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How to Get Rid of Mushrooms Like A Pro
If you own lawn or garden, the chances are that you might end up with issues such as removing mushrooms at some point. Mushrooms are often rated to be beneficial to some extend to the lawn. With the presence of mushrooms, they can help with breaking down the dead material, thus returning the nutrients back to the soil.
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Still, they can be harmful, especially for your kids and pets who might think it is edible. The method of just plucking might not work at all times; it will just delay the problem as the mushrooms will just grow back. If you have always faced the problem of mushrooms, it all ends today after reading the following methods on how to get rid of mushrooms.
How to Get Rid of Mushrooms Like A Pro
Method 1
Requirements
- Garden knife
- Plastic bags
- Nitrogen fertilizer
- Soap
- Water
Procedure
1. Uprooting Mushrooms
The mushrooms often grow very fast; you want to keep an eye on the common places you find them. Remove them from the garden as soon as the caps start to appear.
If they are left for long, they will mature to start releasing pores. Such an activity will always lead to having more mushrooms in the garden. Using the garden knife, proceed to uproot them from their roots to reduce the chances of more of them coming back.
2. Disposing the Mushrooms
Once you have uprooted the mushrooms, disposing properly is still important. You do not just want to dispose them into a compost pile, as that will be just spreading them to other places.
Keep the uprooted mushrooms in the plastic bag until the bag is full before tying it up. Toss the plastic bag into a trash can. Such a method will keep the mushrooms in a controlled environment at all times.
3. Mixing Up Nitrogen Fertilizer
At this stage, you will need to use the nitrogen fertilizer to eliminate the mushrooms growing in your lawn or garden. Nitrogen fertilizer will quicken the decomposition of organic matter thus leaving nothing for the mushrooms to feed on.
For this method, you do not need a lot of nitrogen fertilizer, as 1 pound should be enough to cover 1000 square feet of a garden or lawn. To make it even effective, you can always add some potassium and phosphorous to the mixture for faster mushroom elimination.
4. Using Water and Dish Soap
A mixture of water and soap can still be used to kill the mushrooms. It is a simple process where you need to mix 3 tablespoons of soap with 2 gallons of water.
Proceed to poke holes in the soil around the mushrooms. You can use a screwdriver or trowel to make the holes. Fill the holes in the soil with the soapy water.
5. Take Great Care of Potted Plants
Still, as part of getting rid of mushrooms, you need to start taking great care of your potted plants. The potted plants are often seen to be a great environment for mushrooms and other fungi that love the damp conditions.
You need to start providing the right watering for the potted plants and give enough air circulation around the potted plants to minimize the issues mushrooms.
Method 2
Requirements
- Shovel
- Garden knife
- Power rake
- Lawn Aerator
Procedure
1. Making Lawn Drainage
This method involves altering the environment, making it impossible for the mushrooms to grow. You need to start by ensuring that the lawn has a proper drainage. Mushrooms love a place that is damp and humid, without the right drainage, which might just be your lawn today.
You can do this by using a shovel to build soil around the areas that catch water so that it is directed to other places. Get a pond close to the garden to help with catching the excess water.
For people living in places with clay base soil, it might be hard to drain such type of soil. However, there is always a way to deal with such a situation. You need to mix the lawn soil with sand or any other draining material to move more water out of your lawn.
For such a garden, make sure to water the garden early in the morning rather than at night. The sun during the day will help eliminate in evaporating the excess water before it can be absorbed by the soil.
2. Trimming Branches
Using the garden knife, proceed to trim down the branches to minimize the shade in the garden. For the larger trees, you will need a bigger tool other than the garden knife. Make sure to cut close to the trunk and make the cut angle to be downwards.
This will minimize the cases of water collecting in the new cut hole and thus causing a rot in the tree. To keep the tree free from fungus, consider trimming the dead branches and throw them away. With clear exposure to the sun, the soil will not be susceptible to the growth of mushrooms.
3. Aerating the Lawn Soil
Using your power rake, you can now provide better aeration to the soil. With the right aeration, you will be exposing the mushroom spores to extreme conditions where they cannot survive. Once you are done with raking the lawn or garden, remove the debris, which might include the mushroom spores.
Using an aerator is another great way for you to deal with the menace of mushrooms. With an aerator, you will improve the soil aeration, as it will prevent the mushrooms from getting the perfect moist environment for them to grow.
Method 3
Requirements
- Trowel
- Shovel
- Lawn Aerator
Procedure
1. Locating Fairy Rings
Another great way of how to get rid of mushrooms would be removing the fairy rings.
The fairy rings are quite easy to locate and consequently eliminate from the soil in a lawn. They often appear as a ring of mushrooms or a ring of dark green grass around the mushrooms.
2. Removing the Fairy Rings
Now that you have located the fairy ring, you need to determine how deep the ring goes. Using a shovel or trowel, dig deep into the soil around the ring just to prove that it has the mushrooms.
You might end up noticing a white fibrous stuff around the ring. Depending on its thickness, it will need different methods to eliminate the ring.
For a smaller fungal mat, you can use a lawn aerator to remove it. Start aerating at about 24 inches to bring out the fungal mat from the inside to the outside.
For fairy rings deeper than 3 inches, you will need a shovel. Dig out the soil containing the fungal mat with the mushrooms. Proceed to discard the mushrooms together with the contaminated soil.
3. Filling the New Hole in the Lawn
Fill the holes left behind in the lawn or garden with fresh soil.
Do not include any organic matter in the fresh soil just yet.
Check out this video on how to effectively aerate your lawn.
You Know Now What to Do…
Did you enjoy reading the tutorial? You can always leave your comments and suggestions in our comment section below. The whole process of eliminating the mushrooms is easy and anyone can do it. Simply get all the necessary tools as stated in the requirement part and you should have an easy time removing the mushrooms.
If the methods are followed as explained, you should no longer have to worry about mushrooms in your lawn or garden for a while. Keep alternating the methods to ensure that the mushrooms have no chance.
About the Author Laura Bennett
Hello, I’m Laura Bennett. I love nature especially when it comes to flowers and different kinds of plants. I started a very small garden behind my house and I named it Humid Garden. So, I created this blog to provide aspiring and inspiring thoughts about gardening for gardeners and anyone who has the intention of keeping a garden.
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