How to prevent and control basal rot in edible fungi? A detailed guide to disease identification methods

The pathogen of basal rot in edible fungi is Pythium. It belongs to the flagellate fungi and is a parasitic disease. It damages the base of mushrooms, causing the base of the fruiting body to rot, and produces a layer of white cottony mold on the diseased part, with branched hyphae. During the mycelium running period, this fungus also easily contaminates the culture material. The symptom of contamination is the appearance of black patches in the middle of the culture material. The black areas vary in size, from a few cm to more than 1 m, while the adjacent areas have good mycelial growth, so it is very difficult to detect and is easily overlooked.

Prevention and control methods: When stacking the culture material, the cake fertilizer and nitrogen fertilizer should be mixed evenly. When adding nutrients in the late fruiting stage, be careful and cautious to ensure the nutrients are evenly distributed in the material. If diseased mushrooms are found, remove them promptly and spray a 1‰ mercuric chloride aqueous solution in the diseased area; or cover the diseased area with paper and spray a 2% formaldehyde aqueous solution on the paper every other day.