Irish Potato Famine
Prior to the 19th century, Ireland's farmers primarily grew grains such as wheat, oats, and barley. However, by the 1800s, due to a rapidly growing rural population, the Irish began to rely on just one crop – the “Irish Lumper,” a variety of white potato (Solanum tuberosum). It was easy to grow on small farms, even in the worst soil, and provided enough sustenance for impoverished tenant farmers and their families. In the mid-1840s a blight struck potato plants all over Ireland. Leaves would wither with shocking speed and when the tubers were dug up for harvest, they were found to be shrunken, mushy, and inedible.
Known as the “Great Hunger,” by 1851 one million Irish had died of starvation with another million emigrating to other countries, reducing Ireland's population of 8 million by twenty-five percent. With a current population of about five million, it has not recovered to this day. The huge flood of Irish pouring into the United States in the late 1840s had a profound effect on our country, especially in urban areas. By 1850 it was estimated one-quarter of New York City's population was Irish.
Cause of the Late Blight
Late blight affects a wide range of plants, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Symptoms include brown-purplish spots and lesions on leaves and stems, with white fuzzy growth underneath the leaves, ultimately causing fruit rot and plant death. Late blight continues to be a destructive disease, causing serious agriculture losses worldwide in tomatoes and potatoes.
Late Blight Management
If you suspect your garden potatoes are infected by late blight, bring in a sample to your local UC Cooperative Extension office. You can also learn more about late blight at: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES/DISEASES/lateblight.html
Saint Patrick's Day
Denise Godbout-Avant has been a UCCE Master Gardener with Stanislaus County since 2020.
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We are getting close to the typical average last frost date at March 3rd. So now is the time to start some cucumber, squash or melon seeds indoors.
Starting Mix
First, you need some seed starting mix. You can use ready-made mixes, or you can make your own by using potting soil mix you have on hand. Since I always have some potting soil mix on hand for use in containers or up potting starts, I use that. I suggest screening it through a ¼ inch hardware cloth sieve to take out any larger pieces which might block the seeds from poking through the mix.
Once the soil is hydrated, add it to the seed trays. Since cucumber, squash, and melon seeds are larger seeds, they are planted at about twice their size or roughly ½ inch depth.
Next, place your starter tray on a rack or designated place, covering it with a humidity dome. If you have plant-start heating mats, they can be very helpful by warming the soil, but are not absolutely necessary. It is customary to “bottom” water seeds, so add water to the tray your seeds are in. The soil should be moist enough from the initial wetting process described above, thus only a little water should be needed in the tray. Add water only when soil dries out slightly. After about 15 minutes, if any water remains in the tray, drain it. The humidity dome should stay on until the seedlings begin to show.
Seedlings
The Armenian cucumber seeds in these photos germinated over five days from February 17th through the 22nd with the humidity dome being removed on February 22nd.
At this point the seedlings should be placed under grow lights slightly above their height. Adjust the height of the light as the seedlings grow. If the grow lights are too high, the seedlings will likely become “leggy,” because they are stretching to reach more light. This will cause them to be weaker due to the main stem being too long and thin, and likely top heavy. The first set of leaves on the seedlings are the cotyledon leaves. The next set of leaves you will see are the first true leaves and the cotyledon leaves will likely drop off.
Preparing Plants for the Garden
Hardening off is the process of acclimating the new seedling to the outdoors. This starts by moving them outdoors the first day for perhaps 2 hours. This continues daily, increasing amount of time of outdoor exposure each day for about 1 week. By then your new starts should be able to handle being transplanted into your outdoor garden.
If you prefer not to jump start your growing season by starting seeds indoors, cucumbers, squash, and melon seeds can be started in the ground in late March. Just be sure to check the long-range weather forecast to see if any possible freezing temperatures might happen.
Tim Long has been a UC Master Gardener in Stanislaus County since 2020. All photos are by the author.
/h3>/h3>/h3>If so, please fill out this simple, two question survey found at this link: https://ucanr.edu/ucce/mg/survey
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/h3>/h3>- Author: Denise Godbout-Avant
What are Mushrooms?
Mushrooms, also known as toadstools, are the visible reproductive body of a fungus which produces spores. Mushrooms seem to magically appear and then quickly disappear. The fruiting body you see releases its spores to be spread by air currents, with the mushroom then drying up. When spores land in a satisfactory location they will germinate, sending out long filaments called hyphae.
The standard visible morphology of a mushroom is a stipe (stem) topped by a cap with gills on the underside, but mushrooms come in a variety of sizes, shapes, colors and uses. The common mushroom is the cultivated white button mushroom we see in stores. Other shapes include puffball, stinkhorn, morel, bolete, shelf, truffles, bird's nests, orange peel, and agarics. Colors vary from white, black, brown, yellow, and occasionally orange and reds. Sizes range from microscopic to 5 feet in diameter!
Many mushrooms also have an underground filament called mycelium (plural: mycelia). You can sometimes see mycelia when turning over a rotting log or by digging underneath a cluster of mushrooms. The mycelia will look like a stringy mat of white fibers in and around plant and tree roots.
History & Uses
The terms “mushroom” and “toadstool” go back centuries. Much of their mystery is due to their association with poisonings and accidental deaths. They were thought to be special and supernatural by many cultures including Egyptians and Romans who associated them with their rulers and gods. Chinese and Japanese cultures have utilized mushrooms for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Hallucinogenic mushroom species have a history of use among Indigenous people of Mesoamerica for religious purposes and healing from pre-Columbian times. People today correlate hallucinogenic mushrooms with the hippie period in the 1960s. Edible mushroom species have been found in 13,000-year-old archaeological sites in Chile. Truffles have been collected as far back as 1600 BC.
