Mushrooms growing in raised beds

[Dave2072]

As per title, big old mushrooms growing in the raised beds! These I built and filled with compost around a year or so ago. Was fresh compost back then.

Why would these grow...? Are they edible? Should I stop them?mi don't have any weed issues.

[veggiechicken]

Fungi grows everywhere! It grows on manure, woodchip and all sorts of material. Mostly, its digesting and breaking down this material and its good to see.
I doubt that they are edible and I certainly wouldn't advise you to eat them without a positive identification.

[Darthcider]

Although there are plenty of edible funghi that are easy to recognise by using a decent reference book, any doubt at all, means it should not pass your lips.
There are some out there which can cause serious harm or death.

[Snoop Puss]

Mushrooms often sprout from the muck I add to beds. Up to you if you hoe them down or not. Personally, I quite like to see them popping up - yet more life - and they collapse eventually. Your description "big old mushrooms" and your question sounds like you haven't been able to positively identify them, in which case DO NOT EAT THEM. I live in an area where people pride themselves on their ability to identify and pick mushrooms. Every year, at least one person eats the wrong type and dies. On occasions, whole families that have eaten the same dish end up hospitalised or dead.

[Jay-ell]

I find the easiest way to identify edible fungi is to read the label on the bag in the supermarket. I wouldn't dare harvest any from the wild as I don't know which is which and even the ones I'm pretty certain of I still wouldn’t try.

They're just the fruiting bodies of fungi in the soil. Usually these fungi go unnoticed as they are thin whisps of hyphae in going through the soil. When it's time to breed up come the mushrooms which will then release the spores. These blow away in the wind then settle to form new colonies else where.

ungi are good at breaking down the stuff that bacteria have a hard time with - cellulose and lignin. Mycorrhiza is a range of different fungi we actively encourage to grow with the plants

[Dalrimple]

I pick and eat alot of mushroom and fungie from the wild every year BUT if you don't know for certain what they are DON'T EAT THEM , I was shown from a early age what was good and what wasn't , so always be carefull and only eat what you know is ok ! atb Dal

[BUFFS]

I used to get bags of used mushroom compost from a smallholder, who grew the big flat ones, and they were fine. I built 4 raised beds and got some more sacks of the mushroom compost which were dug in, only to wake up a few days later to find 4 bucketfuls of the biggest mushrooms you ever saw on the raised beds, and it was repeated for nearly a week before they stopped popping up. I planted up the beds then we decided to move, so I never saw how those crops turned out..but, boy, did we enjoy the taste of the "surprise" crop..

[Mr Bones]

And of course it depends on your location Dave. The edible Chinese straw mushroom looks remarkably similar to our deadly Death Cap. Maybe if you pop your location into your profile.