Mushrooms Growing in Worm Bin

Worm Bin Mushroom
A mushroom that grew in my big outdoor worm bin a couple of summers ago.


Here is a question from Maggie:

So i was checking on my closed bin worm compost and noticed
tall thin white mushrooms!! Is this normal? There are some fruit flies
in my bin and there are no bad smells. In fact I love the fresh earth
smell!!! A little background, I started regular composting then after
2 or 3 weeks decided to add worms. I had about 15 pounds of food and
added 2000 worms give or take. And they have been in their new home
for about two weeks. I have dug around and there are worms wiggling
about near the top, I havent gone more than 2 inches down. But
everything seems ok!! I guess im just nervous that I am going to end
up with a pile of garbage instead of wonderful compost!! Thanks for
your help and any advice and I LOVE this website, VERY helpful!!!!

Hi Maggie,
Have no fear! This is very normal – as you can see (in the picture above), I’ve had this happen myself. Mushrooms are of course the fruiting bodies of various species of fungi. In a composting ecosystem there are a LOT of different types of fungi at work, so there is a lot of competition for resources. This is probably why you don’t see mushrooms popping up all that much. Aside from that, when there are worms in the system, they generally wreak havoc on fungal mycelia (the networks of fungal material) simply via their movement – not to mention the fact that they likely graze directly on it. As such, it would likely be more common to see mushrooms pop up in a passive compost heap containing no worms.

That being said, certain mushroom-producing fungi also have a particular affinity for carbon-rich materials, such as those used for ‘bedding’ in a worm bin – shredded cardboard, newsprint etc. Since worm composting systems are often rich in these sorts of materials, it’s not too surprising to see these fungal species briefly taking advantage of this resource.

Believe it or not, I’ve read an account of someone who apparently grew edible mushrooms in a worm bin and harvested a pretty good crop over the course of several months. I am quite surprised by this, given the competition and worm activity, but I’m actually somewhat curious to try it out myself.

Anyway – hope this helps, Maggie!
8)

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Comments

    • Linda
    • April 16, 2009

    I had the same “problem” a while ago. It’s funny, I LOVE worms and everything about them but mushrooms growing indoors give me the willies. This is what I did to get rid of them: I mix up the bedding 2-3 times a day–believe me–they grow FAST, I mean, inches in HOURS. So make sure you do that to disturb the little mushrooms. But if you’re not creeped out by mushrooms, keep em.

    • Guadalupe
    • April 17, 2009

    we have had a closed bin for a month or so. It is going well, but sometimes I’m afrair of overfeeding or that they are getting compacted in the bottom…I do check them often and they seem fine.
    Tonight I noticed an increase of those white mites and that the red/green pepper seeds where sprouting…mmmm…perhaps I should transplant those to the vegetable garden : )

    • Bruce
    • May 21, 2019

    Guadalupe
    Just using the worm vermicompost wit ground up veggies I put in my bins yielded the best melons that I have ever tasted. By all means transplant it all. Imy daughter has a filbert tree now, I pulled it out and sent it to her in a wet paper towel, some castings and she now has a little tree.

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