Mushrooms are the visible fruiting structure of some types of fungi. They come in many shapes and sizes, but their purpose is to house and distribute the spores of the mushroom. Most fungi are beneficial. They help to decompose plant material, thus releasing nutrients and making them available for plant growth.
Mushrooms produce spores that are borne on the wind until they reach a favorable place to grow. They then settle in, sending out fine filaments called hyphae. Hyphae perform different functions in the garden. Some decompose organic matter; others are symbiotic; and still others are parasitic and cause disease.
When enough hyphae grow together, they form a group called a mycelium. These mycelia can develop in the soil for years and only form the fruiting heads, or mushrooms, when conditions are favorable—after prolonged wet weather, for example.
Many mushrooms seem to appear overnight and grow exponentially. I firmly believe that those clumps in my yard are growing as I watch. In reality, it takes a few days for the fruiting bodies to form. They expand quickly by absorbing moisture. This rapid growth is the source of some common phrases, such as “to mushroom” or “to pop up like a mushroom.”
Mushrooms do not live long. The ones in my garden flourish for about two weeks then turn into a mushy black pile. Mycelia, on the other hand, can live for years. There is a mycelium structure of an Armillariasolidipes in the Malheur National Forest in Oregon that is estimated to be more than 2,400 years old.
Mushrooms have been used for many purposes over the centuries. We are all aware of the yummy edible varieties in the grocery store. Throughout history, mushrooms have been thought to have medicinal value, and they are still used in traditional Chinese medicine. Since the 1960s,American researchers have studied the possible medical benefits of mushroom extracts.
Unless you are well acquainted with the different species, do not eat wild mushrooms or other fungal fruiting bodies. Many species are poisonous and hard to distinguish from edible varieties. Keep small children and pets away from areas of your yard where you have seen mushrooms growing. Remove all mushrooms from the area before allowing a child or a pet to play there.
How do you remove these grotesque garden additions once and for all? I say “grotesque” because they give me the shivers. Pulling off the visible mushroom doesn't do much other than maybe stop that particular crop of spores from spreading. The mycelia are still underground, waiting for the next session of wet weather to send up more mushrooms to release more spores. For more information on poisonous mushrooms in California, visit the Bay Area Mycological Society web site (www.bayareamushrooms.org).
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “Rose Pruning and Maintenance” on Saturday, January 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. This workshop will feature demonstrations on rose bushes to show and explain proper pruning techniques. Master Gardeners will discuss various types of roses, common rose diseases and routine maintenance including watering and fertilizing. Online registration (credit card only) Mail-in registration (cash or check only).
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
The orchid family is the largest in the plant world. Orchid breeders have produced some wonderful color combinations. Shortly after World War II, the orchid industry took off in Santa Barbara, a repository for orchids from around the world. Today we find beautiful and affordable orchids in hardware stores, groceries stores, flower shops and nurseries. Unlike most consumer goods, orchids have actually dropped in price.
Most retailers tend to carry tropical orchids, which need more water than many other types. In summer, I put my orchids outside and water them almost daily. Indoor orchids may need watering only once a week.
When selecting a plant, look at the flowering stem first. Don't buy an orchid whose buds are all open; you want the flowers to open slowly when you get the plant home.
Orchids need a lot of light. If you plan to keep them indoors, put them near a window where they will receive a lot of natural light but not so much that they might burn.
In the wild, orchids grow on trees with their roots exposed. They grow from trunks and branches. And they survive untended on the light, air and rain water. Once my husband and I were hiking in Bothe State Park in Calistoga, and we found an orchid in a fairy ring, the site where a mother tree has died and “babies” have come up around it. We did not disturb it.
Years ago, when the orchid nurseryman Rod McClellan was still alive, he would have an annual spring showing of cymbidium at his nursery in South San Francisco. He was an engaging person and wore highland plaids for this event.
