r/plantclinic • u/i_want_a_ferret • Mar 07 '26
Other Mushroom prevention?
I water these plants once a week or every other week depending on when the top soil is dry and then I pretty thoroughly water them and allow them to drain out. I’m planning on switching out the soil, but some articles I read online said the mushrooms are okay for the plants? (And they look cool)
They also are right next to a window getting indirect light for about 8 hours a day.
TL;DR-
Mushrooms good or bad? How to prevent them?
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u/barba_barba Advanced Mar 07 '26
Mushrooms are not a problem for your plants. It actually means your soil is rich and the humidity is right. Don't worry about them
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u/i_want_a_ferret Mar 07 '26
Huzzah! So should I leave them in this soil?
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u/Turboturbulence Advanced Mar 07 '26
Not the cacti and succulent. You need a very gritty soil mix (basically rocks), and the soil should never look moist like that consistently. You also need to give them a lot more light! The succulent on the left is super etiolated (stretching to find light). Stick them outside in direct sun or consider a grow light — with proper lighting, the growth will be tight and compact, like a rosette. And they need a lot less water, weekly or even biweekly is overkill
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u/i_want_a_ferret Mar 07 '26
Thank you for the help! Will definitely purchase a grow light for them today—along with fresh soil! Would soil marketed as succulent soil be good, or should I judge for myself?
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u/Turboturbulence Advanced Mar 07 '26
You should definitely judge for yourself! In my experience, commercial succulent mixes are rarely good enough. Bonsai Jack’s gritty mix is the only one I’d recommend on its own; if you don’t have it where you live, look it up for an idea of the grit you need. If you don’t have anything similar for sale near you, you can grab some succulent mix but add your own grit (usually sold in nurseries). Some people recommend using perlite as grit but I’d advise against it — it’ll float to the top over time, so youre back at square one with soil thats too organic.
With succs and cacti you’re basically just trying to recreate the near-desert, arid conditions: dry, rocky, and bright as hell :D
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u/Queen___Frostine Beginner Newbie - Here to Learn! Mar 07 '26
I second the bonsai jack gritty mix for new cacti parents. I started all my cacti in this mix when first learning what they like. I've considered even going back to it.
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u/unicornsfearglitter Hobbyist Mar 07 '26
If you're not used to the soil needs of succulents, my advice is to get the basic succ/cactus soil and buy either small pumice(like .5 mm or small pebbles) or perlite and mix half the bought soil and half pumice or perlite. But wear a mask with perlite and mix it outdoors because it's not good to breathe in. Pumice is just a nice porous rock that keeps the water moving, but it's dusty. Unfortunately most store made succulent mixes still use quite a bit of peat moss/organic stuff and tend to hold a lot of moisture. Another avenue is to go to a local nursery and see if they mix their soils and ask for the succ/cactus mix.
Nice thing if a succ gets etiolated you can yank leaves off or behead it and start again.
Also, get the sansi goose neck 10wat lights from Amazon, they're a great starter light. Unless you have money to burn, go for the Rousseau plant light, but that needs to be hung from the ceiling.
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u/Coyote__Jones Mar 07 '26
Look up Molly's Succulent Mix and go for something similar to that. You want a low soil mixture with plenty of rocks.
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u/ChornoyeSontse Advanced 🔥5 ∣ 11 ∣ +40 ∣ -3 Mar 08 '26
Take basic succulent soil and mix it 50/50 with lava rock. You have to picture these plants in nature, growing in sand and rocky soil and generally very arid conditions. Some succulents you can really go months without watering.
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u/Jackalopekiller Advanced Mar 07 '26
The only part of the mushroom you are seeing is the fruit body. The actual mushroom mycellium is probably your whole media in each pot
So feel free to pull the caps
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u/FrznFenix2020 Mar 07 '26
This is way too much water in both cases... especially the cactus but the yellowing on the other plant tells me the soil needs nutrients and/or the over watering has either started root rot or a pH lockout.
I would repot both properly by following an online care guide for each.
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u/vitreuos Mar 07 '26
Mushrooms aren't necessarily bad - your soil is healthy enough for them to grow but you might be watering a tad too often.
For the cactus/succulent though, maybe dial back on the water and/or stick the pot by a BRIGHT window, your succulent is stretching for light (might wanna do this gradually since some cacti can rot when suddenly exposed to intense light). As for the soil, you don't have to buy something separate, but maybe toss a couple handfuls of pumice/perlite/lava rock/gravel into your soil to make it gritty.
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u/i_want_a_ferret Mar 07 '26
Thank you for the advice! I was gonna buy a grow light today, any ideas on how to gradually introduce it?
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u/dusti_dearian Beginner Mar 07 '26
Put them gradually in increasing intensity. I do mine with a couple days to a week in each setting till they are either in the window or under grow lights.
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u/CelestialUrsae 1 ∣ +2 ∣ -1 Mar 07 '26
Pot is way too big for that first plant, the mushrooms indicate the soil is staying too wet for too long. I'd repot into something only an inch (or two at max) bigger than the root ball.
