Lawn Fungus/Mushroom?

[Don Green]

A couple of years ago I took down a tree that was dying. I had the stump ground down, but of course all the root structure is still underground.

Since then, I've noticed a lot of what I think are mushrooms that I can only describe as resembling cauliflower growing in that same area of my lawn. When I Googled it, I found this:

is exactly what I have.

First, please, don't anyone tell me that they're beautiful and helpful and that I should leave them alone. They're going. Period. This my damn front lawn.

To remove them, I end up taking out big divets of my lawn, and they still grown back in different locations. Basically, each week before I mow, I go around with a shovel and dig up the weeks growth of these things.

Any thoughts on getting rid of them would be helpful. ANY other input would not.

[HellT]

Well, obviously, the mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of the fungus colony that is growing on the decaying roots left behind from your tree. You have two options, the first being: dig up the lawn and remove all of the remaining roots and the surrounding soil that contains the fungus. Since that's a ridiculous proposition, you take option number two, which is simply: let nature take its course. Over time, the roots will continue decomposing, and as less of that organic matter is left in the soil, the size of the fungal colony and the number of mushrooms will decrease until they're pretty much gone. In the meantime, every time a mushroom pops up, you remove it.

Ain't nature grand?

[songbird]

HellT wrote: ...

which is sorta like pulling a whisker off a goat, except the goat might notice.

the idea that pulling the fruiting bodies off a fungi is going to kill or deplete the fungi is rather funny. but who am i to deprive the neighbors of their entertainment?

the same kind of people use anti-fungal agents to kill the fungi, which may actually accomplish something, but eventually the fungi will return as long as there are nutrients to be had from decomposing wood.

yep.

songbird

[HellT]

I dunno where you got that idea from what I wrote, but no, removing the mushrooms won't do anything to the fungal colony. Since the OP hates looking at them, he can just kick them over, rake them up, mince them with the mower, or take a golf club and practice his swing.

The point is, there's nothing that will take out that fungal colony, short of removing the soil that it resides in. That's a huge project for a comparatively small issue, which is why most people end up just letting nature take its course. But if the OP has the time, the money, and the motivation, go for it.

Not much, since you won't get thorough soil penetration to the necessary depth without completely saturating the lawn. Again, it's using a nuke against a mosquito.

You see this problem a lot in new developments. Not all of the construction debris gets picked up, and some of it gets graded under. A year or so later, mushrooms are sprouting above the chunks of two-by-four and pieces of plywood under the lawn. Those are usually not as major a project to uncover and remove, but it's still a hassle.