Cymbidiums usually bloom in the spring. They need winter's chill to set flowering spikes. At that time, the McClellan nursery was reproducing orchids via meristem propagation, removing a growing tip and placing it in agar. This technique produced many small plants quickly. McClellan was also breeding orchids to produce different colors and also introduced hanging cymbidiums, with a spike that hung over the side of the pot. I got my first mini-cymbidium from this nursery. Last year, one of mine had 11 hanging spikes. It is hard to resist these wonderful plants.
I have since acquired many orchids that need different care than cymbidiums. Most are tropical, and I keep them in my screened house during the summer so they get plenty of water, light and air flow. In winter I move them to my passive-solar hothouse and watch them daily.
All orchids need occasional repotting. Nurseries sell potting mix for orchids, but I have been making my own for years. It is a well-draining mix of equal parts orchid bark and red lava rock. I plant the orchids in pots with mesh sides so that they will get good air circulation. These mesh pots need support so I put them inside another pot to keep them upright. If you are repotting a large orchid, put white plastic peanuts in the bottom of the pot to improve drainage.
In the spring and summer, I feed my orchids with an organic mixture of bone meal, blood meal, cottonseed meal and fish pellets. In the fall, I give them 0-10-10 to bring out the blooms and help them overwinter.
Napa Valley has an orchid society that meets monthly at the Napa Valley Senior Center in Napa. The society has an annual sale in the spring, where you can meet avid collectors and get your orchid-growing questions answered.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “Rose Pruning and Maintenance” on Saturday, January 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. This workshop will feature demonstrations on rose bushes to show and explain proper pruning techniques. Master Gardeners will discuss various types of roses, common rose diseases and routine maintenance including watering and fertilizing. Online registration (credit card only) Mail-in registration (cash or check only).
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
In my vegetable patch, kale planted in August is producing plenty of leaves for salad and cooked greens. We've already harvested the first heads of broccoli (transplanted in September) and are now enjoying the secondary side shoots. Lettuce, Asian greens, kohlrabi, beets and carrots sowed in September are also ready to eat. The garlic and shallots that I planted in November have sprouted. I planted some cloves of garlic in a separate patch to use as green garlic while I wait for the rest to form bulbs in the spring. So I'm anticipating harvesting garlic greens much like green onions in the next few weeks.
Because I have a large space for vegetables, I often don't get around to clearing out the summer veggies until winter. Procrastination has its rewards. In early December, with no frost in sight, I picked a sweet pepper and some zucchini from the fading plants. This late harvest is unusual but not unprecedented. Our first frost date historically has varied from mid-November to later in December.
Winter is citrus season, and I'm pleased to see a lot of bright fruit on the ‘Robertson' navel orange tree growing against a south-facing wall of the garage. In the front yard, the ‘Meyer' lemon tree is bearing dozens of small pale-yellow fruit, just in time for holiday host gifts. We also are enjoying kumquats and Rangpur limes (not real limes but a sour mandarin whose zest has a lovely lime aroma). I'm watching for frost, though, as these trees are sensitive to the cold. I've strung inexpensive twinkle lights on them and will cover them when frost is predicted.
Due to the drought, I did not water a lot of my yard this summer and fall. Oregano planted next to a rosemary bush has disappeared, but the rosemary persists and with the recent rains is looking quite healthy. Sprouting up around it is white-blooming alyssum, a volunteer from a previous planting that went to seed. It looks intentional and quite pretty. Elsewhere calendulas are thriving, too. They spread readily in the vegetable patch and look their best in winter. I let them spread, as I rather like their scent when I'm working in the garden, and the petals are a colorful addition to winter salads.
Flowers are not the only thing sprouting. All sorts of annual weeds (those that grow from seed) are emerging now, such as wild oats and other grasses, mustards and wild turnip. Every patch of formerly bare earth seems coated with green, a welcome sight after the dry summer and fall. The weeds in the garden beds are mostly small and easy to pull. Elsewhere, we'll mow the weeds down on some dry day in January, hopefully before they flower and set seeds.
On the north side of the house is an old camellia bush, already mature when we moved in over 30 years ago. It's now taller than the first story of the house and has some nice, fat flower buds. I'm thinking of pruning it down a bit but will wait until after it blooms.
