Asked May 15, 2023, 2:10 PM EDT
in 2020 I dug out a 2ft wide x approx. 18' deep section along both sides of a small walkway leading to the front porch, as well as an area in front of the porch, We live in Zone 3 - Bemidji, MN, and have very sandy soil. I removed the sandy soil which was growing grass, and got a truck load of very rich, black soil from my local nursery. I filled in the area with the black dirt, mixing in a some of the sandy soil with it, but mostly used the new black soil. I purchased 10 small shrubs - 5 for each side of the walkway, and also bought 5 perennials for the section in front of the porch. I bought several bags of wood chips from Menards and mulched the areas after planting. While mulching, I noticed many of the wood chips were covered in some type of white moldy stuff. After researching I found out that the mold was a natural part of the wood chips decomposing and would not hurt my new plants. I decided to continue using them. When autumn came, I placed a heavy layer of the wood chips around ad over each plant to protect from the long cold northern MN winters. We had a ton of snow that winter and I could not uncover the plants until well into spring. Sadly, I lost 5 of the 10 shrubs I planted, as well as 3 of the 5 perennials. I moved the two perennials to a new garden bed last year and they are doing fine. This year, I only have 3 shrubs left of the 10 I planted (and possibly one more coming back to life). I noticed when I was turning over the dirt and cleaning out that area, removing the old wood chips, etc., that there were a lot of white streaks throughout the soil which I am assuming is mold. hopefully the good mold from the wood chips. I have received feedback from a couple Master Gardeners that hat mold is probably just fine and a normal part of the wood decaying. My only concern is that it is throughout the soil and not just on the mulch. I did go ahead and plant new shrubs yesterday where I lost the other ones.
As I was digging in the soils around one of the plants I lost, I discovered hard, solid pieces of mold? resembling small carrots when they are first growing underground in the spring. At first these looked white and came in all shapes and sizes, but mostly the shape of a tiny carrot. After digging up a few of them, I left them on the walkway covered, and a day or two later they had turned a pinkish/rose color. Yesterday I finished digging up that part of the soil and found many more, some were attached to a long pinkish line liken a runner, holding several of these little solid pieces of mold/fungi. Can anyone tell me if this is harmful to my new plants that I just put in? I spent a lot of time filtering the soil in that area trying to remove as much of it as possible before putting in my new shrub yesterday. My cell phone is<personal data hidden> email is <personal data hidden> Thank you so much! Valerie Saviano, Bemidji, MN
Beltrami County Minnesota
