What mushrooms to pick in October in Ukraine

October is the month of saying goodbye to the big season, but it's a long and generous goodbye. Honey fungus still pops up on stumps, bay boletes and knights hold on in conifer forests, and boletes fade out gradually until the first hard frosts stop them.

Let's look at which mushrooms are still growing in October, what comes up right now, and how to make the most of the last warm weeks.

Why October is the last generous stretch

In early October the forest is still autumn-damp and fairly warm, so the mycelium fruits almost as it does in September. But with every week the nights get colder, the first light frosts arrive, and the mushrooms gradually wind down.

The month's main rule: don't waste the warm windows. After an October rain with nights above freezing, the forest still gives full flushes, but after the first hard frosts the season drops off sharply. To catch these windows, use the mushroom radar.

Honey fungus still comes in flushes

In the first half of October, honey fungus keeps growing in clusters on stumps and around roots. It's still October's main prize: a single find fills a basket.

The closer to the end of the month, the fewer honey fungus there are, until the frost stops them. Gradually their place is taken by the velvet shank — Flammulina, which isn't afraid of the cold. And remember about false honey fungus — it grows right alongside.

Bay boletes and knights

These are the mushrooms that make October special.

• Bay bolete. In autumn it's plentiful in pine and mixed forests; it copes well with the cold. The bay bolete is edible and turns blue when cut — that's normal.
• Knights. The soapy knight, poplar knight and wood blewit (blewit) are typical October mushrooms of the cool forest. Some of their relatives are poisonous, so check the features.
• Yellow knight. A late gilled mushroom of sandy pine forests; we explain separately how the yellow knight differs from the greencracked brittlegill in separate articles.

The last boletes and saffron milk caps

Porcini, red-capped scaber stalks and brown birch boletes still turn up in October, but fewer and fewer. Take young, firm specimens — in the cool weather they're almost never wormy. Saffron milk caps in conifer plantations hold on right up to the frosts and are great for salting.

Where and when to look for mushrooms in October

• Catch the warm windows. Go out two or three days after rain, while the nights stay above freezing.
• Look on sunny slopes. In cool weather, mushrooms are more common in sun-warmed, bright spots than in damp hollows.
• Check the stumps. Honey fungus and velvet shanks hold on to wood the longest.
• Keep an eye on the frost. We cover when the mushroom season ends and how mushrooms behave in the cool season and the first frosts in separate articles.

Sources

• “Key to the Fungi of Ukraine” (Kyiv, Naukova Dumka publishing house).
• Armillaria mellea in GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
• Tricholoma in MycoBank, the international fungal nomenclature database.
• Mushroom hunting on Wikipedia.