Mushrooms

treitz3

So, I woke up this morning and out of nowhere, hundreds upon hundreds of little "Japanese hut" looking mushrooms have popped up all over my yard. I have been here for about 6 years and have never seen this before. It's usually a big mushroom with 3 or 4 more growing from the same stem (or so it appeared) that pop up from time to time.

Today, it's all over the lawn. None of the neighbors have them, this is only in my yard.



I have a couple of questions -

Are they edible (without psychotropic effects)?
Where in the heck did they come from?

I have not used manure or planted/spread any mushroom spores. I have never seen them before and after they die out or I mow the lawn, may never again. Just thought it was cool as all get up when I looked out at the yard this morning. They are literally everywhere.

The average size would be about an inch, with the largest only being about an inch and a quarter in size at the top. Now that it's mid-day, the tops have all retracted like a closed umbrella and can barely be seen from a distance.






Cool, eh?

Tom

pitdogg2

Don't eat them .... Unless you need a trip to the emergency room.
as you know mushrooms are a fungus they could be there because of tree roots that was there any other organic material in your yard and they just have the right amount of moisture the right weather for them to pop up like that it happens from time to time

audioluvr

treitz3 wrote: »

I have a couple of questions -

Are they edible?

Nope.

Often mushrooms appear out of nowhere from spores that were transported by the wind, insects and birds. They are good for your lawn as they provide nutrients

treitz3

Yeah, I looked extensively after I posted this and I do not see these type of mushrooms on any edible list. Damned shame, I have some flank steak that would have been a good compliment to a beef based mushroom and onion topping. Thanks.

I have never seen them so widespread in any yard I have lived in. Usually any mushroom comes up here and there and they are almost always far and few between them.

Tom

DaveHo

Like, far out man! Theys good eatings. Trust me.

treitz3

....and just like that *poof* they are history. Not even one left anywhere.

Tom

F1nut

Tom's local restaurant has mushrooms with the special tonight.

Mikey081057

Mushrooms usually indicate moisture and the breakdown of organic matter in the soil whic give the spores a nice place to grow.... tree roots that are breaking down usually host the fungii... Fungus left unchecked can fungus up your lawn....

treitz3

I'm surprised I even have any organic stuff in the yard. When I moved in, all we had was summer grass and crabgrass. A real PIA to get it to where it is now. The trees that are here have been here for quite some time and where they came up was out in the middle/open parts of the yard.

We have had a lot of rain lately but none in two days. Getting ready for more rain from Cristobal but I'm not expecting much. Maybe it will dry out. If not, I guess I will have to do some research in preventing these fungi spots from damaging the lawn.

The home was built in 1982 and used to be in the middle of a cow field (although you could not tell by the soil in the yard) and may have been used as growing fields on the original Hood's farmland that spanned quite a bit of the county back in the day.

Tom

msg

Probably legacy shrooms.

Keiko

It's a sign! What it means? No idea.

audioluvr

treitz3 wrote: »

Wait. Could be the shrooms I just ate but I see the outline of a running horse here! Like looking up at the stars!

pitdogg2

They will not ruin your lawn. I always get them when it rains for several days with calm cool night temps. Not once have they "taken" over or killed anything.

gudnoyez

Cow field, Cow patties, mushrooms if they were brown or grey they make good music enhancers and lengthy magical evenings, those white ones stay away from those they are no good.

rooftop59

Yea in central Texas it’s the same as Ivan says. Moisture and the right temp and they come, it heats up too much and they dry right up...wait a second what are we talking about again?!!

afterburnt

I. Don't mess with wild mushrooms if you don't know what you are doing. The wrong ones can cause an agonizing painful death.

2. You got lots of organic stuff if you got grass. Is your lot like pure beach sand or something?

3. Fungus spores are everywhere, we breathe them all of the time.

Jstas

So, from what I know, mushrooms like that aren't due to rotting organic matter like tree roots or anything. What they come from is when dead grass (also called thatch) ends up holding moisture next to the ground. This slows or halts aerobic decomposition which gives fungal spores a chance to take root and multiply. Then you end up with mushrooms.

Normally the typical aerobic decomposition starts decomposing things like grass clippings faster than stuff like fungal spores can get a chance to take hold.

Mushrooms will go away but they aren't a bad thing at all. They are a sign of a healthy lawn because it means that there's enough organic matter and a good nutrient balance to foster growth in the soil. The microbes in the soil usually do a good job of cleaning up the waste like mulched grass clippings. But when the weather gets too wet or too cold (too much rain, early frost, etc), the microbes start to die off. So a fungus, like mushrooms, step in and keep the process going.

That brown spot that Mikey posted can be caused by fungus or mold or bugs/grubs. It's not the same kind of fungus as mushrooms, though and while it can cause bare spots, it's typically indicative of a bigger problem with soil quality or an imbalance in nutrients (like too much nitrogen or phosphorous or something) that can cause chemical burning as well. It's rare that it will overrun an entire lawn unless you have a single type of grass (i.e.: Kentucky Bluegrass, Bermuda Grass, Bentgrass or St. Augustine, etc) which is usually a blight or infection specifically to that type of grass. Your average suburban lawn is typically a mishmash of different types of grass so even if a fungus starts killing off one type of grass, it typically won't affect others around it.

I've mulched grass clippings back in to my lawn for years now and I've noticed similar mushrooms pop up in my yard after extended periods of rain. Neighbors who don't mulch grass clippings back in don't seem to have them. This year, though, I planted clover as well to help fix the soil and improve nitrogen quality for the grass I do have. Last year, I had similar mushrooms all over the place after a week and a half of rain. This year, I got lots of clover flowers and honey bees everywhere but no mushrooms despite getting like 8 inches of rain in 10 days. Only difference is all the clover.

Jstas

Oh, also, don't eat wild mushrooms unless you are absolutely sure you have identified them correctly. There's some subtle differences between ones that are yummy and ones that will kill you deader than dead and hurt the whole time they are doing it.

We actually had a spate of deaths here in NJ and PA few years ago from people cutting and eating mushrooms they misidentified as either wild Chantrelle or the Sulfur Shelf (Hen of the Woods/Chicken Mushrooms) and Shaggy Mane Mushrooms. I had a friend who's granddaughter was rushed to the hospital after her Uncle mistakenly gave her some Stinkhorn mushrooms he found in their garden and falsely identified them as Shaggy Mane. In the immature "egg" shaped stage, Stinkhorns are edible but that stage has a narrow window. Once they start to mature, they have an odor that gets stronger as they mature. Dunno how he got the kid to eat it but she had a severe allergic reaction and was in the hospital for 3 days.

Yeah, I'd rather just buy mushrooms from the store.

audioluvr

Yum. Wild mushrooms! Been picking them my whole life. People can have an allergic reaction to store bought anything. Two rules to live by.
When in doubt, throw it out
Don't eat anything a bug won't eat (or any wild critter)

aprazer402

I took this photo in May 2015. Probably a little "woody".

gudnoyez

Morels good eating. Nice carving.

aprazer402 wrote: »

I took this photo in May 2015. Probably a little "woody".

afterburnt

If you have mushrooms in New Jersey you can blame your neighbors in Peoria.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus/

Gardenstater

There's a Fungus Amungus.