A strand of fungi, such as Phanerochaete chrysosporium (a form of white-rot fungus) is placed on sawdust, corn cobs, straw, peanut shells, or alder chips as a base and cultivated in heat and moisture until the fungi has completely inundated the base material. This base is then buried in contaminated soils.
The contaminated soil mounds with the fungi underneath them are shaded about 65% with a shade cloth and receive only natural precipitation.
After 4-5 weeks, there should be massive fruiting on the surface of the soils, white-rot fungi that penetrates down 4 ft, the smell of oil will disappear and pockets of oil, tar, and other hydrocarbons will no longer be apparent (see photographs on upper left and right in Figure 1)
By week 9, a native plant community should be developing on these mounds from wind-blown seeds and became more abundant and diverse over time (see Figure 2).

The results: Through the use of enzymes that break up Carbon – Carbon connections and Carbon – Oxygen connections, the mycoremediation will change the soil significantly. The soil will be a beneficial substrate soil for native Washington shrubs, unlike soils that were bacterially remediated or bioremediated not using fungi. The mycoremediation will decrease the toxicity of the soil, and decrease several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons, dyes, nitro-aromatics, pesticides, components of degreasers and solvents, and other environmental pollutants such as benzene (a component of gasoline).  

Figure 2.  Plant growth in contaminated soils that have been bioremediated with different methods. (Reddy and Mathew, 54)