Whats growing with my seedlings?

[sammy_roser]

Hello all,

Planted all sorts of things on my window sill, some are looking to be planted on others are still quite young, go in today and there is some kind of fungus, I'm guessing, growing among my seedlings.

Two questions. 1 What is it and more importantly 2. Will it damage my plants? Should I scrape them off the surface?

Many Thanks as always

[rustylady]

Your seedlings look very wet. What sort of compost did you use?

[sammy_roser]

John Innes seed sowing compost

Just felt the soil, only just feels damp.

[Linzy]

From what i can see the seedling next to the fungus looks like its doing well. The problems mainly start when the compost is really wet. I usally water my seeding lightly when the top of the compost is then starting to dry out.

[rustylady]

I personally don't like John Innes, too hard to keep evenly moist. It seems to be either soggy or bone dry.

[sammy_roser]

I've never used it before but was really cheap so thought I would give it a try. But your right half the soil is bone dry. Will mix it in with my MPC and not buy it again.

The fungus has only appeared in the last day or so, just wanted to check it was unlikely to do the plant any harm.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I use JI seed compost and it works well for me. Your compost does look very wet. It just needs to be moist. From the pic, it looks as though you are about to grow a crop of mushrooms. I would pick them off. I would also seriously think about pricking your seedlings out into a good quality gp compost asap.

Water the compost before hand and let it stand a wee while before pricking out and afterwards do not let it dry out. Importantly, also make sure there is plenty of ventilation, I think that may well be part of the present problem.

[Two_Sheds]

Your compost ... just needs to be moist.

like this

how to water seedlings - YouTube

[sammy_roser]

I've never had this problem before. I blame it on my bedroom as I've never grown seedlings in here before.

[otherside27]

I had this when I used those pre-formed seedling module trays you're supposed to plant with the pot and seedling - the mushrooms came from the peat(?) modules! I also saw the same brown mushrooms again last summer after it had been very wet - didn't kill my seedlings or harm my courgette/tomato plants it was hanging around but picking off the mushrooms doesn't do much as most of the fungus you can't see. Sort of like picking off flowers to kill the plant! I stopped watering my plants and the naughty mushrooms went away (^_^) they wither up really quickly without water - way before your seedlings would get upset! (took ~1-2 days of dry weather/no watering for me)

[Nicos]

maybe it's the perfect temperature in the bedroom for fungal spores?
....looks like they type of gelatinous fungus like 'jews ears' ??
The fungus is 'digesting' the rotting compost.
The seedlings will be fine if the compost is dryer- I'd just scrape off the fungal spores and cool the temps a tad