Debbie Mcdonald on fri 9 jul 04

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I'm in north Texas and we've had such rain this spring, early summer, it has been wonderful. I have mushrooms of many many types and I have had several "fairy rings"(is that the correct term) this year in my front semi shade area in the bermuda grass. I have been pulling them all as I have dogs and worry about them injesting them, they are a breed prone to eating everything. Two things I did that might have added to my mushrooms problem are, I bought some organic compost from Lowe's and it was not like dirt at all, it has tons of wood in it:O and where I used it, there are lots of tiny brown capped mushrooms all over. I also put an organic fertilizer on the lawns and threw some in the beds that is turkey poop based with other stuff added.

Read that corn meal/corn gluten meal??? (one or the other?) controls mushrooms but the local gardening store told me not to use it all over as it also inhibits the good fungi. I'm kind of left hanging, I don't want my pets to die. I have the story of the boston that died from amanita. The pics are there but no sites I visit diagram the parts so that I might be better able to indentify.

--0-599677897-1089381357=:67219

I'm in north Texas and we've had such rain this spring, early summer, it has been wonderful. I have mushrooms of many many types and I have had several "fairy rings"(is that the correct term) this year in my front semi shade area in the bermuda grass. I have been pulling them all as I have dogs and worry about them injesting them, they are a breed prone to eating everything. Two things I did that might have added to my mushrooms problem are, I bought some organic compost from Lowe's and it was not like dirt at all, it has tons of wood in it:O and where I used it, there are lots of tiny brown capped mushrooms all over. I also put an organic fertilizer on the lawns and threw some in the beds that is turkey poop based with other stuff added.   

Read that corn meal/corn gluten meal??? (one or the other?) controls mushrooms but the local gardening store told me not to use it all over as it also inhibits the good fungi. I'm kind of left hanging, I don't want my pets to die. I have the story of the boston that died from amanita. The pics are there but no sites I visit diagram the parts so that I might be better able to indentify.      

Susan Setzler on sat 10 jul 04

True fairy rings are made up of edible mushrooms. About the rest i
can't tell, of course.

susan

over

Sue Jennings on sat 10 jul 04

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Are they always edible?
Cheers, Sue
Plant Spirit Herbals in comfortably warm No. Calif.

Susan Setzler wrote:
True fairy rings are made up of edible mushrooms. About the rest i
can't tell, of course.

susan

--0-261037911-1089484208=:9134

True fairy rings are made up of edible mushrooms. About the rest i
can't tell, of course.

susan
On Jul 9, 2004, at 9:55 AM, Debbie Mcdonald wrote:

> I'm in north Texas and we've had such rain this spring, early summer,
> it has been wonderful. I have mushrooms of many many types and I have
> had several "fairy rings"(is that the correct term) this year in my
> front semi shade area in the bermuda grass. I have been pulling them
> all as I have dogs and worry about them injesting them, they are a
> breed prone to eating everything. Two things I did that might have
> added to my mushrooms problem are, I bought some organic compost from
> Lowe's and it was not like dirt at all, it has tons of wood in it:O
> and where I used it, there are lots of tiny brown capped mushrooms all
> over. I
also put an organic fertilizer on the lawns and threw some in
> the beds that is turkey poop based with other stuff added.   
>
> Read that corn meal/corn gluten meal??? (one or the other?) controls
> mushrooms but the local gardening store told me not to use it all over
> as it also inhibits the good fungi. I'm kind of left hanging, I don't
> want my pets to die. I have the story of the boston that died from
> amanita. The pics are there but no sites I visit diagram the parts so
> that I might be better able to indentify.      

Debbie Mcdonald on sat 10 jul 04

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The link provided earlier in the thread said they are considered edible but caused reactions in some. Did not elaborate. That is where I learned about fairy rings:). I just wear a glove and attempt to bag/throw away all the shrooms. It is getting old which is why I asked if corn meal or corn gluten meal inhibits their growth.

Susan Setzler wrote:As far as I know, but you'd better ask someone who knows more than I or
reference a good book.

susan

> Are they always edible?
> Cheers, Sue
> Plant Spirit Herbals in comfortably warm No. Calif.

--0-1289658044-1089489737=:34925

Margaret Lauterbach on sat 10 jul 04

Corn gluten meal inhibits the germination of seeds. Technically, I think
it kills anchor roots, so seedlings that try to germinate die
quickly. AFAIK corn gluten meal has no effect on fairy rings, other than
the fact that it's also a moderate fertilizer.

Margaret L
Gardening in Intermountain West and Handicapped gardening
http://www.margaretlauterbach.com

Susan Setzler on sat 10 jul 04

--Apple-Mail-1--489860947

format=flowed

As far as I know, but you'd better ask someone who knows more than I or
reference a good book.

susan

--Apple-Mail-1--489860947

As far as I know, but you'd better ask someone who knows more than I
or reference a good book.

susan

Are they always edible?

Cheers, Sue

Plant Spirit Herbals in comfortably warm No. Calif.

Susan Setzler <
wrote:

True fairy rings are made up of edible mushrooms. About the rest i

can't tell, of course.



--Apple-Mail-1--489860947--

Susan Setzler on sat 10 jul 04

google "fairy ring mushrooms" and there are lots of hits.

susan

Amy Fernandez on sat 10 jul 04

NO

Susan Setzler on sun 11 jul 04

exactly, and mushrooms do not propagate by seeds

susan

Tony and Moira Ryan on sun 11 jul 04

Susan Setzler wrote:
> True fairy rings are made up of edible mushrooms. About the rest i can't
> tell, of course.

