Home › Lawn-Damaging Diseases › How to Identify & Treat Fairy Ring Lawn Disease

How to Identify & Treat Fairy Ring Lawn Disease

Mushrooms occur naturally in lawns across Texas, especially when we’ve had a spell of wet weather. This lawn disease is called a fairy ring. Most of the time, homeowners can’t stand the sight of these mushrooms in their lawns, so they choose to rake them up, knock them over or plow through them with their mower.

What Is Fairy Ring Lawn Disease?

Single mushrooms or even small clumps of them are common enough to see, but fairy rings are less common. The mushrooms form the fairy ring. The grass within the fairy circle often takes on a deeper, more brilliant hue before it starts to thin and die. Fairy ring formations also occur on occasions where a tree used to stand. These mushrooms feed off of decaying matter, like tree roots, that they find in the soil. If left alone, most mushrooms die of old age eventually.

What Damage Does Fairy Ring Cause to a Lawn

First, understand the fairy ring isn’t attacking the grass. It’s just surviving by breaking down organic matter in the soil. This breakdown releases an excess of nitrogen in the grass, which is what causes it to turn a darker green.

Sometimes, the fungus’ mycelia gets so dense that water has difficulty flowing through the soil, which causes the grass inside the fairy ring to turn brown and die. The mycelia can also deplete the soil’s nutrients, leaving less for the grass to use. Several fungal lawn diseases are associated with fairy rings, which is bad news for your lawn.

What to Do If Fairy Ring Lawn Disease Is a Concern

You may first begin to see the start of a fairy ring in the spring as a patch of grass becomes darker in color and grows more quickly. Soon, you’ll notice that mushrooms are sprouting up around that patch.

Like other mushrooms, the fairy ring will eventually die when the decaying matter it lives on is gone. This means that you could just leave it alone and let nature take its course. However, this may take quite a long time, and many Texas homeowners aren’t willing to look at those unsightly mushrooms for weeks or months.

How to Treat Fairy Ring Lawn Disease

Core lawn aeration can help treat fairy ring disease, allowing more water to penetrate the area. There are specialized products that licensed lawn care providers can buy to treat the fungus with multiple applications. We will also apply lawn fertilizer to help you return to a uniformly green, healthy lawn.

Get Help Treating Fairy Ring Lawn Disease Today

Give us a call for a proactive approach to dealing with fairy rings. We offer lawn disease control services that can protect your lawn from fairy rings and many other lawn diseases. Whether you live in Euless or elsewhere in the North Texas area, contact us for help today by calling (817) 684-4044 or requesting a free lawn care quote.