We have a lot of cotoneaster shrubs scattered in the hedges that separate us from neighbors and the road. Just as the Sunset Western Garden Book says, they thrive with little or no maintenance and produce more berries when grown in poor soil. Right now their arching branches are covered with striking, bright-red berries. Some branches find their way into the house for holiday decorations, but most of the berries become bird food. Robins seem to be fond of them, but I hope they leave some for the migrating cedar waxwings when they arrive after the first of the year.
Can you tell that my winter garden is a mix of careful planning and selective neglect? Perhaps yours is, too. The shortest day of the year is a good day to appreciate both approaches to gardening.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “Rose Pruning and Maintenance” on Saturday, January 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. This workshop will feature demonstrations on rose bushes to show and explain proper pruning techniques. Master Gardeners will discuss various types of roses, common rose diseases and routine maintenance including watering and fertilizing. Online registration (credit card only) Mail-in registration (cash or check only).
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
January is perfect for assessing your collection of saved seeds and making plans for the next round of gardening. If you enjoy starting your own vegetables and annual flowers, order seeds from catalogs now to get them before you need them, at the end of January or early February.
My least favorite winter task is watering, but in this dry winter, we must water to keep plants healthy. Vegetable gardens planted in the fall with winter greens, broccoli, onions and garlic will not thrive unless watered.
Water vegetables when the top one to two inches of soil have dried out, and moisten the soil to a depth of 8 to 12 inches. Perennial plants that grow and bloom in winter, which includes most native plants, will also need regular watering. Plants that go mostly dormant in winter, such as roses and fruit trees, still need some water to stay healthy. And frost-tender plants like citrus need to be kept well-hydrated to help them fend off frost damage.
In our climate, January is historically the coldest month. However, we can hope that we will not be repeating December’s run of below-freezing nights. Be sure to protect tender plants when frost threatens.
If the rains do come, expect an increase in weed growth. Control weeds while they are small, hoeing or pulling them out. Whenever possible, use mulches to control weeds and conserve soil moisture. If you use organic mulches, the material will break down over time and improve your soil.
Insect pests tend to be less of a problem in cold weather, but I noticed that aphids on my cauliflower and broccoli survived December’s frigid temperatures. Control these plant-sucking pests by spraying them off with water. Vegetables tolerate a few aphids, but these insects seem to multiply quickly if not addressed early.
Deciduous fruit trees should be dormant now, with all leaves gone. Now is the time to prune and shape them. First remove all broken, diseased or dead wood, then look at the tree from all sides and tackle pruning for shape and for fruit. Different types of fruit trees require different amounts of pruning, so consult a knowledgeable tree source if you do not know how much growth to remove.
Winter is also the time to spray fruit trees to control pests. Copper-based fungicides control fungal diseases such as peach leaf curl and powdery mildew. Spray on a dry, wind-free day and be sure to follow all precautions on the product label. Dormant oil sprays can help control insect pests such as scale and mites by smothering their eggs. Delay spraying until close to bud break in late winter or early spring.
Nurseries have a good supply of bare-root fruit and shade trees now. Bare-root trees are an economical way to add to your orchard or beautify your landscape. Keep the roots moist after purchase and plant as soon as possible. When preparing the planting hole, do not amend the native soil too much. Add no more than 25 percent compost to the soil that covers the roots to encourage the roots to dig deeper for nutrients. Plant the crown of the tree higher than the soil surface to allow for settling over time and to keep the crown from being inundated with moisture during rainy periods. Mulch well, keeping the mulch four to six inches away from the trunk to prevent crown rot.
Bare-root choices also include roses, ornamental vines, artichokes, strawberries and asparagus. As you would for bare-root trees, keep the crown of the plant at or above soil level when planting.
Any vegetables you planted in fall are probably growing slowly now, but check them often for maturity and harvest as ready. These might include lettuces, parsnips, beets, carrots, cabbages, broccoli and radishes. You can get an early start on the spring planting season by sowing seeds now for kale, parsley, radishes and spinach. These crops can be direct-sown outdoors, while the brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower) should be started indoors for transplanting next month.
