be fine with mushrooms growing in the compost; they won’t actually cause any damage to the plant themselves. However, these mushrooms can be harmful to pets and children if ingested. Plus, mushrooms growing in house plants look rather unsightly so they don’t do the aesthetic of your home any favours!
Are mushrooms good for plants?
They can be! Mushrooms can be good for plants because they eat decaying matter from the soil convery it into beneficial nutrients for your plants to grow. The main reason people choose to remove mushrooms from their plants, whether they’re in the garden or in your home, is because they are worried about pets or children being tempted to eat them, or they simply don’t like the way they look. If you’re not worried about either of these things then you can happily leave mushrooms growing in plants, because they are more likely to do your plants good than harm.
There you have it!
That’s everything you need to know about how to get rid of mushrooms growing in your plants! Hopefully we’ve answered any questions you might have about the little yellow fungus growing alongside your beloved plants. If you don’t mind the way they look, and you don’t have any curious children or pets that might be tempted to chew on them, then you can keep the mushrooms growing in your house plants. You might find that your plants start growing better with a few mushrooms for friends!
