What Causes Slimy Ear Disease in Wood Ear Mushrooms? Latest Control Measures Explained

During cultivation, wood ear mushrooms are highly prone to slimy ear disease, which at best reduces yield and at worst causes total crop failure, seriously affecting growers' economic returns. Therefore, preventing slimy ear disease in wood ear mushrooms can significantly increase economic returns. Read on for a detailed introduction with the editor.

1. Symptoms

When wood ear mushrooms develop slimy ear disease, the affected fruiting bodies first turn pale yellow or coffee-colored with a sticky surface and a fishy, foul odor, and in the later stages the entire wood ear mushroom rots. Slimy ear is mostly caused by nematodes and bacteria, with nematodes being the main cause; nematodes suck the juices from the wood ear mushroom's cells and tissues, and the toxins in their excrement can directly harm the wood ear mushroom, causing infection and rot.

2. Causes

Besides nematodes, management factors also cause slimy ear in wood ear mushrooms. As the wood ear mushroom matures, it continuously produces spores, which consumes the fruiting body and causes it to age; once it encounters a high-humidity environment, it rots very easily. Slimy ear also occurs in unsuitable temperature conditions. The wood ear mushroom is a high-temperature edible fungus and can grow normally between 22-34 degrees; this requires relatively high humidity, but it is also the period when nematodes reproduce rapidly. If environmental hygiene is poor, nematode reproduction speeds up, making slimy ear very likely. During cultivation, poor ventilation in the mushroom shed leads to excessively high carbon dioxide concentration, which reduces the vitality of the mushroom mycelium, causing the fruiting body to grow slowly or stop growing, while also providing a favorable breeding environment for bacteria, nematodes and microorganisms, resulting in slimy ear.

In high temperatures, cooling measures should be taken: close the shed windows during the day and spray water mist to lower the temperature, and strengthen ventilation at night, keeping the temperature within 30 degrees as much as possible. In this temperature environment, wood ear mushrooms grow very quickly, and the reproduction rate of nematodes is also inhibited. The shed floor should have a certain slope, and the surface soil should preferably be sandy loam to prevent water seepage; the water source should preferably be clean deep-well water. When slimy ear occurs, first remove the affected mushrooms, then spray low-concentration salt water, and at the same time spray lime water on the floor to control the spread of nematodes, then fumigate with aluminum phosphide for 24 hours.

The above is an introduction to the causes and control measures of slimy ear in wood ear mushrooms. We hope it helps you. For more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.