Small yellow spheres in compost

[LeifParticipant]

Today I planted beetroot seedlings grown in modules in a coldframe, so often nice and warm and moist. I am trying modules this year at the suggestion of Charles, and germination has been very good. Anyway, many of the modules had small yellow 1mm spheres apparently on the sides of the compost, where it met the module plastic. They seemed soft. Does anyone know what they were? It seems unlikely they were eggs, if so why on the sides of the compost? Was it slime mould? It does grow on organic matter and favours warm damp conditions. But it normally grows on the surface exposed to the air, so that when it sporulates, the wind distributes the spores. Maybe it was a fungus, but again a subterranian habitat is odd. Maybe the translucent module sides let in enough light? Sadly I forgot to collect some and shove it under the microscope. From past experience I have found some quite rare and interesting fungi in the New Horizons compost that I use.

[JanerParticipant]

I’ve noticed a few of these in some compost I’ve been using. I think they are eggs as when I squashed one it was quite gooey inside. They were just single spheres though, not in clusters.

[LeifParticipant]

Yes, there were quite a lot but not in clusters, just quite close together.

[LeifParticipant]

I examined one under the microscope. It was top shaped, or like a kettle drum, the surface looked like lots of small spheres packed together. Now I think an egg has a smooth membrane, so my guess is this was a fungus in a group known as Hyphomycetes. I lost it before I could examine it in more detail. I was hungry and paid more attention to dinner.

[JanerParticipant]

I hope you washed your hands first Leif!
That’s interesting though. I’d been a bit concerned about what might be about to hatch out among my seedlings.

[Don FoleyParticipant]

Would it not be very unusual for eggs to be layed on the surface?
Don

[LeifParticipant]

Don, I have no idea, my knowledge of insects and molluscs is limited, and I have to defer to others. This was not the surface as such, but where the compost rested against the side of the module, hence moist and with some light percolating through the thin plastic.

[Author]

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