Artemis – posted 11 August 2002 09:23
I live in Spokane Washington and work at a home improvement store. At one point in time, there was a small, local feed type store that sold a product that killed faerie ring mushrooms, but it has stopped carrying it and I cannot find the product at all now.
With that, I am now hunting for ANY home remedies that work in fighting this particularly invasive fungus as well as websites that might contain information about it so I can pass along this info to my customers.
Any and all tidbits of information are welcome. I am well versed in chemistry and biology as well as having over 20 years experiecne in horticulture. Any information provided will be looked at to see what might be making those remedies work. Thanks!
Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 30 June 2003 13:42
I know this message is nearly a year old, but with zero replies in 10 months, I figure someone else might have the same question and need an answer some day.
Of course fairy rings are caused by fungus, hence the mushroom circles. Sometimes the mushrooms don’t grow but the grass will die in a perfect circle. Sometimes you will see lots of circles ranging from 6 inches in diameter to 50 feet in diameter.
The cure for all (yes, all!) fungus disease in turf is whole ground corn meal. This is the same corn meal found at the grocery store. I get mine at the feed store in a brown bag labeled, “feed.” For $5-$6 you can get 50 pounds at the feed store. The application rate for prevention and fertilization (it is also a great organic fertilizer) is 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet ($0.0011 per square foot). The application rate for existing fungal disease is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet ($0.0022 per square foot). Don’t let the feed store folks get you confused with corn gluten meal. They are two different products. You want corn meal, chops, or any whole corn kernel that is ground up. If you try whole corn seeds like some animal feed, you will end up with a field of corn. It must be ground.
The Texas A&M University at Stephenville has found that ground corn meal works like a fungicide because it attracts a member of the Trichoderma (try-ko-DER-mah) fungus family. Trichoderma acts like a disease to the disease-causing fungus and kills it in about 3 weeks. If I remember right, the Trichoderma attacks the cell walls of the other fungus.
In peanut fields, corn meal works as well as crop rotation for eradication of many different fungi diseases. This means that peanut farmers no longer need to spray fungicides nor do they need to rotate their peanut fields out of the prime cash crop.
The same fungi that attack peanuts also attack turf.
johngrimes – posted 14 August 2004 04:34
this message is also another year old, but I have just accessed this reply and have tried to obtain whole ground corn meal. I am advised I could obtain ground either wheat, barley, oats or maize. Does it make any difference which corn is used.
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[This message has been edited by seed (edited 16 August 2004).]
hobbikitty – posted 07 September 2004 20:18
Of course, you needn’t eradicate the fairy rings. If you have a problem with them perhaps you should look into the reason so many fairies hang out on your property. I hear they hate the sound of silver and iron bells. as well as four leaf clovers.Though i suggest you be wary of the wee folk, I leave milk in a glass saucer out for those that linger around my place, but they are tricksy little buggers if you piss them off.