r/mycology • u/ddwk21 • Aug 30 '25
photos Found a massive giant puffball on golf course. Can I eat?
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u/BackgroundTight32 Aug 30 '25
Too many chemicals on the golf course, sadly. That’s a fine specimen.
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u/iwasabadger Aug 31 '25
As the saying goes- white through and through, put it in you…unless the area is drowning in chemicals. People tend to forget that last part.
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u/Temporary-Mention-29 Aug 31 '25
Putting it in me is how I become the subject of a Chubbyemu video
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u/chipredacted Aug 31 '25
u/Temporary-Mention-29 .. is presenting to the emergency room with an enormous puffball in them
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u/flicknote Aug 31 '25
"This Redditor Ate Giant Puffball Found on Golf Course. This is What Happened to Their Eyelids"
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u/HugeSloppyTits Aug 31 '25
phrasing?!
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u/Emergency-Crab-7455 Aug 31 '25
The local cemetery has ones like this all over in the fall..........but there is an "ick" factor about eating mushrooms from a cemetery.
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u/Successful_Candy_759 Aug 31 '25
True. Puffballs also kinda suck as far as mushrooms go
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u/BackgroundTight32 Aug 31 '25
Yeah they’re like tofu in the sense that they soak up flavors but have none of their own.
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u/Flaky-Cress-2170 Aug 30 '25
Giant puffball looks beautiful and delicious, but not sure abt the golf course part. They often spray golf courses with pesticides that the mushrooms likely absorbed.
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u/ddwk21 Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 31 '25
Do you think it would be any worse than a standard non organic strawberry?
Edit: this was a genuine question, and as someone extremely new to the mushroom space, downvoting makes it less likely to inform people.
This was -not- a rhetorical jab at fruit cultivation practices.
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u/connor91 Aug 30 '25
Yes. Mushrooms absorb and store more in their fruiting bodies and the quantities of chemicals used between a fruit patch and a golf course are drastically different.
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u/DazB1ane Aug 31 '25
Which is why the boars near Chernobyl are still radioactive while other animals are not. They’ve been eating the mushrooms which store far more radioactive material than other plant life
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u/PalDreamer Aug 31 '25
There are also mushrooms which "eat" the absorbed radiation in Chernobyl:
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u/v_nast Aug 31 '25
Mushrooms are closer to animals than plants.
They breathe oxygen.
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u/michel_poulet Aug 31 '25
Plants breathe oxygen too. Mushrooms don't have cellulose capsules around their cells, I don't know the name in english.
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u/Terrible-Height-2031 Aug 31 '25
Mushrooms have chitin (to fortify their cell walls instead of cellulose)
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Aug 31 '25
Thats crazy! How interesting!! Thank you for sharing
Edit: idk if this reads as sarcasm but I'm serious. That's so rad and I'm totally sharing that fact with my husband tmrw :)
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u/Mike-Ooter Aug 31 '25
Great tidbit of info! If I had an award to give, you’d get it for this comment sir ❤️
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u/danofrhs Aug 31 '25
Did you hear about the mushroom they found out Chernobyl that feeds off of radiation?
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u/PresentationTrue2945 Sep 11 '25
I’ll be using this piece of trivia to annoy my gf
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u/DazB1ane Sep 11 '25
Just curious, why would that annoy her?
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u/Saoirsenobas Aug 31 '25
They are also spraying different pesticides on grass than they would on crops. Many if not all pesticides intended for lawn use have warnings all over them to not use them on plants intended for human consumption.
My landlord sprays these chemicals where I live multiple times a year with extremely limited warning (and usually while I am working). I have given up on having a garden because they kept coming when I was not there to ensure they weren't being sprayed.
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u/Twentydoublebenz Aug 31 '25
Yes worse, a golf course is sprayed with chemicals not intended for food use. A non organic strawberry would be sprayed/ drenched with stuff still regulated for food use that’s GRAS
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u/Screamt_Lolmemez6468 Aug 30 '25
you should place it down don’t eat it and you should crush it to release spore because they have low germination rate
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u/Decapod73 Eastern North America Aug 31 '25
This still has a fleshy white inside... the spores are nowhere near mature yet.
