Why is the Grass Sometimes Greener inside the Fairy Ring?
[S] When the soil’s dead plant material is digested, nutrients are released. Nitrogen, in the form of nitrate, is one of those nutrients. The hyphae absorb some of it, but so do the roots of grass and other plants growing nearby. Nitrate is a kind of fertilizer. Once absorbed, the nitrate makes the grass greener and taller than grass that is not receiving as much nitrate. In the photo at the right, it is easy to tell that the grass is greener inside the fairy ring. Fairy Ring With a Circle of Greener Grass The previous photo showed that the nitrate was available everywhere inside the fairy ring. The photo at the left has abundant nitrate just inside the fairy ring, but the central grass is not getting much. This may happen for a couple of reasons. First, the mycelium sometimes gets so dense that water and nutrients can’t get up through it to the grass roots. Second, some soils don’t have much organic matter in it to begin with. In that case, the organic matter that was near the center
