Tweaks To Prevent Mushrooms

Lawn Nerds Green Thumbs
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With the temps getting hotter & watering increasing, any tips for settings tweaks to prevent mushrooms?

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With Rachio watering correctly for me on my grass (every 2-3 days) in this heat, mushrooms are no problem. I had mushrooms a lot before Rachio because I would over water. You get mushrooms when the top of your soil stays wet, so if you are watering every day, or making the mistake of watering twice a day due to heat, then you’ll be at risk. But if you are deep watering every few days, the mushrooms can’t establish because the top of the soil is drying out. Also the timing of your watering, make sure you water in the early morning and not nighttime.

Now I will add that for us in AZ in monsoon season, I did have some issues with mushrooms because the Rachio didn’t fully compensate for the soil and weather conditions that hit. I will try to keep ahead of that issue in August.

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Thanks Ryan. I’m watering at 4:00 in the morning every 2-3 days. Good info on the mushrooms not sustaining, so I’ll keep my settings as is.

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@Cra71 where are you located?

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NJ. We’ve had mid-80’s to 90’s temps for a while now, but also a decent amount of rain to go along with my waterings.

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Ok, I will add that my climate here in the desert is quite different obviously than yours, so take that with a grain of salt when I mentioned how I prevent mushrooms. I’m not sure if things like air moisture,etc will affect that for you.

Also, IMO sometimes Rachio will want to water when your grass is still a bit wet from rain, especially if you had a lot… keep an eye on that and possible throw in a rain delay or two if you feel like your grass isn’t ready to water.

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I just ran into this myself, I think there are extra factors at play when you get a really heavy rain, beyond the fundamentals of Et modeling. Our soil got soaked to capacity several feet deep, and hypothetically the grass cannot access that water but at night it seemed to transpire up out of the deep soil and form as dew.

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I have this same problem in upstate NY. It’s been a very HOT and dry start to the summer. I notice in the morning after my Rachio has run that I’ll have these small little white mushrooms. During the day when the sun comes out, they literally die off; but it’s still annoying to see for half the day.

We are on municipal water and we have restrictions for 12am to 6am restrictions on odd days. I just tell my Rachio to do it’s thing before sunrise. (as recommended). PH balance is good in the yard and bagging all the clippings to cut down on excessive organic material…

I’m at a loss on how to prevent these…

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