Tiny Lawn Care Mushrooms Can Create Huge Problems
Mushrooms can be tasty. Whether used in an array of meat dishes, atop pizzas, or in spaghetti sauces, mushrooms can be used in numerous recipes. On the other hand, lawn care mushrooms can become a nuisance when striving to maintain a healthy, attractive lawn in a homeowner's front or back yard, or on public property.
Lawn care mushrooms (toadstools) are the fruiting structures of particular types of fungi. Including the fungi that can result in lawn diseases, numerous fungi create no fruiting objects that can be seen.
Mushrooms, The Unwanted Lawn Ornaments
Mushrooms are often removed from lawns, to beautify the area and to protect kids and pet animals. However, since mushrooms exist as only fungi's fruiting structures, picking them does not terminate the attached mycelia underneath the ground, While picking mushrooms can avert the spores from transferring, they can easily fall onto a land after being blown from nearby regions.
Lawn care mushrooms are often accompanied by another type of fungi called fairy rings. Their name originates from the ancient belief that mushrooms grew in circular patterns where fairies performed dances. These rings can encourage the growth of grass in circles or arcs, and can even retard the grass's growth or kill it.
Fairy Ring Remedies
Various remedies can be used for differing effects of fairy ring fungi and corresponding lawn care mushrooms. When it simply creates a circle of tall green grass, using additional irrigation or fertilizer is effective.
On the other hand, if much grass has been damaged but remains alive, improve the penetration of water by fragmenting the thick fungal mat composed of mycelia. Specifically, extract soil cores that are a minimum of .25-1 inch in diameter, and marginally deeper than the layer of fungi. However, if a fairy ring and lawn care mushrooms have created huge areas of dying or dead regions of grass, then the renovation of one's lawn should be considered.
Discover how deep the fungal mat is, by investigating the lawn region with a shovel, trowel, or lengthy screwdriver. For mats below three inches in thickness, use a lawn aerator a couple of times annually, to enhance the water penetration.
However, lawn aerators may not be efficient enough for fungal mats that measure over 3-inchess in thickness. When these situations exist, a shovel, soil probe or small auger could be used to penetrate and fragment the fungal mat.
Reseeding may be necessary in dead regions of "bunch" lawn varieties, as creeping grasses will fill in, within time.
All of these aforementioned methods may be more effective than fungicides, in treating fairy rings and lawn care mushrooms.
Sometimes a total removal of the fairy rings is necessary and lawn care mushrooms is needed. When this is the case, extract the soil and sod to a minimum depth of 1 foot, and 18 inches past the ring's outer edge. Then use fresh soil to refill the trench, and seed the region again.
While many of us enjoy mushrooms in various dishes, these fungi can be a nuisance in our lawns. Nonetheless, properly treating lawns with fairy rings and lawn care mushrooms can eliminate the pesky fungi.
