Mushrooms start growing in yards that offer favorable conditions, such as a damp environment or the presence of rotting material like logs or dead leaves. Here’s an overview of things that cause yard mushrooms to grow.
You should also check out our article on how to rid of lawn mushrooms so that you can remove the pesky fungi and make your lawn beautiful again.
Table of Contents
What Causes Mushrooms To Grow In Your Yard?
How Do You Stop Mushrooms From Growing On Your Lawn?
Are Mushrooms a Sign Of a Healthy Lawn?
Mushrooms Growing In Yard Bottom Line
What Causes Mushrooms to Grow in Your Yard?
- Overwatering
- Compacted Soil
- Heavy Rain
- Rotting Material
1. Overwatering
One of the biggest causes of mushrooms growing in your yard is overwatering. Mushrooms need moisture to survive, and this often means that they need more than a typical lawn has. If you overwater your lawn, this will often be the reason why you have mushrooms.
2. Compacted Soil
If your soil has gotten more compact, that can cause mushrooms to grow. Compact soil can actually increase the number of mushrooms in your yard. Aerating your lawn is a quick way to decrease the mushroom’s ability to take root.
3. Heavy Rain
Sometimes, mushrooms sporadically pop up after major storms. As we've already mentioned, mushrooms love water, but popping up after a storm is also common as it's part of how mushrooms multiply; spores just pass through. These mushrooms tend to go away on their own.
4. Rotting Material
Mushrooms are decomposers, which means that they feed off rotting materials. If you have wet logs, dead leaves, or roadkill on your lawn, removing this stuff will curb your mushroom growth. If you still have mushrooms in one particular area, check to see if an animal buried a carcass (or food) in that spot. This is usually enough to spark a stubborn amount of mushroom growth.
How Do You Stop Mushrooms From Growing on Your Lawn?
Properly maintaining your yard is the best way to stop lawn mushrooms from growing. These tips below are what can make the biggest difference in your battle against mushrooms on the lawn:
- Focus on maintenance as your main form of prevention. A lawn that isn’t overwatered has decent airflow, and is fertilized with nitrogen-rich fertilizer will not have many mushrooms. Even mowing your lawn can help remove mushrooms in a pinch.
- Just stop watering your lawn. Mushrooms need water to grow, so if you stop watering your lawn, mushrooms won't be able to thrive. This is one of the easiest ways to prevent mushroom growth.
- Give your lawn a spray-down with diluted white vinegar. The vinegar will kill off mushrooms that are already there and also dissuade them from growing.
- Don’t bury animals or food in your yard. If you have a pet that passed, don’t bury them in your yard as this can cause mushrooms to grow on an underground bed.
- Don’t be afraid to spray down your lawn with a more potent fungicide once in a while. If you have a serious mushroom problem and you cannot seem to make it get better, there’s no harm in trying commercial products. In most cases, a single spray down will be more than enough to get rid of them.
As you can see, with most cases of yard mushrooms, there are several easy ways that you can curb their growth for good—or at the very least, make sure that you don’t have too much cleanup to do.
Are Mushrooms a Sign of a Healthy Lawn?
Believe it or not, mushroom growth is a mixed bag when it comes to what it signifies. Mushrooms typically grow in very fertile soil, so you have that going for you. However, mushrooms also tend to grow better in areas that don’t get treated the way a well-maintained lawn does. Essentially, what mushroom growth means is that you have fertile soil but a potentially poorly-maintained lawn. It’s potential more than anything else.
Mushrooms Growing In Yard Bottom Line
If you have a pristine lawn, dryish weather, and a lot of aeration, you probably don’t have much reason to have mushrooms in your yard. But if you start seeing mushrooms starting to grow in your yard you might feel feel a little unsettled. At the very least, you might feel embarrassed about the way your lawn looks. Thankfully, getting rid of mushrooms and preventing them doesn’t have to be a major ordeal.
It’s important to remember that any mushrooms you see growing in your yard are a result of natural processes. Just sticking to a standard lawn maintenance schedule will be enough to get rid of yard mushrooms in most cases. As long as you stick to your maintenance schedule, mushrooms shouldn’t be an issue for long.