Yellow Mushrooms Growing in Houseplant + Best Reviewed Ways to Get Rid of them

Have you spotted the new strange guests in the soil of your houseplant?  Based on my experiences most yellow mushrooms growing in houseplant are Leucocoprinus birnbaumii and are toxic and cause unpleasant stomach upsets. You can get rid of them by repotting your house plant and changing their optimal growing conditions.

Why are these yellow mushrooms growing in your houseplants’ soil?  Are these yellow mushrooms harmful to my Indoor plant?  How can I get rid of them?

I have PhD in Plant protection science and want to answer the above questions. I will help you to identify and get rid of yellow mushrooms that are growing in your houseplant. Join me in this post to do it in three steps (indeed if you want to be successful in controlling them, you should pass the following stages respectively):

• The first stage: Who are these new guests?
• The second stage: How have they entered my houseplant soil?
• The final stage: What is the best practice to get rid of them?

Now let’s start our journey to the world of yellow mushrooms growing in houseplants.

 ➡ You can also hear the audio version of this article.

For Those Who Are Busy:

In every part of this article, you can just read “The Functional Tip”. They are essential points that can help you in resolving the problem. In addition, please notice the pictures, infographics and tables.

As I told you, Plant protection is my academic major and I will walk with you through this article, so, please feel free to ask your questions below this page. I will help you. Now, let’s get going.

What Are Yellow Mushrooms in My Houseplants’ Soil?

I always say if you want to manage and resolve trouble, you have to increase your knowledge about it. Hence you must:

• Identify yellow mushrooms in the soil of your houseplant, correctly.
• Know about their habits and their favourite conditions.

Identifying the yellow mushrooms growing in your houseplants

For getting rid of every organism in your indoor plants you have to perform specific treatments. Hence the first step is always correct identification.

Various mushrooms grow in your houseplants’ soil including Black, brown, grey, yellow, white and even green. The yellow mushrooms are a species of gilled mushrooms, Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, that belong to the family Agaricaceae. They are known as plant pot dapper lings or flowerpot parasols too.

 💡 The functional tip: yellow mushrooms are a kind of fungi, so they will spread in the environment by their tiny spores and mycelium, however, you cannot see them. 

Now, let’s get going to identify Leucocoprinus birnbaumii. Here is not a mycology course, we are going to just identify the yellow mushrooms very simply. To make it easy for you, I explain this part in an infographic.

The behaviours of yellow mushrooms growing in your houseplants

After correct identification, you must find out about the lifestyle of yellow mushrooms, their favourite environments and their habits. You need this information to get rid of them.

• They are saprotrophic organisms.

They feed from decaying organic matter such as dead roots, insects and some things like that. Hence, the yellow mushrooms break down the large bits into tiny parts that can be used by your house plant as food.

 💡 The functional tip: yellow mushrooms are your friends; They can improve the quality of your houseplant soil and are a sign of healthy soil.

• They love moist soils. 

They prefer to live in warm humid environments. Hence, if yellow mushrooms are growing in your houseplant, it can be a sign of overwatering.

Overwatering is harmful to your potted plant. Other symptoms of overwatering are root rot, soft and limp leaves and poor condition. It will kill your indoor plant. Thank Yellow Mushrooms for notifying me.

 💡 The functional tip: Yellow mushrooms are not harmful to your houseplant however, their growth can be a sign of overwatering. in addition, some people assume growing mushrooms in houseplants is good luck.

• The species of Leucocoprinus birnbaumii is considered an inedible mushroom. However, there isn’t any credible evidence about their toxicity but don’t eat them and keep them out of pets and kids.

Why are yellow mushrooms growing in your houseplants’ soil?

Now, you can answer the above question. The yellow mushrooms are growing in the soil of your houseplant because its soil is a warm, rich and moist environment. But how they could enter your home?

As mentioned earlier, the yellow mushrooms are spread by their tiny spores and mycelia that aren’t visible to the naked eye. Hence, your indoor plant may be infested by spores or mycelia of yellow mushrooms because of the following reason:

• Buying contaminated soil. The soil could be contaminated by farms, factories or even the clothes of workers. Hence, the spores of yellow mushrooms inside the packaged and dispatched soils can be quickly and easily distributed in your houseplant. It will happen during potting soil processing.
• Carrying spores from a nearby infested houseplant. When the mushroom spores blew, they spread through the environment. However, you cannot see them.
• Buying a contaminated plant. It is possible that your houseplant had the spores of yellow mushrooms on itself.

How to get rid of the yellow fungus in my houseplant soil?

It is time to talk about the main object of writing this article: what is the best practice to get rid of yellow mushrooms? But let me ask a question:

Why are you going to get rid of yellow mushrooms when they aren’t harmful to your houseplant? They are even beneficial for indoor plants! I think they are beautiful.

However, if your answer is: “I have pets or little kids and I’m worried about them eating yellow mushrooms”, let’s get going to get rid of them.

To eradicate yellow mushrooms from your potted plants, first, we must remove them and then prevent a next infestation.

Remove yellow mushrooms in houseplant soil 

As mentioned earlier yellow mushrooms spread with microscopic spores and mycelia. So, it stands to reason that getting rid of them is very difficult. You should be patient.

• A crazy suggested remedy is to get rid of your potted plant completely (pot, plant, soil).
• Changing the soil: remove and replace the soil of your houseplant completely. Especially the soil around the roots must be removed.

 ➡ Caution: Your potted plant may be shocked after removing the whole soil around its root.

There isn’t any guarantee that you win by taking out all spores of the yellow mushroom. Some of them may be still stuck to roots, pots or even your plant.

• Removing the topsoil: you can replace the several inches of topsoil with clean soil (free from contamination). However, after all of these efforts, you may see the yellow mushrooms again.

If you keep doing it, you can reduce the population of fungi in your houseplant soil. It will take a long time to see a notable result.

• Removing yellow mushrooms when they pup-up: it is a good way however you must be Petain to see a notable result. It helps you to prevent from re-sporing of them.
• Changing their favourite conditions: As mentioned earlier, they love rich humid soil and warm weather. Hence you must provide dryer soil, cooler temperatures and less humidity.

 ➡ Caution: This condition is usually undesirable for your houseplant plant too. So, it may hit them.

Prevent yellow mushrooms in houseplant soil 

If you ask me, always the prevention is easier than the treatment. So, what we must do?

1- Soil sterilization

it is a good policy not only for preventing yellow mushrooms, but it is also good for other pests such as bugs, infective soilborne fungi, bacteria, nematodes, viruses and even weeds.

You can do it by steaming and microwave (or oven) for small amounts of soil or Solarization or water heating solution for large quantities of soil.

2- Using chemical fungicides.

I don’t recommend this method because:

• It is usually expensive.
• It may cause allergic reactions.
• For soilborne fungi, this method often doesn’t work well.

Conclusion

Now you found out what yellow mushrooms are in your houseplant soil, why they are growing in your potting plant, what it means when a yellow mushroom grows in the soil of your Indoor plant and finally how to get rid of them.

Do you want to remove the yellow mushrooms or decide to settle with these new guests? Please share your decision with my readers and tell them your reason.

If you want to get rid of them, do you think the above treatments work well? Do you have your unique remedy for getting rid of them? Please share your valuable experience with us.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me by clicking here.