Getting rid of Toadstools?

[rat_race_engineer]

I tried the search function but I didn't see an answer to this question. I have a customer who has signed up for a soil test, fall aeration, seeding, fertilization this fall. Before that though, he wants me to address his problem with about 1-2 dozen toadstools in his front yard. He mows them down and they come right back in a day or two. The squirrels like to eat them and they start to stink after being mowed and laying on the grass. They are not the skinny little mushrooms typically seen on lawns but the big fat chunky ones mostly seen in woods. The ground appears to be graded properly and the owner said he didn't have any drainage problems. The lawn was aerated, seeded, and limed ("white powder" per the customer) last year by a competitor who never returned the guys phone calls this year when nothing grew. From what I've read about fungus on this board, fungicide is not always 100% effective and the fungus grows over sites containing buried debris (i.e. wood, etc.). The house is 30-40 years old and the grass in the front yard has several thin/bare spots in it. I'll be going back this week to do the soil test. Does anyone have any ideas regarding the toad stools & why the last guy's aeration/seed didn't take. The customer liked my professional presentation and appearance and indicated that a lot of people (neighbors, friends) were watching me on this job to see how I compare to the larger LCO in my area.

Thanks,

rat_race_engineer

[Woody]

Toadstools (or mushrooms, as they are 1 and the same) are the fruiting body of the fungus. The mycelium is the "plant body", or vegatative part of the plant. It grows through, under, and around all available food, breaking it down and "digesting" it (these are the billions of white threadlike things you would see if you dug up the ground under the mushrooms). While mycelium can be "tricked" into producing fruiting bodies before the food source runs out, it is when it has found the limits of the available food that it will produce fruit, ie mushrooms (toadstools). By this point, the mycelium has built up a pretty good reserve of chemical energy. It will start producing mushrooms at that point, and will continue to do so until it has exhausted all of its food and energy.

You can use a fungicide to try and eradicate it. I'm not sure of what you can expect using a fungicide since I have never used one in a situation like that. You can accelerate the natural process by letting the mushrooms form, then going out and picking them, and disposing of them in the trash. You'll have to repeat this for a while, until the mycelium has expended all of its energy. In my opinion it is the BEST way to deal with it, because to kill the mycelium chemically really doesn;t deal with the problem. Sure, the mycelium would be dead, but the perfect conditions for growing mycelium would STILL be there, and ONE well-placed spore will cause the whole process to repeat.

Fungus is a part of the "Master Plan", so it's supposed to be there, doing what it is doing. It's a part of the natural process that actually produces topsoil. I suggest "going with the flow" and trying to accelerate the natural process, rather than trying to "swim upstream".

As far as why the previous guys seeding didn't work...... It sounds like a typical "throw and go" kind of approach was taken. Since you are going to have a soil analysis done, you'll have a better idea as to what is going on. Also, throwing powdered lime on raw grass seed is a poor idea, and you never know what he used for seed, or if he even actually PLACED any seed on the ground. Was it slit-seeded? Seriously, unless you saw the work, there are too many variables to even begin trying to figure out what went wrong. I will tell you this though....... Throwing powdered lime down changed the pH enough to let the mycelium go bonkers, and was a contributing factor to the toadstool problem. Adding nitrogen would have multiplied this effect.

Woody

[Seascape]

The extremely wet weather combined with warming soil temperatures are encouraging mushroom development in almost all turf areas. Mushroom-causing fungi are naturally occurring and are from a very diverse family of basidiomycetes, coming in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Mushrooms cause no damage to the turf and so no chemical control is justified nor labeled for mushroom control. Mowing or raking up the mushrooms are the only ways of controlling them. Mushrooms thrive in wet areas so improving drainage and airflow on a turf area should help to prevent mushrooms (and many disease-causing fungi) over the long run. Additionally, mushrooms fall under one of my secrets to success in life: never eat anything growing in your lawn.

Zac Reicher, Assistant Professor/Turfgrass Extension Specialist

[rat_race_engineer]

Thanks for the input guys. I understand that's how it works. I got the feeling this customer was hoping/expecting me to come up with a magic bullet for it. Sounds like I'll need to present him with the technical facts of the situation (i.e. no instant cure) and just leave it at that.

rat_race_engineer

[wingless]

Thanks to Woody for the in-depth explanation about lawn mushrooms.

This all agrees with my observations. There were several spots where mushrooms would form. I would pick and remove the mushrooms. Eventually they stopped growing.

Now that I’ve tilled and re-seeded several lawn sections, I found massive underground vine growth. Most of this was removed. Some needed to just be cut off. There are now new mushroom sites, where the ground was tilled and vines removed.

It sounds like the decomposing underground vines are food for this new mushroom growth. Eventually these will stop coming back too.