With the right care lawn mushroom infestations can be minimized.

To stop mushrooms in your lawn or garden, you should understand exactly what they are. These unsightly fruits of fungi living in your lawn’s soil can pop up very quickly, especially after a heavy rain. Also known as toadstools, mushrooms can be small to very large and often sprout up in clusters. Unlike many wild mushrooms in heavily forested areas that are extremely toxic and dangerous to consume, most lawn mushrooms are relatively harmless. However, they aren’t particularly edible, so you won’t want to pick them for your next meal.

To develop, lawn mushrooms need water and a source of decaying matter to feed from such as:

1. Mulch
2. Rotting tree stumps
3. Animal waste
4. Heavily thatch grass

The more sources of food that you provide them, the bigger they will become.

Recommended Steps to Take

You can also make your lawn less hospitable to fungi by correcting drainage problems and eliminating decaying organic matter. Grind down stumps, rake up grass clippings, dig up buried lumber, aerate, dethatch and replace old mulch.

There are numerous chemical treatments on the market that will kill mushrooms, but they are also only effective on killing mushrooms that have already appeared. They do not combat the fungi that lives deep in your soil and roots that produce the mushrooms.

Completely ridding your lawn of mushrooms is almost an impossible task. You can be diligent about your turf’s care, and lawn mushroom infestations can still occur if food sources remain present. Most people simply choose to pull them as they appear and consider mushroom removal a never-ending task of lawn care during the rainy months of the year.

See Also: How to take care of a bald spot in your lawn.