Rain is Still the Story in Home Gardens

All the vegetable gardeners whose gardens are not doing as well this year as usual have probably already thought that the excessive rain is at least partly to blame, but Dr. Elizabeth Little, plant pathologist with UGA, confirms all of our suspicions in her recent Georgia FACES article, "Wet conditions create perfect setting for tomato, cucurbit diseases."

This particular article focuses on the cucurbit family - the squash, melons, and cucumbers that are such a large part of the summer garden and summer mealtimes. In addition to short but useful descriptions of three fairly common diseases - downy mildew, powdery mildew, and anthracnose - she includes information about a less common disease, cucumber yellow vine, that is affecting crops in some parts of the state.

For all, she offers recommendations for reducing problems in future years. For example:

"Anthracnose is mainly a concern on cucumbers and melons. The symptoms include leaf spots, defoliation and sometimes fruit lesions. The diseases survive in the infected debris, so rotation and the destruction of plant debris at the end of the season are important preventative measures. Wet weather is a major contributing factor. Trellising and/or the use of high tunnels, especially with cucumbers, can help reduce infections."

For more information, visit the original article, linked above.

The wet weather is also causing bumper crops of all kinds of mushrooms to pop up in yards, gardens, and fields. Another UGA plant pathologist, Jean Williams-Woodward, has written in the Georgia FACES newsletter article "Recent rains have mushrooms popping up" that it is never safe to eat a mushroom that has not been identified by an expert:

"University of Georgia Cooperative Extension specialists say do not eat any mushrooms growing in lawns and certainly ones that have not been identified by a expert. Many are poisonous to some degree. At the very least, they will make you sick. At worst, you can die. Don't take the risk."

She adds, "To prevent accidental ingestion of mushrooms by pets and children, rake, mow over, or otherwise remove the mushrooms from your lawn."

Identifying mushrooms requires careful attention to the environment in which they are growing, what they are growing on, and much more, include their spore prints, which Williams-Woodward describes in her article, linked above.

Mushrooms in the Lawn

After a long, hot, dry summer that had homeowners watering weekly to keep their landscapes green and growing, the recent rains have provided a welcome reprieve from the task. When the weather cooperates, lawns stay green on their own!

However, when the lawn starts sporting mushroom caps and other unusual fungal growths as an additional effect of that rain, homeowners, especially those with pets and small children, might become concerned.

The UGA publication Recent rains have mushrooms popping up in Georgia lawns, by William Tyson and Tripp Williams, describes several mushroom types that commonly appear after the first rains following a dry spell. Most of these are not harmful to the lawn, but they can mar the expanse of green that a homeowner has worked hard to achieve, and they can be harmful to children and pets who might try to eat them.

Individual mushrooms can be hand-picked from the lawn, and the dog-vomit slime mold (its name pretty much describes its appearance) can be dispersed with a blast from the hose.

The UGA publication provides helpful information for management to reduce the incidence of these fungi in lawns:

"The best way to keep mushrooms out of your landscape is to irrigate before the lawn gets too dry. If it stays somewhat moist, the fungus will stay underground and will not produce mushrooms. The lawns that tend to be covered with the most mushrooms are those that never get watered during droughts.

"To rid your lawn of mushrooms, pull them up, kick them over or run over them with the lawn mower. This will keep them from releasing the spores that spread the fungi. Aerate your lawn to prevent further damage to your turfgrass.

"After aerating the soil, water the area to dilute any toxins and wash them through the soil profile. If a patch of grass is dead, re-establish that area next spring, and keep it moist to prevent new mushroom growth."