With the cooler, damp weather due to the recent atmospheric storm and fog, you may have observed mushrooms popping up in your lawn, garden, or neighborhood. Mushrooms have a mixed reputation as being beautiful, delicious, deadly, magical, and mysterious. It is estimated there 140,000 species of wild mushrooms worldwide, with about 3,000 of these being edible.

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.

Mushrooms don't have chlorophyll like plants. Most are saprophytes, meaning they break down and get their nutrition from metabolizing decaying, non-living organic matter like plants, wood, fallen leaves, and sometimes even dead animals or insects. As decomposers, they play a crucial role in the ecosystem, recycling and enriching organic matter.

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.

Many mycorrhizal mushrooms have a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship with the roots of trees and plants. The mycelia extend the range of the plant's roots providing them with extra nutrients and moisture. In exchange, the trees and plants provide the fungi simple sugars produced through photosynthesis. Specific host trees and plants will partner with specific species of mushrooms, which allow both to thrive. A classic example is relationship between truffles and oak trees.

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

Mushrooms that aren't toxic are quite healthy and tasty. They have large amounts of protein, potassium and polysaccharides which can contribute to a healthy immune system.

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

Mushrooms are a sign that you have healthy soil in your yard. However, some mushrooms can cause lawn management issues, may be considered unsightly, or potentially harmful to pets and children:

• 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.

Who doesn't love peppers?! There are flavors to satisfy everyone's palate, ranging from mild bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, spicy cayenne, hot jalapeños and super-hot habañeros!

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

You do not need expensive equipment for growing peppers from seed, but there are a few basic supplies:

• 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

1. Fill clean seed trays with damp seed starting soil.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Cover the tray with the clear dome lid to help keep the soil warm and moist.
5. 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.
6. Once the seedlings sprout, remove the dome cover and turn off heat mat.

The seedlings will initially have two leaves which will be narrow and pointy. . .these are cotyledons or seed leaves, which will eventually drop. Leaves that follow a week or so later are called true leaves.

Pepper Seedlings Care: Light, Fertilizer and Air Circulation

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

 

In order to determine when to start your spring/summer vegetables indoors, you need to know your estimated last frost date. The following link from UC Davis gives a chart showing estimated last and first frost dates for areas in California. California Gardening ~ https://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/~ Vegetables |When should I plant my garden? | Frost dates   Subject: Approximate First and Last Frost Dates in California

This indicates only a 10% probability of frost in the Modesto Area by March 3^rd. So, lets adjust our start times based on transplanting your starts outside on or after March 3^rd.

You just need to back date from March 3^rd the number of weeks suggested on your seed packets.

A few more popular vegetables would be started as follows:

Vegetable                    weeks before last frost            earliest start date

Peppers:                     8-10 weeks before                  January 3^rd

Tomatoes:                   6-10 weeks before                  January 21^st

Cucumbers                  3 weeks before                        February 11^th

Summer Squash          3 weeks before                        February 11^th

One last important detail. You need to “harden off” your starts before planting in the garden. This means taking about a week to adjust them to outdoor conditions. Move them out the first day for a couple of hours and then back inside to your starting area. Continue this each day while increasing the length of time outdoors and the amount of direct sun they get before transplanting.

Lots of good information is located on the seed packet that lists start times, depths, light, water and other needs.

The UC Master Gardeners of Stanislaus County are offering a spring vegetable class at the various libraries in February. See our Web page at https://ucanr.edu/sites/stancountymg/Calendar/  for times and locations.

Tim Long has been a UC Master Gardener in Stanislaus County since 2020.

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Coming Soon: an in-depth article on how to start peppers, one of the most challenging vegetables to start from seed.

Lady beetles, commonly called ladybugs, usually aggregate in groups over the winter. Normally they congregate in leaf litter, tree cavities, house vents, attics, garages, sheds, and firewood piles. However, for at least three years Asian spotted lady beetles (Harmonia axyridis) have been overwintering in UC Master Gardener Ted Hawkins's outdoors pickup truck! They apparently crawl into a crack of a truck door, assembling in the compartment behind the panel. They gather in both the driver and passenger doors, going back and forth between the two doors. However, they seem to spend more time in the passenger door, presumably because it is used less and thus are disturbed less.

Overwintering

Most lady beetles eat insects (aphids are a common food source), which generally disappear during the cold winter months. Overwintering lady beetles go into diapause where their metabolism slows down, reducing the need for food and water. Diapause also enables them to utilize supercooling where the water in their bodies can cool down below the freezing point of 32°F/0°C without forming ice crystals, which would cause their bodies to freeze.

Once a ladybug has found an ideal location to spend the winter, it will release species-specific pheromones to call other ladybugs to the area. By congregating together with hundreds of other ladybugs they gain some protection from the cold and reduce opportunities for potential predators to consume them while they are in a dormant state.

Unlike some troublesome pests that can occupy areas in and around your home, such as spiders, moths or ants, overwintering ladybugs are mostly a charming nuisance.

Ending Diapause

Lady beetles will come out of diapause when the weather begins to warm up in the spring around 55°F/13°C. The insects that they feed upon return during this time as well.

The lady beetles in Ted's truck have been arriving sometime in late autumn as the weather cools down and remain there until spring when the temperatures warm up. Ted has enjoyed having the lady beetles take residence in his truck during these past few years and hopes they will be back this fall. Hopefully, as they depart his pickup doors this spring, they will eat any aphids that may be in his garden before moving on, as a “thank you” for giving them winter shelter.

Resources

• Multicolored Lady Beetle - https://ipm.ucanr.edu/natural-enemies/multicolored-asian-lady-beetle/
• Convergent Lady Beetle – https://ipm.ucanr.edu/natural-enemies/convergent-lady-beetle/
  

  Although these ladybugs look different, all of them are the same species.