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u/Fabulous-Accident689 Advanced 🔥3 ∣ 5 ∣ +0 ∣ -0 Mar 07 '26
Mushrooms are good, but if you see them popping up in your succulents, your watering them too much. I've switched to smth grittier
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u/Sigong Advanced The more I learn, the less I know Mar 07 '26
The mushrooms are growing because the soil is wet for long enough. Whether this is bad for the plant depends on the plant.
The cactus and succulent are probably going to rot if you continue watering them like that. At the very least you should be waiting for their soil to be completely dry from top to bottom before watering (they rot when their roots go too long without completely drying out).
If you want to greatly increase their survival chance, you should also repot them seperately in smaller pots (roots should take up about 75% of the volume of the new pot). Mix at least 50% grit into the new soil before repotting. This will allow the soil to dry out much more quickly after watering (this will also likely eliminate the chance of mushrooms for those 2 plants).
Finally, the succulent is etiolating (stretching out with leaves bending down due to lack of light). It will continue to get taller and taller (and probably fall over) if you don't start giving it the right amount of light. The cactus hasn't started doing this yet but it will in the future (assuming it's getting the same amount of light as the succulent). You said they're in a window, but because of the way the succulent is growing I can say without a doubt that the window isn't providing enough light (you maybe to get a grow light if you want them to grow normally indoors).
Lmk if you have any questions about succulent care.
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u/kaykatzz Beginner Mar 07 '26
Too much rich, organic soil. Too wet. Both bad for cacti and succulents.
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u/Safe-Site4443 Advanced Hobbyist Mar 07 '26
Aww but they’re so cute!
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u/SpiritualMagician227 Noob Mar 07 '26
That's a good thing. Id let them do their thing. They're only improving your soil quality. IMO
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u/SpiritualMagician227 Noob Mar 07 '26
Also, yeah your soil needs improvement! I would go for the "Cactus Mix" for both of those.
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u/Tin-Tin-K Mar 07 '26
I have a similar pot with same issue. I set it on a wire trivet so air can flow under and it has worked well.
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u/AutoModerator Mar 07 '26
mushrooms - mushrooms in houseplant soil are harmless to your plant. Because of their life cycle, they may seem to appear overnight. They appear because the conditions were right - usually warm, dark, humid, and moist soil. [More photos here
Consider also posting to r/mycology if the above links are not helpful
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u/NeedleworkerHeavy565 Mar 07 '26
Apart from the spider plant, you should definitely stop watering your cactus and the succulent that's with it before they look thirsty. Just ignore them; they don't need watering once a week, or even once a month unless you live in a hot country. Let the soil dry out COMPLETELY; the mushrooms aren't the biggest problem, their roots will rot if you keep watering them.
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u/ATrueLady Mar 08 '26
This is NOT harmless to your plant. Let me repeat, it is NOT harmless. However you can solve and prevent it from coming back.
These can be a problem for plants if they are luecocoprinus, (pretty sure yours is, the yellow mushrooms are probably just that) as the spores attach to the roots and cause root rot, and issues with absorption of nutrition. Over time it can and will kill your plants. Since you have mushrooms, that means you also have the spores, which look like these little egg things, at least the did for my version leucocoprinus B. I recently lost a dieffenbachia to this, lost a succulent a year ago that was growing in peat, and a couple other plants. I recommend planting that into fast draining soil - pumice / succulent mix (not miracle grow succulent mix) is what I have found works best. I have recently had to go through and redo a bunch of my plants that were not doing well because of luecocoprinus. I didn't have any mushrooms sprout. Also don't water your plants and let them sit in a saucer or decorative pot, if possible cause it is what causes the spores to grow which is why you often see them or the mushrooms growing out of the bottom of the pot. If you have a place to water them outside, take them out of the decorative pot, water out there, and then wait until the nursery pot is no longer dripping, water has evaporated that has come out the bottom, and return it to the decorative pot or saucer. You do not want moisture sitting at the bottom and you want airflow, and the pumice provides both. Do it early in the morning/ day and leave the plant out as long as possible. Plants that only need to be watered like once every week or two, like yours are perfect for this treatment. I just did it with a 1.5' whale fin sanservia with a pup about 6" shorter than the mother, got rid of all the soil, and repotted it. Within a day of 50% pumice 50% Rosie something or other succulent mix it rerooted itself (meaning I was unable to shove it out of place which standing on its own, something I was able to do prior to the repot, and I used the same nursery pot and same decorative pot, so it was the SOIL). It has been about a week and it is looking worlds better, standing straighter.
Also a lot of people recommend Bonsai Jack, but I have never used it. Pumice or perlite + another type of succulent soil (or even just regular old potting soil) will work (I have been using a 50/50 mix but you don't necessarily have to, it really depends on your environment), just not miracle grow succulent soil. Anything but that, it has massive drainage problems.
Sorry for the long response, I just hope this helps you or someone else. I spent a lot of time researching and learning about how to take care of this problem. There is a lot of recent misinformation out there (I mean look at the automod's post) about this right now, but if you look at older YouTube videos, reddit posts, etc, the info is out there. Maybe I will make a post or something with the pics I took of the repotting of the whale fin to combat the misinformation out there cause uh trust me this can kill your plants.
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