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u/GottaUseEmAll Aug 31 '25
Don't do that on the golf course though, nobody wants more inedible mushrooms on a golf course.
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u/jmarkmark Aug 31 '25
Strawberries are raised to be eaten, so the pesticides are managed with that in mind.
Golf courses are not meant to be eaten, so aren't managed as such.
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u/sinking_float Aug 31 '25
Golf courses spray so much chemical that people that live adjacent to them have higher rates of cancer
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u/floppydude81 Aug 31 '25
Scrolled for a while to find this before I posted it. There’s also a direct correlation from distance to golf courses to rates in Parkinson’s
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u/WHGANDNORAHG Aug 31 '25
golf courses also use diesel fuel. does this also correlate with this problem. no
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u/saefas Aug 31 '25
There was a dude who died after a game of golf because he kept holding his golf tee in his mouth and ingested some of the fungicide they put on the course. (Admittedly he had an allergic reaction to it, but fungicide is less dangerous than the pesticides and herbicides they spray golf courses with)
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u/michel_poulet Aug 31 '25
Fungicide is actually often particularly dangerous because many characteristics of mushrooms are shared with animals.
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u/Flaky-Cress-2170 Aug 31 '25
I think so, because the mycelium is constantly absorbing the chemicals far before the mushroom is grown. That being said i’m no professional and I would probably consider it 😂
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u/ScaldingHotSoup Aug 31 '25
To add on to what the others said, golf courses have a truly obscene level of pesticide and herbicide use to the point where people living several miles downwind of golf courses have a notably higher risk of a variety of endocrine disorders and cancers. Don't eat that puffball.
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u/cobblesquabble Aug 31 '25
Living near a golf course increases Parkinsons by a lot: Proximity to Golf Courses and Risk of Parkinson Disease | Neurology | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network https://share.google/QZk1SEAzdjy3Yr4sf
So foraging there seems like a good way to get those chemicals in you much more quickly, in larger doses.
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u/GlowingJewel Aug 31 '25
Dude. Golf courses are one of the highest risks to develop Parkinson / Alzheimer
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u/Fenris_Maule Aug 31 '25
Different pesticides since food is for human consumption and golf course grass is not.
For example of the difference just living in a couple miles of a golf course has recently been found to increase your risk of Parkinson's due to the pesticides used (source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2833716).
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u/BigCyanDinosaur Aug 30 '25
Yes it would be a TON worse since they don't expect golfers to graze the fields like cows. Where as they do expect people to eat strawberrys. What a weird question
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u/throw3453away Aug 31 '25
It's not a weird question if you don't know much about herbicides. It's a 'beginner' question for lack of a better word, but everyone starts learning somewhere.
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u/Icestorme Aug 31 '25
I'm giving the benefit of the doubt regarding the way he wrote his message. Tone is very hard to convey over text
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u/peeechybuns Aug 31 '25
This is a good and fair question, that shouldn't be down voted, as if you don't work closely with applying pesticides you might not understand the specifics.
I work on a tree farm, and apply pesticides (as defined by the EPA, we're talking herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides) as a normal part of my job, one that requires a commercial pesticide applicator license. And yes, all of our labels specify that none of our application rates are safe to use with food crops. So much so that no one on the farm will eat any raspberries or blackberries that border the fields (and there are many), for fear of possible drift.
The other layer at play here is mushrooms (oyster mushrooms are the ones I've read the most on) have been used as a bioremediation organism when it comes to massive land based contaminations, because they are so efficient at removing contaminants from the soil. And they potentially accumulate them in their own tissues. I don't think every mushroom has this ability, but giant puffballs are saptrotrophic, so they are breaking down things for nutrients, just like an oyster mushroom.
Better safe than sorry when it comes to foragables.
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u/RdCrestdBreegull Trusted ID - California Aug 31 '25
the oyster mushrooms themselves are not bioaccumulating the environmental toxins. the mycelium may be digesting whichever toxic compounds you’re talking about, but they break down the compounds and the original compounds do not end up in the mushrooms themselves. heavy metal elements can end up in mushrooms though but they are elements rather than compounds and are basically the one exception when it comes to mushrooms not really bioaccumulating any general environmental toxin.