Enjoy the slower pace of January gardening. And if you have any influence with the weather gods, have them send us some rain.
Workshop: Join Napa County Master Gardeners for a workshop on “Rose Pruning” on Saturday, January 18, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the University of California Cooperative Extension (address below). January is the best time to prune your roses. Come learn pruning techniques from a certified Rosarian. Bring your rose questions. Online registration (credit card only).Mail-in registration (cash or check only).
Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursdays, from 11:00 a.m. until 1 p.m., except the last Thursday of the month. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter on Thompson Avenue.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
This column addresses the role of humidity and ventilation, proper feeding and pest control. For more advice, consult the University of California’s California Garden Web site (http://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/Houseplants/), gardening books at a local library, or the staff at nurseries with a large houseplant selection. Consider investing in a comprehensive indoor gardening guide to help you learn about the plants in your care.
Most houseplants are native to tropical areas, where conditions are warm and humid. To increase the humidity easily, place pebble trays under houseplant containers. As the moisture around the pebbles evaporates, relative humidity increases. Grouping plants also helps a bit. Surprisingly, misting the leaves does not affect humidity much, although I find that some tropical plants with large leaves seem to benefit.Other plants will rot if spritzed with water, so be sure you understand each plant’s needs.
When feeding houseplants, follow package directions to the letter. More is not better.Excess fertilizer can kill a plant.
Houseplants need nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) as well as very small amounts of other minerals, called micronutrients. Most fertilizers contain a blend of nutrients in varying proportions. Foliage plants need more nitrogen, while flowering plants need more phosphorus.
Fertilizers come in several forms, from liquid to granules to sticks. Although roots take up the most nutrients, leaves can also absorb them. However, ordinary fertilizers will scorch foliage, so be sure to select a foliar fertilizer if you intend to treat the leaves.
Common houseplant pests include aphids, fungus gnats and spider mites. There are many types of aphids, and they can increase at an alarming rate. They feed by sucking plant sap. Infestations typically appear on soft, young growing shoots and around flower buds. If you catch them early,you can vanquish aphids by pinching off affected shoots or gently washing off the aphids with tepid water. You can also spray aphids with insecticidal soap, which smothers them. After spraying, wipe them away.
Fungus gnats are tiny, dark gray flies that flit about on top of the soil. The larvae feed on rotting vegetation in the soil. Plants growing in severely infested soil appear weak, grow poorly and often lose older leaves.
To combat fungus gnats, allow the soil to dry out between each watering. Use sticky yellow traps to catch adults. Alternatively, repot the plant in fresh soil. If these measures fail and the plant is large and worth saving, you can drench the soil with Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt),a safe and effective organic pesticide.
Spider mites are probably the most dreaded houseplant pest. They pierce the leaves and suck out plant juices.They hide on the underside of leaves and may go unnoticed until the plant is seriously infected. Affected leaves may show numerous yellow pinpricks, or they may be dry and limp although still green. If uncontrolled, spider mites can kill one plant and then move on to others.
Dry conditions encourage spider mites. Keep plants humid by placing them on beds of pebbles. If only some parts of the plant are infested, clip off those parts and dispose of them in a sealed plastic bag. Treat the remainder of the plant with insecticidal soap at least twice at five-day intervals. Pesticides often do not provide controlas spider mites rapidly become resistant to them.
In an upcoming column, I’ll discuss common houseplant diseases, soil needs, repotting and propagation. In the meantime, bring your houseplant questions to the Napa County Master Gardener Help Desk (address and hours below).
Workshop: Join Napa County Master Gardeners for a workshop on “Rose Pruning” on Saturday, January 18, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the University of California Cooperative Extension (address below). January is the best time to prune your roses. Come learn pruning techniques from a certified rosarian. Bring your rose questions. Online registration (credit card only)
Mail-in registration (cash or check only).
Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursdays, from 11:00 a.m. until 1 p.m., except the last Thursday of the month. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter on Thompson Avenue.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
