The best way to eliminate mushroom growth in your flower beds is by spraying mushrooms with a mixture of dish soap and warm water. A white vinegar solution can also eradicate lawn mushrooms. These are the two best solutions, but you can also try baking soda mixtures, nitrogen-rich fertilizers, and even manually pulling mushrooms out of your garden. Any or all of these techniques can be used to help protect your garden bed from wild mushrooms.
Should You Remove Mushrooms from Your Flower Garden?
Like your yard, it’s generally a good idea to remove mushrooms from your garden. Mushrooms won’t directly harm your plants but they can be dangerous to children and pets. Many types of mushrooms are toxic. So you don’t want anyone in your home eating one on accident if they don’t know better.
- It’s typically a good idea to remove mushrooms from your garden
- Mushrooms can be toxic if eaten by pets or children.
- Mushrooms may steal soil nutrients from the plants in your flower bed.
Like all organisms that grow in soil, mushrooms pull their nutrients from the soil. If there are many mushrooms growing in your garden, they will steal some nutrients that your flowers depend on. So, you’ll make your plants stronger by removing mushrooms.
5 Methods to Remove Mushrooms from Your Flower Beds
There are several effective ways to deal with a mushroom infestation in your garden. Luckily, all of these are cheap and easy-to-make solutions. However, if these don’t work, consider hiring a mushroom expert to apply a professional fungicide.
Dish Soap
A nice soapy water mixture is a safe way to kill off an entire mushroom infestation. Mix 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of dish soap into 1.5 gallons (5.6 liters) of water. The soapy water mixture can be added to a spray bottle and sprayed directly on garden mushrooms. This kills mushrooms and prevents your other plants from being damaged by the dish soap.
- In a spray bottle, mix water with a few drops of dish soap.
- Spray the soapy water mixture directly on mushrooms to kill them.
- The mushrooms will still need to be removed by hand after they die.
Once the mushrooms die, you will still need to remove them by hand. However, killing the mushrooms with this spray helps prevent them from returning. This is because the dish soap will help to kill the entire fungus, including the belowground portions.
Baking Soda
A mixture of 1 tablespoon (15 grams) of baking soda in 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of water can easily kill mushroom colonies. Mushrooms thrive in slightly acidic soil. Baking soda lowers soil acidity, which makes the ground lethal to mushrooms. This can be a safe way to remove visible mushrooms IF your flowers can handle non-acidic soil conditions.
- Mix 1 tablespoon (15 grams) of baking soda into 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of water.
- Pour this baking-soda-and-water mixture onto the mushrooms and the surrounding soil.
- Baking soda lowers soil acidity so that mushrooms die off.
- Don’t use this if you’re growing plants that require acidic soil.
The baking soda mixture must be applied to fresh soil. When done correctly, it should kill off all mushroom growth within a week. However, if your flowers do not tolerate non-acidic soil, this may damage your garden.
Vinegar
Household vinegar is another homemade fungicide that works great. Mix 1 cup (240 ml) of distilled white vinegar with 4 cups (1 liter) of water to make a potent mushroom killer. The acetic acid in vinegar severely damages mushrooms and burns away mushroom spores. Thus vinegar mixtures are preventative as well as fungicidal.
- Vinegar kills mushrooms and mushroom spores.
- Mix 1 cup (240 ml) of white vinegar with 4 cups (1 liter) of water.
- Use a spray bottle to douse mushrooms with the vinegar mixture.
- Avoid spraying any plants you don’t want to die.
Pour your vinegar mixture into a spray bottle and apply it directly to pesky mushrooms to kill them. This can easily remove an entire mushroom population in a short time. Just be careful to not spray your flowers. Vinegar can burn and damage your garden plants.
Change Your Fertilizer
Nitrogen fertilizers don’t kill mushrooms outright. However, they promote stronger foliage growth in your plants while depriving mushrooms of the nutrients they need. Thus, they can go a long way toward preventing a mushroom infestation from returning.
- Nitrogen-rich fertilizer promotes healthy soil that mushrooms have trouble growing in.
- Using the right fertilizer helps prevent future mushroom growth.
- It is best to use a different method to kill mushrooms, then begin applying nitrogen fertilizer to make sure the fungus does not return.
Nitrogen fertilizers won’t kill mushrooms that are already growing in your garden, but they do create an environment that is unfriendly to mushrooms. So, it’s best to destroy the invasive mushrooms, then begin a fertilizer schedule to encourage a healthy, mushroom-free garden.
Pull Up the Mushrooms
The most straightforward solution to mushroom infestation is to pull them out by hand. If you want mushrooms out of your garden beds, you can manually remove them just like any other weed. Use a weeding tool to physically uproot any varieties of mushrooms. This won’t prevent future growth but it will keep your garden clear if you weed regularly.
- Use this weeding tool to remove mushrooms from your soil.
- You will need to manually remove dead mushrooms even if you use the other techniques.
- Remember to use safe weeding techniques to protect your back.
While weeding, take care to protect your back from potential injury. While mushrooms aren’t particularly heavy, you can still hurt your back from not weeding safely. Read our article about safe weeding techniques to prevent back pain.
How Do You Kill Mushrooms without Killing Flowers?
A mixture of dish soap and warm water can safely remove most types of fungi without harming other plants. You can also consider techniques like manually weeding or directly spraying vinegar on mushrooms. The vinegar solution can be a bit risky if you hit other plants though.
- Dish soap mixtures are the safest way to kill mushrooms without harming other plants.
- Effective mulches can stop all kinds of weed growth.
- A layer of mulch 3–4 inches (7.5–10 cm) deep will help prevent mushroom growth.
You can also use mulch to prevent the growth of mushrooms and other weeds. Bark mulch, pine straw, grass clippings, and wood chips are all great mulches to prevent mushroom growth. As long as the mulch is layered to a depth of 3–4 inches (7.5–10 cm), it will discourage new mushroom growth.
How Do You Kill Mushrooms in Flower Beds?
Removing mushrooms is a simple task once you know the common methods of killing them safely. Most methods of killing mushrooms can be found in an average grocery store. Here are a few key tips to remember for removing mushrooms in a safe manner:
- Spray a mixture of dish soap and water to safely kill mushrooms while protecting your plants.
- Baking soda and water poured onto the soil can kill mushrooms.
- Mix together vinegar and water to create a spray capable of killing hardier mushrooms.
- Begin using a nitrogen fertilizer to promote healthy plants and discourage mushroom growth.
- Manually remove dead and living mushrooms to keep infestations under control.
With these tips, you’re armed with all the knowledge you need to protect your garden from severe mushroom infestations. So get out there and keep your garden mushroom-free.