Managing Mushrooms in Your Yard
Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi which are in your soil. When you see them in your lawn, they are usually a sign of excessive organic matter in the soil. This can come from a variety of sources, such as a rotting tree stump, buried debris, compost and even certain types of organic fertilizers. The mushrooms appear more readily in these cases when there is excess moisture.
Mushrooms reproduce via airborne spores, thus trying to kill them with herbicides is fruitless. To get rid of mushrooms, the first step is to remove any obvious organic matter such as that tree stump. Digging out the stump or removing other organic matter will remove the mushrooms’ food source. You can also try cutting back on water and fertilization in the mushroom area. Check you irrigation coverage, because severe overlapping can be a culprit.
If you have small children, you may want to remove and throw away mushrooms growing in your yard. It is difficult, if not nearly impossible, to tell edible mushrooms from those that are poisonous.