For Release July 11, 2004

Field Fungus

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

Okay, you can call 'em field fungus, or mushrooms or toadstools. Whatever you call them, there are a lot of them showing up right now and I think they are absolutely everywhere! They are also starting to drive a few people crazy! But despair not, all we need is a few weeks of hot dry weather and they can be gone.

Mushrooms are to a large fungus organism what an apple is to an apple tree. It contains the seed that will allow itself to be propagated. Of course with an apple tree, we see the plant and we see the fruit. With the fungus, all we see is the fruit. The fungus organism itself is underground, anywhere from just below the soil surface to several feet down. If you have ever dug into the soil or around old dead tree roots and found webby netting type material, then you have observed part of the actual fungus.

These fungus feed on dead and decaying organic matter. They are extremely beneficial in the natural world because they break the organic matter back down into its basic components returning all those nutrients back to the soil for other plants to use. There are hundreds of fungi in Kansas that produce mushrooms. Experts have so far catalogued over 750 mushroom producing fungi in Kansas. Some are widespread, some have very specific requirements and are quite rare. Some are poisonous, some are edible and some are not poisonous, but not edible either!

For a fungus to produce mushrooms there are certain requirements that must be met, just like there are for any growing organism. Of prime importance is a food source, moisture and warm temperatures. In dry seasons, like the four summers we've just experienced, these fungi will go dormant waiting for better days to come. In dry seasons we also tend to have a lot of dead plant material accumulate both above and below the ground. Trees and grasses lose roots as they try to survive. Or the plants die from the drought and you have entire root systems waiting to serve as food. So we have the dormant fungus, we have a surplus of food, and then eventually we have an abundance of warm summer rains and you know what happens!

If the mushrooms are popping up in the pasture or in a roadside ditch or in the middle of no where, no one probably minds. But if the mushrooms are popping up in the middle of your front yard, it can sometimes be annoying. Unfortunately, there is little that you can do about it. The fungus organism is often very large and deep. It can sometimes be tracked back to a tree that was removed years ago with the mushrooms coming up where the stump was or following right down old tree roots. The fungus is doing you a favor by breaking that old wood down. But it can be a nuisance. The only thing to do is go mow off the mushrooms or hand pick them and throw them in the trash.

So why do groups of mushrooms sometimes grow in a circle called a fairy ring? Fairy rings start with a new fungus growing in one spot. The mycelium, the fungal strands or "roots" if you will, start growing out in all directions. As the organic matter is used up the mycelium continues out. Immediately inside the fairy ring the grass may be dark green because of the released nitrogen. The mushrooms grow from the active fungal strands so every year the circle just gets bigger. Mushrooms can be a lawn nuisance in wet weather, but just remember that in the long run, they are doing us a favor!

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