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Don't Let Mushrooms Take Over Your Lawn
Don't Let Mushrooms Take Over Your Lawn
First comes rain, then comes the mushrooms!
Not only does an abundance of rain mean that your grass is going to be growing at an unstoppable pace, it means that you’ll probably start seeing some mushrooms peaking up through the green.
Mushrooms are fungi and in many cases they are beneficial since they are the fruiting bodies the organisms that break down organic matter, like thatch, old roots, branches and other remnants of buried wood that may exist underground in your lawn.
The mushroom cap that we see in our lawns is just one small part of a much larger organism that is feeding on some form of organic material within the soil. This feeding process is an essential part of the soil food chain that helps to recycle nutrients between living and dead organisms.
Many times, customers will call their local Spring-Green office and ask what we can do about mushrooms growing in their lawn. From an application standpoint, there is nothing we can spray on the lawn or mushrooms that will affect them. We recommend that the mushrooms be removed in some fashion, like picking them and throwing them away or mowing them off or even kicking them to break them apart.
There are many different species of mushrooms that may grow in a lawn. They can range from little button mushrooms to large ones like puffballs. I have seen all sorts of colors and shapes over the years. The only time I am ever concerned is when the mushrooms are growing in a ring or follow a circular path in the lawn. When I see that, it tends to point to a problem with Fairy Ring.
Fairy Rings are fungi that are growing in the soil, decomposing some type of organic material and releasing excess nutrients back into the soil. These nutrients, especially nitrogen, can be picked up by the grass plants and form darker green arcs and circles the lawn. The fungi can persist in a lawn for years and grow into a larger and larger ring.
Although there are fungicides available to treat Fairy Ring, the easiest and most cost effective route is to aerate the lawn, paying extra attention where the ring and or mushrooms appear. By increasing the amount of water that penetrates into the area where the Fairy Ring fungi are occurring, seems to help keep it in check. I have had minor problems with Fairy Rings in my own lawn over the years, and I am able to lessen its affects through aeration.
Worried about the darker green circles left behind? Don’t fret. Those can be masked with normal fertilizer applications.
For more information on Fairy Ring or any mushroom activity in your lawn, contact your local Spring-Green professional today.