Edible Mushrooms
Poisonous mushrooms can be very hard to identify in the wild, so unless you have been taught how to classify mushrooms by an expert, it is recommended you buy from a reliable grocery store. Mycologists identify mushrooms by observing their morphology, getting spore prints, microscopic study, and with mushroom keys, though applying DNA technology is becoming common.
You can also grow your own mushrooms at home – kits are available online and at some plant nurseries.
Mushrooms in Your Garden and Lawn
- Common mushrooms in gardens include inky caps, stinkhorns, puffballs, or bird's nests.
- A “fairy ring” of mushrooms is an arc of mushrooms around a circle of darker green lawn, often in shady areas. They get their name from an ancient belief that fairies danced in these circles around the mushrooms.
- Mushrooms in lawns often develop from buried scraps such as pieces of wood or dead tree roots.
- A cluster of honey-colored mushrooms may appear at the base of a tree in the fall. These don't usually appear unless the host tree is dying.
- New lawns require frequent irrigation until established, thus creating a perfect setting for mushrooms, which is why they often appear in freshly planted lawns.
Remember, the mushrooms you see are the fruiting bodies that produce spores. Thus, removing them will not kill the underground mycelia from which they are growing, unless you pick them prior to their release of spores. However, you can try to reduce the number of mushrooms you have by decreasing the amount and frequency of watering your lawn and let the grass dry in between. For more information in dealing with mushrooms in your lawn, visit the UC IPM website at http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74100.html
Whether you see mushrooms in the forest, in your lawn or neighborhood, I hope you can appreciate and enjoy these unique, complex, beautiful, valuable, diverse, and magical organisms!
-This article was originally published on December 6, 2021.
Denise Godbout-Avant has been a UCCE Stanislaus County Master Gardener since July 2020.
/h4>/h4>/h4>/h4>- Author: Denise Godbout-Avant
Pepper seedlings take anywhere from one to six weeks to germinate, depending on the variety. When the weather and soil are warm enough, if you want to have pepper plants ready plant in your garden, now is the time to start the seeds.
This is part one of a two-part series. This article focuses on growing and caring for your pepper seeds. The second article will cover potting the seedlings, “hardening-off,” and transplanting them into your garden.
What Is Needed
- 6-pack seedling tray(s) with a clear lid (humidity dome)
- Good quality seed-starting soil
- Seeds
- Water
- Heat mat (optional, but very helpful)
- Grow lights and timer
- Liquid plant starter fertilizer
- Oscillating fan (helpful, but not required)
- Latex gloves (if planting hot peppers, but not needed with dry seeds)
Beginning Steps: Planting the Seeds
- Fill clean seed trays with damp seed starting soil.
- If using new seeds, plant one/cell; if older or have low viability rate, plant 2-3 seeds/cell. Follow instructions on the seed packet, but the rule of thumb is planting depth is twice as deep as the seed is wide. For pepper seeds, this would be about ¼ inch deep. Cover the seeds with soil.
- If the soil is not already wet, add water. It is best to always water from the bottom so not to disturb the seed. Add enough water into tray until it is about ¼ inch. Do not overwater! Dump out any excess water that has not been absorbed in 15 minutes. Peppers dislike soggy roots, so let the soil dry out a bit between watering.
- Cover the tray with the clear dome lid to help keep the soil warm and moist.
- Place the tray in a warm spot. It is recommended to put it on top of a heat mat, which provides a consistent heat source and helps speed up germination. The ideal temperature is 80-90°F. If it is too cold the seeds may not grow.
- Once the seedlings sprout, remove the dome cover and turn off heat mat.
Pepper Seedlings Care: Light, Fertilizer and Air Circulation
- The seedlings need to be watered consistently, but do not like wet soil. Always water from the bottom. Allow the soil to dry out a bit between waterings, but keep it moist, never letting it dry out completely.
- Provide light as soon as they germinate! If pepper seedlings do not get enough light, they will get “leggy” because they are reaching for a light source. To keep them thick and compact, it is best to use a grow light, which is hung up a few inches above the tray and keep it on for 14-16 hours per day. The light should be close to the plants, but not touching. As they grow, move the light higher.
- Once the true leaves begin to form, it is time to start fertilizing using a liquid plant starter fertilizer. Following label directions, start with a weak dose at first, gradually increasing as the seedlings get larger.
- Once most or all the seeds in a flat have germinated, they need to have some airflow, so remove the plastic lids and run an oscillating fan over them on the lowest setting for a few hours each day (you can plug it into the same timer being used for the grow light). An alternative to the fan is to gently brush your hands over the top of the seedlings a few times each day. This will strengthen them and prevent mold in the trays.
Some pepper varieties grow faster than others, but in one to six weeks, your pepper plants will have started to outgrow the trays. Now will be the time for the next steps of transplanting to pots, “hardening” them (a vital step!), and finally, planting into your garden. This will be covered in the second part of this article, which will be posted towards the end of February.
With thanks to Tim Long, UC Master Gardener, for his expertise on growing peppers from seedlings.
Author: Denise Godbout-Avant, UC Master Gardener since 2020
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