Toadstools and fungi

From the other side.

If Doc gives you the go-ahead--get the butter sizzling.....
Your big one looks like it is getting ready to pop--too big for it's britches....
if you gonna eat it--don't let it get too ripe...

Gita, I goofed, you were talking about your childhood experiences. I couldn't understand why you thought this was a Porcini!!!! Too busy at work to get outside today to see what's happening.

There have been lots of Stinkhorns coming up all week. They are very short lived. Maybe not even a whole day before they start shriveling.

Doc these 'shrooms look like they've been growing in your well manured organically enriched Pumpkin soil!!!!!

stormy----

I think you are referring to my memories of collecting mushrooms in the pine forests of Europe. The GOOD, edible mushrooms do not grow in the warmer climate "forests".....They need the cool, clear-of-undergrowth forests of Pine Tree Forests. NOT to be found in the warmer areas of the USA.

I never implied that your HUGE Fungi growths were Porcinis!!!! Just that "docgipe" said "Puffballs" were so yummy sliced and fried.....

Gita

I thought I had a photo of the Pine Forests in Latvia---but I guess I took it with my regular camera....I was always taking pictures with BOTH cameras......hard to remember which one took what!!

The triplet got caught by the grass cutter today.

This one got separated from it's stem by a fast moving hose.

Yikes! Heuchera held hostage!

It looks like they ate the Iris Reticulata and bowled over the Frittilaria!

Storm, you have a real fungi bloom going on there!! Release the Heuchera, please.

Wonder what pictures we will come up with this year LOL , it was a fun thread last season.

I think this thread should continue..........Maybe a fungi expert will show up and do the Id that would enable editing for a pretty good sticky.

Doc, that would be nice. I enjoy this thread. Should I remove these? I'd hate to miss the Iris bloom and don't want them to kill the poor Heuch.

Enjoy them both. They will not hurt each other.

Thanks, Doc! Knew I could count on you.

Hey - I received several issues of a journal on fungi. Anyone want 'em? I offered
them on the fungi & mushrooms forum but no takers.

Stormyla - eeeks! That is amazing how its right on the heuchera.

This beauty showed up today. I love the coloring.

If we get some warm weather the fungi should just be a jumpping. My soil has been wet soil for most of the spring and never really dry. That plus heat makes for great fungi conditions.

I just saw two nice books at the book store on fungi ID. I'm trying to deside how much bucks I want to part with. LOL

Tammy, I'm sorry, not to answer I'll have to pass, just don't have the reading time, but thank you.

My mom had two HUGE enormous puffballs last year. I brought them here to show the kids and then tossed them all over the yard. I must have a hundred zillion puffball spores out there . Can't wait for one!
So far just one nice cluster of smal mushrroms.

Found these cuties today.

Stormy, Those are pretty cool! Like the ridges on the cap and the fringe around the edge.
I have been bad not taking pictures of a very small shroom I found in the yard and some "Vomit" on top of the leaf compost pile. I am too busy rounding up plants for the Swap. There is not enough hours in the day to do it all, sigh!

You & me both, Lady. I'm plum tuckered! Lots of excitement & drama here last week getting my niece ready for the prom. Geez, I hope she elopes!

Lady Gardener.............those fungi that throw off liquids and sometimes bubble and make gurgling noises are greatly beneficial. They are the fungi company that rush to clean up underground rotting of your plant roots. They are somewhat like the mother that is floating about and giving up gases in the wine during processing. Anything they do will make your soil conditions underground better. This has been a wet rotting year good for that type fungi.

This message was edited May 13, 2009 6:45 AM

Doc, are you saying I have to put my ear to the fungus and listen to it gurgle? Now the neighbors will think I lost it.! LOL

Pretty interesting stuff, I learn something every day.

They're everywhere!! They're everywhere!!

Wow Storm, it's an invasion. Should I check behind your ears Saturday to see if any hitched a ride to the Swap. LOL

It is raining today here, and I have to pack up my plants for tomarrow's journey.

They're back!!!

This time it's the Iris held hostage!

Can not understand..............with all this rain I have yet to see any significant fungi. As a matter of fact neither did we see much last year. Sure enjoy seeing your offerings.

Well, those little guys are really persistent.