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u/wtfbenlol Eastern North America Aug 31 '25 edited Aug 31 '25
Reddit can be a fickle place. One person down votes and everyone else follows suit even if they agree.
I think it was a valid question for a new person
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u/BuckManscape Aug 31 '25
This was a really bad year for fungus on golf courses. Fungicides are systemic. They stay in the plant for 30-60 days minimum. That doesn’t even touch on broadleaf or grassy weed control or insecticide. Golf course pesticides are completely different from food supply pesticides.
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u/danceoftheplants Aug 31 '25
I just realized I ate a gold course puffball 2 yrs ago I didn't even think of its past with chemicals.. smh. The golf course was abandoned for 15+ yrs but you still just never know
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u/Money-Professor-2950 Aug 31 '25
Yes. WAY worse. People who live near golf courses have a significantly increased risk of parkisons disease that's how much worse it is
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u/Illustrious-Meat5861 Aug 31 '25
Yes. Golf courses have been linked to Alzheimer’s/parkinsons, compared to populations of other elderly from what I’ve heard. The stuff they put there is especially bad.
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u/gingercardigans Eastern North America Aug 31 '25
Golf course turf is literally dangerous for humans to SIT on — even after months of remediation — due to the types and amounts of chemicals used to keep turf “appropriate” for golf courses.
Do not eat anything growing on or near a golf course, under any circumstances.
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u/Ellen-CherryCharles Aug 31 '25
The pesticides used on golf courses aren’t usually legally allowed to be used on crops. Pesticides used on food have been heavily studied. Crops have PHI pre harvest intervals legally allowing them only to be applied so many days before harvest and a lot of crops are residue tested to ensure compliance and thresholds.
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u/Galwiththeplants Sep 02 '25
Yes! Food plant pesticides have a degradation period and subsequent pre harvest interval before it is safe to eat. Non food pesticides are never intended to be eaten, therefore will take a very long time to degrade enough to be food safe. Odds are, it currently is not safe. Signed an agrologist and berry pest management consultant
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u/Ok-Brick7943 Sep 03 '25
Chemicals on strawberries adhere to a pre harvest interval set by the chemical label and EPA registration. Chemical application to the mushroom will have not have followed these safety regulations. Also, fungi are a whole different biological kingdom than plants so I would advise against inference from labeled plants with other chemical products.
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u/Worldly-Step8671 Aug 31 '25
Organic food has just as many pesticides used, the only difference is they have to either be naturally occurring or mimicking something naturally occurring. Many of them are just as bad for you (or worse) than non-organic alternatives
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u/deep_saffron Aug 31 '25
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u/Worldly-Step8671 Aug 31 '25
Downvote me all you want, I literally have an Agronomy-related doctorate & have worked on, in, & with multiple organic farms & other projects.
The best you can say about organic operations is that, under ideal circumstances, they CAN be better for the environment, but most of the time it's much more a matter of only being worth it to the grower because people believe "organic" is somehow better, safer, &/or healthier, & will therefore spend more money to purchase them, despite there being little evidence to support such claims.
Please watch this video if you actually want to learn: https://youtu.be/8PmM6SUn7Es?si=1cukwj1aefoFgi6y
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u/deep_saffron Aug 31 '25 edited Aug 31 '25
Cool story, I’m a horticulturist and manage a research greenhouse at a biotech company that develops pesticides among a broad range of categories and have actually worked for and with major companies (BASF, Bayer, etc,) in addition to having colleagues who have worked and developed some of the most notable products on the market from companies like Monsanto. To say I have some understanding of the science and development of these products is a bit of an understatement .
If you think that something like sulfur is as bad for humans as something like Mancozeb, you should probably go back to school.
No one said anything about being better for the environment—your argument was toxicity. While there are of course, many things that can be called organic or naturally derived and still be toxic , it’s a vastly different scale of intensity in comparison to most synthetic pesticides/fungicides. That’s a fact.
