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Well, as title says.. a few questions about mushrooms and veggies:

I have several raised beds with different vegetables. Raised beds are made from heat treated wood pallets and on top of them I've used wood chips as mulch.

Plants are doing really well but recently I've noticed rather large number of mushrooms (not sure what kind, probably not edible) growing inside beds (so far near wood edges of beds) after this rainy period...

What interests me are those mushrooms beneficial to vegetables or I should try to remove them? Also, could this growth of mushrooms be caused by my wood chips? Was there a way to prevent growth of this 'weed'? (although I don't really mind them growing near vegetables).

Also, should I take some extra care before consuming those vegetables or regular washing with fresh water is enough?

PS: Can mushrooms be considered as weed since they are not plants? ;)

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  • Wouldn't it be nice to know what mushrooms are growing there? I wouldn't be happy knowing that poisonous things are growing next to the things i want to eat.
    – Johannes_B
    Jun 18, 2020 at 15:18
  • I was also a bit worried about them growing near edible stuff... If I become inactive user for too long you'll know if it was safe or not :D
    – False Identity
    Jun 18, 2020 at 19:59

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Heat treatment of pallets is a one-off treatment to kill any pests (for example insect larvae) living in the wood, to prevent spreading them around the world when the pallet is used for international transport.

It doesn't offer any protection against rot, or any long term protection against the wood being re-infected by the pest species.

Your fungi are happily living on the rotten wood as your bed construction, and/or the mulch, decomposes. They are not going to "poison" your vegetables. They might poison you if you were stupid enough to eat them without identifying them first, but let's assume you were not planning to do that!

All soil is likely to contain fungus spores, which can be dormant for years until they "find" a food source, like the wood that you buried in the ground when you built your raised beds. Just wash the soil off the plant roots as you would normally do before eating them.

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  • You made laugh about eating them 😁 Are fungi/mushrooms beneficial in this scenario or not? I assume they help decomposing organic matter such as mulch and compost and return some nutrients back into soil?
    – False Identity
    Jun 18, 2020 at 19:49
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    @FalseIdentity yes, that’s correct. No need to remove them - and you would probably be removing the “fruits” only, as the actual fungus (-> mycelium) is somewhere in the mulch or soil.
    – Stephie ♦
    Jun 19, 2020 at 7:12

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