all this rain and fungal diseases to follow?

Greetings! As I went out early to pick strawberries, one thought has been rolling around in my mind. I have been wondering the effect of this excessive rain on food crops and farming as well as our gardens.

Rain is good for crops...in moderation. Too much and it can be great for fungal diseases. Also, pick-your-own farms suffer from loss of business-who wants to pick strawberries in heavy downpours!

I found farmers around here (Western Massachusetts) noticing drop in business in pick-your-own fields; strawberries due to lack of pickers and the excessive rain are roting on the vines. ...so will that lead to an increase in the cost of strawberries in future?...as well as other crops?

Also, I would appreciate the thoughts of others on their crops or gardens and the effects of the rains.

I am hearing from other forums that people up the East coast are seeing an increase in fungal diseases already. I have begun using biofungicide to prevent a nasty outbreak.

Also folks, any tomatoes yet? Best wishes.

Lawrence

All of the Pick Your Own Strawberry farms in my area of upstate NY are closing early. The rain deluge opened up the berries and turned them to mush.

Two weeks ago my husband took my toddlers strawberry picking in Chicopee, MA and we had to throw away half of the container as they were moldy and soft. They went for the fun of it, not the quality obviously- I also lost my hanging plants a few weeks ago to fungus due to the rain. The place I bought them at refused to even offer suggestions on what to do to try to save them. The grower said sometimes a dash of cinammon will help curb the fungus/mold in soil. Not sure if it would work or not, they were too far gone.

here is one of my two brand new (well, I got them last spring) Wichita blue Junipers. They are both infected. Say goodbye. :{

oops- ok, here it is.

This rain has resulted in Mushroom Madness in my yard. Mushrooms of all shapes and colors are growing everywhere. AND THE STINK. Holy cow, the smell of some of these mushrooms, you would think there was a dead animal somewhere. Some of the mushrooms are actually covered in MOLD. Isn't that redundant? Anyone else have experience with these STINKY mushrooms. My god. I went around and picked up all the shrooms and threw them away, but the risidual smell is aweful. Yuk I hope things dry out some. Thankfully - knock on wood - no moisture problems in the garden that I can see.

my lillies are covered in bortrytis. i've had it before, well i get it most years, but this year they seemed to be doing fine and then bam they were worse than ever. some of them i've had to cut down completely already, others the # of blooms were effected and far too many open and look fine, but then the brown spots start to emerge as they age. ugly!!!! i think i'm going to try some drenching before i put my new mulch down around them. who knows, might help a bit.
mushrooms??? did you say mushrooms? oh yes, in my full sun gardens, i even found some this year. now i've grown to expect them in shade and part shade but???? I did notice a strong smell in one area of my garden, and didn't know what it was from. i figured it was something in the woods outback. now i know it was the mushrooms. thanks.

but today the sun is out, the plants are happy happy happy and so am i. :-0

Wormboy,
You might have a mushroom called "elegant stinkhorn." I've had them in late summer/fall and they have what's described as a "fetid odor." A couple of weeks ago, I smelled that telltale odor in the area of my garden where I've seen them before. I didn't see any mushrooms this time, and luckily, the smell went away in a week or so.
This picture is from last August.