If the soil isn't being added to, and enriched, every so often, it will also be tired. As @steephill says - the ground is possibly extremely dry due to lack of water. Even when it isn't particularly hot, soil dries out rapidly in them.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@Fairygirl, that’s true, every year we receive a large trailer load of cow manure from our local farmer. It’s a lovely well rotted wet manure. A generous amount has been put in that greenhouse every year. I do notice that where there are large lumps, where I haven’t chopped it up quite as good, the fungi has thrived. Valerie
@wild edges, when I bought bags of MPC it started in that area and spread from the back of the beds round to the other side. The roots of the fungus are like a white network about seven inches deep. Those lumps were easy to remove. Valerie
Ah light is dawning ... that earlier post tells me what's going on ... I think that will have been peat-based MPC. Once that really dries out it's sometimes almost impossible to re-hydrate it by normal means. Try adding a squirt of washing up liquid to a bucket of water and giving the area a good soaking.
@Woodgreen. Unfortunately, this has been building up for two years. I think I wrote a post on this forum at that time asking if anyone could identify it. Many thanks to you all for your imput. I’ve just thought of what to do. I’m expecting our load of muck anytime now, so instead of most of it going to the plot, I’m putting a thick layer all over the bed in the greenhouse. I shall leave the watering system on so that it gives it all the help it can. Reading what I had wrote about the fungus not thriving where there are large lumps of manure has given me what I hope will be a solution. Happily this is the smallest greenhouse we have. If possible, I’ll let you know in a couple of years the outcome of this. Valerie
Any idea what my problem was? I thoroughly and evenly water the border each spring, and dig in my own compost, so every part of it was treated the same. I would sink plantpots at the side of each plant to water the tomatoes, which worked a treat. Except for the place where the fungus was. The water just sat in the pot. I would have to fork over and make a hole and keep trying to get water to that one plant. It was mystifying, and I'm glad that after twenty years it seems to have resolved itself! I always grew or bought spare plants eventually as I knew the first one and possibly the second one I planted there would die. My compost would break down and almost disappear in the border over the growing season, but not in that spot. Bits of leaf, twig etc would go white as if with a coating of fungus, just in that spot.
At the risk of repeating myself ... I would bet good money the problem is due to the peat in the MPC having dried out and it will not re-hydrate easily. The solution is in my previous post. Try it.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It might also be that the MPC uses a blend of wood fibre to provide the water retention that peat normally provides. If the fungus is breaking down the wood fibres it will be making the nutrients more accessible to the plants but destroying the water retention properties of the soil. Just a theory but, as others have said, the key here is probably to improve the soil and this will provide benefits all round.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Sorry @dovefromabove, I'm not sure if you mean Valerie or myself there?
In my case I never put MPC in my greenhouse border. It's soil, with my own home-made garden compost. A striking thing used to be when after digging the compost in and letting the border settle, when I then thoroughly watered the whole border ahead of planting the tomatoes, the bits out of my compost would be so white against the wet soil it looked like paint or whitewash, whereas the compost on the other parts of the border was dark brown like the soil, and blended in, as you'd expect. Maybe I'll hear or read of a similar situation one day and the mystery will be solved. . My garden and orchard are currently alive with various toadstools, all to the good.
@woodgreen .... Valerie's post (the one I quoted) referred to MPC .... her photograph looks very much as if there's a high percentage of dried out peat in the soil.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Posts
As @steephill says - the ground is possibly extremely dry due to lack of water. Even when it isn't particularly hot, soil dries out rapidly in them.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
This explains it
https://gardenadvice.co.uk/gardening-tips/how-to-wet-dry-compost/
That'll solve the problem.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It is there because the soil is dry.
It has not caused the soil to be dry
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
My compost would break down and almost disappear in the border over the growing season, but not in that spot. Bits of leaf, twig etc would go white as if with a coating of fungus, just in that spot.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
In my case I never put MPC in my greenhouse border. It's soil, with my own home-made garden compost.
A striking thing used to be when after digging the compost in and letting the border settle, when I then thoroughly watered the whole border ahead of planting the tomatoes, the bits out of my compost would be so white against the wet soil it looked like paint or whitewash, whereas the compost on the other parts of the border was dark brown like the soil, and blended in, as you'd expect.
Maybe I'll hear or read of a similar situation one day and the mystery will be solved. .
My garden and orchard are currently alive with various toadstools, all to the good.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.