Lawn and plant care, mushroom treatment, tops question list

The types of calls we have been getting have to do with fertilizing lawns, the appearance of different types of mushrooms in lawns and what to do about them.

We have received questions on the appearance of dodder, that orange twine looking plant that coils up around other plants to pull the nutrients and parasitize them.

Now is the time we should be looking at borer control if we have plants that need to be protected. I will talk more about this in the next couple of weeks. Fertilize lawns with a well-balanced fertilizer containing iron. This should have nitrogen in about three times the amount as phosphorus and about twice as much as potassium or a -1-2 ratio of NPK. Half of the nitrogen should be slow release. Use a recycling mower and recycle your clippings back into your lawn. Call our Master Gardeners and request a copy of our fact sheet on the Don't Bag It program and it will tell you how to use a recycling mower properly along with the right type and amount of fertilizer.

Tall fescue does not need as much fertilizer as the bag recommends. Use half that amount unless there is a weed killer, insecticide or fungicide mixed in with the fertilizer. Then you must use the amount stated on the bag.

Now is the time to get weed killers on pesky weeds before it gets too hot. The heat will diminish a weed killer's power to kill by making the plant more resistant to the herbicide.

Question: I have a problem controlling morning glory or field bindweed in my desert landscape. It was just installed and I have this weed popping up everywhere now.

Answer: This weed is usually a problem in agricultural lands or lands under continuous cultivation. It is not a weed very common in our area unless you are living on some land that was used for production agriculture in the past. This is a perennial weed that survives on a deep network of rhizomes. The weed was probably distributed into your landscape either by pushing the existing soil around which had therhizomes present or it was brought in with topsoil that was used. When it came up, it was probably disturbed during the landscaping process and it is regrowing from cut ends of the rhizomes. It should be fairly easy to decrease the numbers just by using a scuffle hoe or other hoe that cuts just below the soil surface and continue to knock off the above ground leaves and stems. You should continue to remove the tops at least weekly. After about one or two months, you should see a decrease in the amount growing from the landscape.

The chemicals used for control is either Roundup or the dandelion killer 2, 4-D. Both are known to knock it back but not eradicate it. Repeat applications would be needed. The best time to spray this weed is in the fall, September through October, when you move these chemicals deeper into the root system and get a better kill.

Q: I have these ugly looking fleshy balls in my dog run. What are they and where did they come from?

A: Mushrooms and toadstools are one in the same. There are several thousand kinds or species of wild mushrooms and puffballs. Puffballs are a type of mushroom. Some mushrooms and most puffballs are edible; some are foul-smelling, many are considered unsightly, and a few are poisonous, but when they appear on a lawn, most are considered a nuisance.

Mushrooms and puffballs are the fruiting bodies of particular fungi. Fruiting bodies are formed in response to certain environmental conditions, and their primary purpose is to produce spores of the fungus. The spores are similar to seeds of a plant and are the reproductive units of a fungus. To support the above ground mushroom or puffball, the fungus produces a vast network of underground thread-like tissue called mycelium. The mushroom or puffball fruiting body is produced when the mycelium has become large enough and conditions are right.

The mushroom or puffball produces and then releases spores. When these spores germinate, the cycle is repeated.

A puffball is generally spherical or pear-like and lacks a stalk. Young puffballs are uniformly white with a firm inside and a thin and fragile outer skin. As a puffball matures, all or a large portion of the white interior becomes yellow, then darker until it eventually becomes a dry, powdery, dark green to purple to brown spore mass. The thin outer skin may remain in tact except for a hole at the top, or it may break away in large, irregular pieces.

There are many kinds of puffballs, ranging in size from less than an inch to more than a foot, and weighing several pounds. When and where a mushroom or puffball will form is related both to its food source and the environmental conditions. Most puffballs become noticeable in the spring and in shady areas when temperatures are still cool. Since mushroom and puffball fungi grow on decaying organic matter, they are most likely to form on tree stumps, tree roots, or in other spots in the lawn with high organic debris. Although they will eventually disappear naturally, after the organic food base is exhausted, this can take up to 10 years or more for a large stump or root. In this case the woman insisted there was no wood debris underground in the dog run, there is most likely a decaying root from a nearby tree feeding this puffball.

It is difficult to totally eradicate nuisance mushrooms and puffballs. Digging up and destroying rotting stumps, roots or other underground sources of organic debris usually can accomplish adequate control. Mushroom problems can be prevented on new home sites by removing all discarded construction lumber from the site before sodding or seeding. If you are concerned about mushrooms being poisonous to children and pets, break or mow them off as soon as they appear.

Warning: Do not eat any mushrooms or puffballs found in the lawn without first having them identified by a competent authority. Mushrooms, puffballs, fairy rings and slime molds are part of nature. Some are a nuisance in the lawn, some are poisonous, but most are beneficial. They are one of nature's ways of recycling nutrients. Have you wanted to convert your turf grass landscape to a desert landscape? Desert landscapes don't have to be all rock and cactus. Our classes teach you, step-by-step, how to make a landscape an extension of your home, low water use and energy efficient. Our Landscape Retrofit classes will be starting on July 12, Thursday evenings, and limited to only 15 landscape sites. Call our Master Gardeners at 257-5555 and sign up now.

Bob Morris is a horticulture specialist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.