> susan
> On Jul 9, 2004, at 9:55 AM, Debbie Mcdonald wrote:

> I'm in north Texas and we've had such rain this spring, early summer,
> it has been wonderful. I have mushrooms of many many types and I have
> had several "fairy rings"(is that the correct term) this year in my
> front semi shade area in the bermuda grass. I have been pulling them
> all as I have dogs and worry about them injesting them, they are a
> breed prone to eating everything. Two things I did that might have
> added to my mushrooms problem are, I bought some organic compost from
> Lowe's and it was not like dirt at all, it has tons of wood in it:O
> and where I used it, there are lots of tiny brown capped mushrooms all
> over. I also put an organic fertilizer on the lawns and threw some in
> the beds that is turkey poop based with other stuff added.

> Read that corn meal/corn gluten meal??? (one or the other?) controls
> mushrooms but the local gardening store told me not to use it all over
> as it also inhibits the good fungi. I'm kind of left hanging, I don't
> want my pets to die. I have the story of the boston that died from
> amanita. The pics are there but no sites I visit diagram the parts so
> that I might be better able to indentify.

Several points to note here I think.

Firstly, most people not familiar with fungi tend to greatly exaggerate
their sinister qualities. In fact a _very_ small number are actually
poisonous. When a small English book was produced years ago by Penguin
entitled "Poisonous Fungi" there were so few entries they ended up by
filling all but the first few pages with edible ones instead as
otherwise they would not have had enough pictures to be worth publishing.

Of the remainder a great many are delicious even though their appearance
may be very strange and the rest are mostly just indifferent of flavour
or perhaps a trifle bitter or burning on the tongue, so one would not
persist with them. The tiny brown capped mushrooms would probably come
in the indifferent category and I am sure would not hurt your dogs
Debbie if they bothered to sample them.

As to the poisonous fungi including the Amanitas you have mentioned,the
great majority of these are woodland fungi in nature, and as far as I
know are almost all associated with trees in the form of mycorrhizas.
Though I would have no doubt about identifying them, I am not all that
familiar with the two most deadly Amanitas (the Death Cap and the
Destroying Angel) which I have not actually seen since I was a student
some 60 years ago in England, even though they do actually occur in NZ.
These are both fairly unremarkable-looking mushrooms one with a brownish
cap and the other with a slightly green one, but the third species (the
Fly Agaric) is very common here and not likely to be missed, being often
very large, with a top as much as 6 or 7" across and bright red in
colour, besides being covered with ragged white spots, just like the
illustrations of "Toadstools" in many children's books. As they age the
red may fade a little and the spots diminish. These are definitely
mycorrhizal and associate largely with pine trees, but also sometimes
with oaks and birches. For most of the year they don't show above the
surface, the mycelium (body)of the fungus being wrapped around the
tree's main roots, but in late summer or autumn the fruiting bodies come
above ground, often very obviously lined up along the root buried below.

As to recognizing an Amanita, while superficially they have the general
form of a cultivated mushroom - a rounded cap of similar size with gills
underneath on a stalk - there are obvious points of difference, such as
the white gills (never the warm pink or brown of the edible species),
but the thing which really gives them away is a structure called the
veil or volva, which the edible ones never possess. When an Amanita
fructification first emerges from the ground it is enclosed in a rather
egg-shaped volva, which splits to let it out, usually leaving a distinct
collar towards the top of the stem. This may or may not be fairly
obvious when the cap has expanded, but if one explores the base of the
stalk the torn remains are always present wrapped around it. No ordinary
edible field mushroom ever has such a structure.

I don't know about the US, but in Britain and NZ it would be highly
unusual to find any other than (occasionally) the red-capped species in
a garden. The only ones of the other species I ever saw in England were
in a pine wood we students had visited for the sole purpose of studying
fungi. Unless conditions are very different in the States, or if part of
your property is natural woodland I suspect the chance of finding them
domestically would be extremely small. I wonder where the poor dog who
died might have managed to find one. Maybe it was on a walk in the woods
for all I know.

The other point which needs to be made is that, while edible mushrooms
are sometimes found forming rings, growing in a ring is by no means
always a sign of edibility (in fact though I am quite well acquainted
with Fairy rings I have only once seen one definitely formed by the
field mushroom). The reason any fungus shows up as a ring is that the
mycelium has been growing in the area for several years, steadily
advancing at the perimeter and dying off in the centre. This central
area, once the fungus decays, is extra rich of soil and often shows up
striking if in grassland as an extra green area.

As to why Debbie you have so many fungi showing up this year I agree
that the organic compost with a lot of wood in it could well be
responsible. I have mulched my beds from time to time with shredded wood
and had several unfamilar fungi appear, but they have never persisted
once they have "eaten up" all the the wood. Some were rather pretty and
I was quite sorry they have disappeared.

Compost with a lot of wood in it (and therefore a lot of fungi) is
mainly valuable for feeding shrubs or trees and is of less interest to
vegetables and border plants which tend to favour a soil serviced mainly
by bacteria.

Corn gluten is not availble here and I fear I know nothing about what
it can do. I though I had read it was mostly used to suppress weed
germination.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES ADDED 4/Feb/2004