How to prevent and control basal rot in edible fungi? A detailed explanation of edible fungus disease prevention and control 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 growth period, this fungus also easily contaminates the growing substrate. The symptom of contamination is that black patches are found in the middle of the substrate, with the black areas varying in size, from a few cm to more than 1 m, while the adjacent areas have good mycelium growth, so it is very difficult to detect and is easily overlooked. This fungus generally occurs more in areas with high nitrogen content. After the substrate is contaminated by this fungus, yield decreases, especially in the first and second flushes of mushrooms. However, the yield in later flushes rebounds somewhat, because when the nitrogen content decreases, the mushroom mycelium grows into the black areas again.

Prevention and control methods: When piling up the substrate, mix the cake fertilizer and nitrogen chemical fertilizer evenly. When adding nutrients in the late fruiting stage, be careful and cautious to ensure the nutrients are evenly distributed in the substrate. When 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.