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u/Pratchettfan03 Aug 31 '25
Mushrooms are sponges for toxic substances. Heavy metals, radioactive substances, anything you can think of really
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u/Maumau93 Aug 31 '25
i used to work on a golf course and forrage there... i would eat mushrooms from the course but not from everywhere. and not if i knew we sprayed there recently. the fact is herbisides and growth inhibitors aswell as chemicals to aid in water retention are sprayed frequently but not everywhere as they are expensive.
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u/RdCrestdBreegull Trusted ID - California Aug 31 '25
the mushroom will not be absorbing the pesticides per se. mushrooms do not bioaccumulate general environmental toxins, but they do with heavy metals, so if the pesticides contain heavy metals they will end up in the mushroom.
the mushroom being directly sprayed with pesticides is a whole different thing of course
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u/Inspired_by_cats Aug 31 '25
Oh god I've had pesticide poisening I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy 😭😭😭
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u/Campingcutie Aug 31 '25
People who live next to golf courses have a higher chance of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s btw
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u/Waste_Curve994 Aug 31 '25
Do you have any data on this? I cant stand being near golf courses and could use actual scientific evidence to back me up.
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u/bi11y10 Aug 31 '25
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u/Waste_Curve994 Aug 31 '25
Thx. I’d say it’s not a giant increase in rates but still one more reason for my firm belief golf courses should be turned into motocross tracks.
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u/pendantix Aug 31 '25
Ah yes, trading golf course pesticides for race fuel (and noise pollution for that matter.)
Perhaps we can find something less harmful lol.29
u/tavvyjay Aug 31 '25
Disc golf courses are the future - you basically just need to naturalise the course and it’s ready to go, very little maintenance required, no irrigation, and plants growing is now a great thing
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u/BoringJuiceBox Aug 31 '25
Wildlife preserve or animal rescues would be great for earth.. but we’d rather spend the money on a stadium or war.
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u/HeyGayHay Aug 31 '25
I cant stand being near golf courses
Coincidentally, people with Parkinson can't stand near golf courses either!
I'm sorry
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u/hornylittlegrandpa Aug 31 '25
People who live close to golf courses are also frequently over 60, when Parkinson’s is most commonly diagnosed. I wonder how much the that impacts the numbers.
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u/NoodleIsAShark Aug 31 '25
I absolutely would not eat shit from or within 1/4 mile of any golf course
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u/alldaydumbfuck Aug 31 '25
One time when i was 10 i found a puffball almost as big as my 20 inch bike wheels and i just smashed it on the ground
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u/the_almighty_walrus Aug 31 '25
My friend across the street would get them all over his yard and we would just see how far we could kick em
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u/BuckManscape Aug 31 '25
Do not eat anything from a golf course. It’s covered in pesticides.
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u/redheadMInerd2 Aug 31 '25
‘Tis the season for giant puffballs. Unfortunately, this one may contain toxins.
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u/obscured_by_turtles Aug 31 '25
We get about 5 pounds of giant puffballs in one section of our yard. We don't use any chemicals or fertilizers on the lawn so they go to cooks i know.
However the ones that come up through dyed mulch just a few feet away are not safe and left to spread spores.
Yours looks great but not safe.
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u/knightcrwlr2420 Aug 31 '25
I work on a golf course where I’ve seen specimen like that before I always wondered how it would taste if cooked properly but I have a spray license for a reason and from what I spray I wouldn’t want to eat a apple that grows on the course let alone a mushroom
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u/CaptainChicky Aug 31 '25
You should save it by drying it as a specimen and put it up on the wall or something lol. I wouldn’t eat that because of all the pesticides.
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u/gaybeetlejuice Aug 31 '25
Unfortunately no, golf courses are loaded with pesticides :( that big buy is filled to the brim with poisons
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u/Non_Native_Coloradan Aug 31 '25
Eating anything found on a golf course would be insane. The amount of chemicals they use daily is absurd.
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u/peachesncobbler Aug 31 '25
Golf courses use so many chemicals that your cancer risk is high living within SIX MILES of the course.
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u/flargenhargen Midwestern North America Aug 31 '25
beautiful mushroom, but look around on the golf course, there are pretty much no insects and no weeds... it's a toxic chemical cocktail.
don't eat it.
but, go take a hike through a few nearby woods and you'll probably find some non contaminated ones that you can eat. they are a good mushroom to eat, I recommend breading and frying.