Nothing going on in my yarden yet, and I have been all over getting swap plants settled in. Good thing I have taken Thursdays off, I never get anything done, I worked all day outside yesterday.

doc---
Maybe it is because you do not have any rotting wood or old roots underground...That is what makes all the fungus come up---BUT, you already know that!

Hey--doc! Lookkie and see! My red Epi is about to bloom again...it has 5 buds so far.....
You can also--sort of--see how long the fronds will grow. I shouls look up the picture from last summer where i took a photo of the whole HB.

Gita

Well--not the whole basket--but this is from last year....

Found it! This is from last year--and, i am sure, it has grown longer yet.....
The other one next to it is supposed to be another red Epi--but it has yet to bloom for me. Got both leaf-cuttings at the same time from CA. Who knows?

How old is the Red Epi that is blooming? How old is the one you gave to us. Our research indicates five or more years to first bloom and more years for the multi bloom show piece.

Wow that Epi gets big. We are going to have to get real creative in order to live with that much plant. LOL

On our property we have all garden beds under permanent ground wood mulch a minimum of three inches deep. The fungi have never been more than occasional visitors. We had one largely invisable that spit its little black spores ten feet or more wherein they attached themselves to our picture windows. Scraping with a razor blade was the only solution.

doc--

I got the leaves to root from Karen (kachinagirl)) in summer of 2005.
The picture below will show you what I had to start with.

I KNOW I need to pot it up to a bigger pot--but have not done it yet....They are in tight, small pots....I really do not know much about Epis...sorry! You'd have to ask someone from CA....
I do not know if they need to be cut back to make the growth more compact?
I do not know what hey like as far as fertilizer--probably NOt anything too high in the #'s....
I do not know what makes them bloom--or NOT bloom....I just have these two--and the NBC--which i also got from Karen. That has not bloomed for me either---it is HUGE--mostly tall. It grows those spikes--which then leaf out. I have cut them back abd rooted the pieces....Just playing around....

The cutting I gave you is probably close to 2 years old.....

It is a challenge to have this broad a plant hanging by my LR window all winter! Two of them--yet! My poor Ric-Rac Cactus got a dark corner because of it....and it too grew all these long, leafless branch-extensions that make all these dry air-roots---UGH!
Funny thing is--when I cut up these skinny "fronds"--they root and produce the typical ric-rac leaves....I think it is a response to not enough light when they grow them....

Good luck! Hope you DO get to see it bloom.....

Gita

edited to say--the one on the left is the NBC--on the right are the two Red Epis....


This message was edited May 21, 2009 10:26 PM

I fertilize mine with a dilute fertilizer solution once a week or so in late winter/early spring
and they bloom like crazy for me.

I know with all the rain we are having the next 4-5 days should bring a real bloom of 'shrooms, especially if we get some warm nights. I may just haf'ta take a walkabout on a few deer trails and see. I remember a few of the rules for selection, know some on sight, and drool at the appearence of a Morel. Morel's are to be found in most of Penn's Woods, and fetch a pretty price in better resturants. A NY strip, real butter, Morel's, and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Some to cook with and some to taste. I'm ready! Ric

That's a real beauty Ric. You've got me salivating. When's the invite?? Hope it's not "The Last Supper" LOL

Stormy, I'm talking Morels, not death angels. The older fella that I used to accompany on collections had an adage," When in doubt, throw it out". Even the angel, known by it's base collar and unfettered white gills has been known to take on an ecru tint as it ages. Victims have been known to say it was very tasty before they succumbed to it's toxic effects. An excellent link, if I get this right, and if I don't you'll copy and paste, is: http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/sept97.html
Ric

Ric--

One of my most fond memories from my childhood is getting up real early and going mushroom hunting with some adults in Germany. Their little heads pop up from the mossy forest floor after a good rain....We would go back home with baskets full with all kinds of goodies.....AHHH! Those Portabellas were the best--fried up in butter.....drool....

Missed this pleasure last year when I went to Latvia--as we left there end of July as the mushroom season was just beginning....
I tell you--these store-bought mushrooms leave a lot to be desired.....

Gita

Look at these little cuties!!

Those are unique.
Nothing exciting here, a few little ones with all this rain.

If we get some more excitement, we should probably have a new thread to go along with them.