Sounds to me like you have the beginnings of Pythium Blight. Do the spots look like this: If so, your lawn is too wet. Stop watering in the late afternoon. Use Azoxystrobin, Ethazole, or Fosetyl-Al as preventative fungicides. Improve the airflow if possible (cut back shrubs, etc, that block prevailing winds) If you really feel like you need to water as much as you are (you probably don't) read up on how and at what time to water your lawn. Water deeply in the morning.

Most puffball mushrooms are completely edible......and are considered very tasty. Obviously, if harvesting for food you want to gather them before they start sporing, but the spores are harmless also. No fears, Ken!! FYI, they tend to produce spores in abundance - the giant puffball mushroom is alledged to contain 7 trillion spores in each puffball.

Well, maybe it is a Calvatia--it is somewhat larger than those in the "fun with" site, but the size is close enough, and the overall shape is spot-on. Mine is well past the stage when it was white. It is all a deep brown, the whole top is open and the inside looks like rotten foam rubber--I didn't touch it. It is not like a puffball with the opening at the top that ejects spores when touched. The whole top and down the sides is one brown mass. But when I look closely, I can see how the shell has split leaving the sepal like sections of the shell at the bottom. These don't come up the sides very far. Yes, darn it, I need to get a camera! --Spruce

Several years ago I had a big bunch of mushrooms in the front yard. They seemed to be spreading in lines, not rings. One morning I came out and picked a full 5 gallon bucket from one day�s growth. They looked like they were progressing to the neighbor�s yards. I did some research and some university sites said golf courses used a product, I think called "Prairie", but I could not find any sources. They also used a "wetting agent". I finally decided to try a fungicide. I bought GreenLight brand Fung-away from a local nursery. The product came in a hose end sprayer. I added some of the wife�s laundry spot cleaner "Sunburst" as a wetting agent. I used one quart in an area of about 15 by 20 feet. Then I soaked it in good, trying to get it deep enough to get to the actual fungus area. This worked. I used one Qt Sept 08, and had to use another Pint along the edge of the previous infection in Aug 10. No more mushrooms. However, in July, 11 I have a new infection, in a line, right at the edge of the area I previously treated. Green Light no longer makes or sells Fung-away. My container label was damaged, but the active ingredient as best I can see was Triadmegon, Triaoliyil and Chionophanory. Do not quote me on these names, the label is almost gone. Since I could not buy Fung-away, I tried a Bayer Advanced product called Fungus Control for Lawns, with Propiconazole. I made two applications, first 8 oz with Shout in July, and the rest of the quart in early September. Today I picked more mushrooms on that line.