Having mushrooms in your lawn is unsightly and is uncomfortable for a lot of lawn owners. Mushrooms can make your landscape look untidy; this and many other reasons may be why you’re itching to the solution for how to get rid of mushrooms in lawn. In this Article you can find best ways to achieve that goal.
Although some mushrooms are edible and even delicious, some others are poisonous. There are also psychedelic mushrooms. So, seek the help of experts if you want to consume the mushroom in your lawn.
The varieties of mushrooms are so vast that people called mycologists study only them.
Types of Mushrooms That Can Grow in Your Lawn
Mushroom varieties are so vast that people focus only on studying them. It may sound a little daunting, but not to worry, as not all varieties can be found in your lawn. Mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes, including the common umbrella-shaped mushrooms. There are also the jelly bean-shaped mushrooms, spear-shaped, and birds nest shape.
- Mycorrhizae
This variety of mushroom grows predominantly on trees and shrubs. Still, it can be found in your lawn if the trees are close by as they produce microscopic spores. They are highly beneficial to the trees as they help the trees absorb nutrients and water from the ground.
- Inky Caps
These are common lawn mushrooms that produce caps that quickly decompose and turn inky after it appears from the ground.
- Stinkhorns
This mushroom variety produces an offensive smell that is sometimes unbearable. Its shape, when mature, is like that of a giant finger sticking out of the ground. Its foul smell is the major reason lawn owners are quick to remove it from their garden. The smell also attracts lots of flies, which also help to disperse its spores.
- Bird’s nest
As the name implies, bird’s nest mushrooms have caps that look like nests with egg-like spores. They usually appear in groups, and they are not particularly attractive to kids and pests. They are known to be non-toxic.
Causes of Mushrooms in Your Yard
There are several reasons why you may begin to see mushrooms popping up in your lawn. Mushrooms, just like moss, love to grow in cloggy areas with minimal sunlight.
The presence of mushrooms in your lawn means there is a lot of fungi underground. Now, before you get all worked up, fungi have an important role to play in your lawn. Fungi help to break down organic matter, tree branches, and dead plants lying on the ground.
A lot of things in your lawn can be the catalyst for fungus showing up. Some of these include pet droppings, grass clippings, tree branches and barks, lawn thatch, fallen leaves, and several others.
Mushrooms in Your Lawn – Good or Bad?
Before I answer this question, you should know mushrooms are a product of fungi in the ground.
Mushrooms and fungi, in retrospect, are essential factors in our plants’ ecosystem. They help to break down organic matter and enrich the soil with the nutrients from them.
Mushrooms are not harmful to your lawn, but some of their characteristics can be disturbing. Some of them have a repulsive odor that will make your lawn uninhabitable for you and your guests.
Some mushrooms are also attractive to pets and kids and can be toxic if eaten. It can make your pets and kids sick.
Another significant challenge mushrooms cause in your lawn is the unsightly look it creates. People who love a neatly mowed lush green lawn will find it annoying seeing mushrooms pop out from the grass.
When mushrooms produce large hyphae, it can choke the soil and prevent air and water’s easy passage into the soil. When this happens, the grass around the mushroom turns brown. This area is usually called the “fairy ring.”
All these things can make mushrooms not fun(gi) we know them to be. I couldn’t resist.
How to Remove Mushrooms in Your Lawn?
If you decide to remove mushroom from your yard, after weighing the pros and cons, there are effective ways for how to get rid of mushrooms in lawn. Thankfully, mushrooms are not as stubborn as moss when it comes to eradicating them from your lawn.
1. Manually Remove Mushrooms by Hand
You can manually remove mushrooms from the ground as soon as the cap appears. This will keep your garden free from mushrooms. Here, timing is paramount. You want to do this as soon as the cap appears before they start spreading their spores.
Hold the mushroom by the stem and pull it out of the ground. Could you put it in a bag and dispose of the bag? It would help if you avoided the temptation of adding it to your compost pile as you risk the chance of spreading its spores.
2. Add a Nitrogen Based Fertilizer to Hasten Decomposition
Mushrooms appear when there are excess fungi in the soil. This fungus increases when there is a lot of organic matter in the soil. To reduce the fungi in the soil and, in turn, the mushrooms it produces, add nitrogen-rich lawn fertilizer to hasten the decomposition process.
This is an effective way of getting rid of mushrooms before they become a problem.
3. Trim Tree Branches
Searching for how to get rid of mushrooms in lawn, here is one way to achieve that. Mushrooms grow best in a shady environment. You’ll notice a lot of them growing under the shade of trees in your lawn. To make it uncomfortable for them, trim off tree branches to reduce the shade, they form in your garden.
Removing shade will allow more sun to reach the lawn, which will discourage more mushrooms and kill off some of them.
4. Less Water – Better Drainage
Mushroom thrives in damp soil. When the soil is cloggy, it gives the mushroom room to grow. Watering less frequently will reduce the amount of water in the soil.
Some areas are naturally damp with a lot of rainfall, so the issue of watering less frequently does not hold much water here. Of course, I don’t mean that literally because the soil does hold a lot of water.
Water gardens are excellent additions you can use to gather excess water and put them to good use.
5. Dethatch and Aerate the Soil
Excess thatch is one of the major causes of fungi buildup. A compacted ground also makes it difficult for water to drain properly.
Dethatching and aerating usually go hand-in-hand and can help you overcome your mushroom problem.
Get dethatching and aerating machines; go through your lawn with these machines to remove excess thatch and form air pockets in the soil for water to easily drain. You can even make use of a garden fork to create holes in the ground.
6. Use Vinegar
Vinegar is an effective mushroom killer. Mix vinegar and water in the ratio of 1:4 and pour into a spraying container. Spray the solution on the mushroom and allow for some days.
The vinegar solution will kill the surface mushrooms while allowing the underground mushrooms to continue breaking down organic matter.
7. Use Baking Soda Solution
Like vinegar, baking soda is another effective means of killing surface mushrooms while allowing the hyphae underground to break down organic matter.
Mix 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 1 gallon of water and spray.
Using baking soda or vinegar can affect the soil’s pH, but using them interchangeably will help keep pH levels neutral.
Lastly
Allowing the mushroom to decompose the organic matter and live out its life is highly beneficial. Still, suppose its presence is such a nuisance. In that case, following this guide on how to get rid of mushrooms in lawn? you can eradicate mushrooms from your lawn by practicing any of the methods above.
Fungi are useful in breaking down organic matter in the soil, so it is advised to leave the fungi below the surface to keep working even if you decide to get rid of the mushroom above the ground.
