Mushrooms taking over the lawn - Knowledgebase Question

Beachwood, OH (Zone 5B)
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Question by dlachhwani
October 3, 2005
Mushrooms taking over the lawn. How to control?


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Answer from NGA
October 3, 2005
First of all, mushrooms are harmless to the lawn, so it is more an issue of looks and whether or not you have children or pets that would possibly try to eat them. If that is not a concern, you could ignore them.

Usually the mushrooms only appear at certain times when the weather is right, so to some extent this is a seasonal thing and will stop on its own even if you do nothing, but, they may reappear later when conditions are right again.

There are two things you can do to try to control them. The mushrooms we see at the surface are the fruiting bodies of a fungus that is growing underground. If you promptly remove the mushrooms, the underground portion eventually becomes exhausted and can no longer produce them. So raking them up periodically should stop them eventually. This is the easier control.

The underground growth is feeding on decaying matter in the soil, probably old tree roots or something like that. If you see a definite pattern to the mushrooms you could try digging down and grubbing out the wood to remove the food source. Once the food source is used up, the mushrooms will stop naturally.

Eventually the wood material underground will rot and decay enough that the fungus can no longer us it -- so again, the mushrooms will naturally stop even if you do nothing. They are just a natural part of the soil building process helpin gto recycle organic matter back to the soil.

I hope this helps.

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