What is this growing in the soil of indoor plant?

Question

What is the yellow thing protruding from the soil? Should I dig it out? Also there appears to be white mineral deposits at the top of the soil This is an indoor aloe vera plant in a pot.

Answer 1

The yellow thing and the white streaks both parts of the same fungus. The yellow thing is the mushroom or "fruiting body," the part of the fungus that makes spores. The white streaks are the non-reproductive body of the fungus, called hyphae, which are the fungal equivalent of roots.

It's probably a good idea to re-pot this plant in a potting mix that drains better. The fungus may not be hurting the plant, but it's probably a symptom that the soil is staying wet for longer than the aloe will be happy with.

Certainly you should be letting the soil dry out between waterings. Aloe is a succulent, which means it has stored reserves of water that it can use when the soil dries out. Succulents generally do better with under-watering than over-watering.

It looks like a standard potting soil, but succulents prefer a well-drained mix, usually something with a lot of sand. You can buy potting mixes specifically designed for succulents. Or you could get some good quality sand and mix it with a standard potting mix, in about a 50:50 ratio. Use fresh soil rather than re-using what you have in the pot.

If you aren't going to get around to repotting this immediately, it might be a good idea to put it outside until the mushroom has gone away. Once the mushroom fully matures, it will release a cloud of spores, which are generally not very healthy to breath in. After the spores are released, the mushroom will melt away and disappear, but the hyphae will remain, ready to grow another mushroom at some point in the future.