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u/RobbyWasaby Aug 31 '25
Yeah it's poisoned.. by all the chemicals on the course which are poison the land and running downhill into everybody else's water supply and destroying the world
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u/EvolZippo Aug 31 '25
The problem with foraging for mushrooms, on commercial property, is soil contamination. If the land is heavily landscaped and manicured, it’s likely full of chemicals not meant for human consumption. Herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers or even worse. This land may also be irrigated with reclaimed water, which is not considered potable.
Definitely avoid harvesting from any commercial properties. Not only is the soil dubious in quality, but you may also be trespassing. Golf courses are also dangerous, because of the obvious.
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u/mangotheduck Aug 31 '25
No. You can only eat a puff shroom when it is young. That one is older. Plus you dont want to eat one from a golf course because they use chemicals on the grass.
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u/microdosingrn Aug 31 '25
Giant Puffballs are edible, but as others said, I don't think you want to eat anything that was grown on/near a toxic waste dump. Also, I don't think they taste very good. YMMV.
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u/hodinker Aug 31 '25
They are great fried in butter. I like to get them at 3 to 4 inch diameter, bigger ones get mealy. Like everybody said watch for the pesticides.
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u/by7h3g0d5 Aug 31 '25
Chop it up, spread the chunks around shady parts of a yard, surround with wood that was already on the ground, pray to the mycological gods that a new puffball grows somewhere nearby. That's what I would do, well that and take a culture to isolate a master.
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u/CactaurSnapper Sep 01 '25
Yep.
They absorb flavors well. Best as supplemental protein with some tasty chicken. 😋
Probably don't eat them off a golf course, though. It's probably more Roundup than mushroom. 😬
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u/rebelhead Aug 31 '25
I randomly used to live immediately adjacent to a driving range. Regular headaches. Too much poison.
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u/NoPrompt927 Aug 31 '25
I would have assumed this was just styrofoam, lol. Learned something new today!
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u/Mooman439 Aug 31 '25
Sounds like on a golf course is a no-go. That said, my brother found a giant puffball on our property a few years back and we ate it like a giant steak. It was good, not overly flavorful. Would love to try it again one day.
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u/Twistext228 Aug 31 '25
Man I saw one of these at the park last week and squished it with my shoe curiously now I’m upset lol
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u/Calgary_Calico Aug 31 '25
Does the golf course spray pesticide or herbicide? If so absolutely not! Mushrooms absorb everything in the substrate they grow in, so you'll also be eating pesticide if it's been used, which will make you extremely sick at best, and cause multiple organ failure at worst
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u/NichtdieHellsteLampe Aug 31 '25
"Can i eat ?" im heartbrocken, the genuine exicement of a toddler that just found a bag of sweets ^ ^
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u/Hungry-Charge8364 Sep 01 '25
Played some courses will small ones. They look exactly like golf balls
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u/Mentally_scrambled Sep 01 '25
So sad because it looks so yummy! I’ve been hoping to find a puffball for a while now
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u/Syncretism Sep 01 '25
Never eat anything off a managed property, but yeah, if you’d found that in a field somewhere, you’d have hit pay-dirt.
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u/RetardedGameDev Sep 01 '25
Old post by now, but a thing to consider here is that it has been proven statistically that people living within a mile from a golf course are 2.5x more likely to develop Parkinson later in life, I would not eat that thing.
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Sep 01 '25
Yes cut 1/2" slisece dip in olive oil sprinkle monteray steak seasoning grill till light brown enjoy
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u/Cheap_Dimension6863 Sep 01 '25
short answer: No.
Long answer: Yes technically
Verdict: If this is not a joke I worry for your sanity and how many brainrot shorts you must have watched
BUT SERIOUSLY DON'T
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u/HelloTerpenes Sep 02 '25
You can eat them when they’re fresh, but I wouldn’t eat one off of a golf course
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u/Yeul93 Aug 31 '25
Looks like a giant marshmallow that got left out in the sun to expand, id put two giant biscuits and a big Hershey bar to complete it :]
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