Bright White Rootlike Things in the Soil?

[barkeater]

I've been turning over my two 600 square foot gardens, one spadeful at a time. Oh, my aching back ;-)

Anyhoo, I'm finding these white hairs all through the soil just below the surface, that look like root hairs, but aren't attached to anything. Anyone know what they are?

I'm thinking it's some kind of fungi, but never saw it before. They disappear fairly quickly when brought to the surface. I'm hoping this is a good thing with all the composted cow manure in there. Any ideas? Carolyn?

[dice]

I think they are fungi mycelia. I have seen the same thing in
piles of composted horse manure when there has been some
rain. They might or might not produce mushrooms eventually
(the fruiting bodies of some fungi are very tiny, small enough
to need a magnifying glass to find them in the soil).

[carolyn137]

Bark, there are many different common fungal genera and species that dwell in the soil and are non-pathogenic, and that's what you're seeing.

Most of them are anaerobic or facultatively anaerobic ( which means they can grow in the presence of some oxygen), and that's why you see them below the surface.

Not a problem.

[barkeater]

Thanks Dice and Carolyn. I googled images for white mycelia fungi and came up with this:

"
A wide range of these fungi are found in soil. They feed from the remains of dead plants and animals, hence the term saprophytic is applied to this group of fungi. They decompose organic matter, and the formation of leaf mould is a stage in this process.
This type of fungal growth is more likely to occur:
1. In nutrient-rich soils for example after adding organic matter such as compost, bark mulch or other manure."

So, it looks like this is a very good thing! Thanks. One thing though, when I copied and pasted, I didn't know it was going to pick up this picture, as I have no mushrooms popping up. However, it has been dry lately. It is supposed to be wet over the weekend though. However, I probably destroyed all these tasty looking mushrooms from turning the soil. ;-(

[dice]

"Tasty looking" and "safe to eat" are not the same thing.

One needs to identify them visually as closely as possible
by looking at the cap, veil, stalk, etc, see if where you found
it matches the usual habitat of that mushroom, and then do
a spore print to see if that matches the spore print of what
you think it looks like.

Example:

http://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/spore-prints.html