Mushrooms, anyone???

proofer · 09-29-2012, 02:26 PM

I'm in southwestern Ohio. First we had dry conditions earlier this summer. Recently we had a few days of rain (not over an inch of rain total, though). Here's what we have right now in our yard. Some are in sunny spots and some are in shady spots. Most of these mushrooms are in parts of the yard that are on a slight decline, so there's no drainage issues here. We have a lawn service who routinely puts down chemicals for weeds, pot ash, crab grass, etc. What's causing these mushrooms to grow? We didn't have them last year. Some of these mushrooms are as big as cauliflower. What do you recommend?

sdsester · 09-29-2012, 02:37 PM

I always wished I had learned to identify edible ones and not just those that made me see colors differently and Big Foot in a pink tutu. Those look really nice and like they should be in a wild mushroom soup or something if they are edible. Most actually are as I remember but of course if you get a variety that is not you can get really sick or worse.

As for what is causing them to grow? As you probably know, mushrooms spores attach to decaying wood. It could be that something in your yard has started to break down and it was not doing so before this. They don't really hurt anything other than aesthetics if you are not into them. Just so kids and pets do not chew on the bad ones and retro types from my generation are not showing up thinking you are recreating Woodstock or throwing a Grateful Dead concert. I would put a no tie dye or VW buses sign in the yard to be safe. Hippies will be shot didn't work so well but is worth a try in Ohio.

There is a pretty high demand for wild mushrooms at farmer's markets and restaurants. If you determine they are edible, you might actually make a few bucks on the things.

proofer · 09-30-2012, 07:29 AM

Thanks for your response. A few months ago, we did have a large tree fall in the general vicinity where most of these mushrooms are, so these mushrooms may have developed from any remnants of that tree.

Yes, I probably like mushrooms more than the next guy, but I'm not willing to experiment with these.

gobug · 09-30-2012, 10:37 AM

Best to not experiment with eating them.

I have also been experiencing huge volumes of mushrooms in my garden. This was a very dry year, but we did previously have 2 old maple trees removed over a 5 year period. I did a lot of searching to find out why I was getting so many mushrooms. It is definitely related to the previous maple trees and that I water the garden. I kept the stump grindings and used them to cover the pathways between my garden boxes.

Since my S/O is allergic to mushrooms, I tried just digging them out, letting them go, and spraying them with CuO. It seems nothing stops them. The spore are apparently present in the air, so spraying etc wont deter them. Hmmmmm??? Do I need to remove the grindings? The garden plants don't appear to be bothered by the shroom invasion. Should I just let them go???

Blondesense · 09-30-2012, 12:04 PM

FWIW, we found this on our property four years ago.
Haven't seen any since.
?????

hardwareman · 09-30-2012, 08:03 PM

mushrooms growing in your yard is actually a good thing, it proves you have a very healthy lawn

nosh0es4u · 10-01-2012, 09:56 PM

I don't worry about mushrooms in the grass but if you see them developing at the base of trees or palms or on recent cut ends on a tree then you must concern yourself. In south Florida I have cut down maybe 1000 queen palms due to Gandaderma (sp) fungus which makes conks that look like mushrooms.

Plump · 10-03-2012, 05:08 PM

For the most part, they will go away in time as the decaying organic matter depletes. Your not going to have good luck getting rid of them before that but there are select fungicides that will work. Most of them aren't really a good idea to use since they'll do some damage to the "good" fungi, etc. living in your lawn.