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Mushrooms on Lawn - What Are They - How Can I Prevent Them
James A
Posts: 6
Hi
As per photo I keep getting mushrooms grow on my lawn.
My lawn is a bit dark and damp and also there used to be a huge tree near by but this has now been removed therefore please help:
1)Are they Poisonous, especially to my pets?
2)How can I prevent them from growing again?
Any Help would be really appreciated
Thanks
0
Posts
You have perfect conditions for fungi. Nothing you can really do about it. As for pets I'd seriously doubt they would deliberately eat a mushroom. From the PIC you really can't tell which species it is you need a real close up. I really wouldn't be concerned.
Can't see them well enough to attempt an ID, but I wouldn't worry. Most gardens have fungi of one sort or another appearing in mild damp spells, especially in the autumn. They're part of nature's way of breaking down organic matter in the soil so that plants can make use of it. The ones in your lawn may well be breaking down the roots left in the ground after your tree was felled.
The toadstools that you see are simply the fruiting body - the main part of the fungus is the mycelium underground which can spread over vast areas.
Some may be toxic to some degree, some may not. Most animals leave them alone, but if you have the sort of dog that just has to try to eat everything then you can sweep up the fungi and bin them.
Improving the drainage in the lawn may help to reduce the number of fungi you get in the future.
I hope that helps
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We used to have lots of these, our dog never bothered with them, I think most pets are pretty canny about such things. I just kept picking them and putting them in the bin. They reappeared every autumn for a couple of years and then just stopped. We have heavy clay soil and have made great efforts to improve the drainage, so I think Dove's comment is right. We didn't really know what we were doing with regard to the toadstools, but we seem to have conquered the problem with better drainage.
Nothing to worry about they are just feasting on the dead roots of the tree fungi are never around long & will be gone within a couple of weeks I'm sure & I never heard of any animal or pet eating a bad fungi the odd human or two!. Animals are all much better at sniffing out the good ones than we are.
simple answer is you can do nothing, only honey fungus causes problems for gardeners and that lives on woody stuff and not grass.
can't see what species they are, as its too far away but they look like LBJ's as fungus people can them - Little Brown Jobs.
unlikely to be really poisonous as the really bad ones are white (destroying angel, death cap etc.) basically if it looks like a button mushroom beware!