This month, our resident Doctor Agaricus was asked about foaming, a disease spotted in Europe.

Foaming is as an abiotic disorder that mainly affects the Heirloom variety marketet by Amcel. We asked Tim Harker from Amycel UK and Ireland to help explain what it is, and if it could be a problem in Australia.

When we think of exclusion principles on a mushroom farm, we immediately think of grow room doors and seals. And for good reason, as grow room doors and seals are the major physical barrier used to keep flies and dust away from the mushroom crops. But doors and seals are not the only exclusion principles that are applied on mushroom farms. In this article we will look at further methods of exclusion appropriate for mushroom farms, how to apply them and why they are applied.

With mounting consumer opposition to pesticide residues in food products and the increasing awareness of their environmental impact, industry access to traditional disease control chemicals is declining world-wide. Achieving effective on-farm disease management is therefore becoming increasingly reliant on whole-farm preventative hygiene

Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPDM) is a comprehensive, multifaceted, and systematic approach to managing pests and diseases. Rather than treat diseases when they express on-farm with synthetic chemical pesticides, or apply synthetic pesticides routinely to prevent diseases occurring, an effective IPDM program eliminates the root cause of pest and pathogen infestations. IPDM can suppress or remove pest and pathogen populations in a stepwise, sustainable, safe, cost-effective and environmentally sound manner.

Wet bubble is a widely distributed disease caused by the fungal parasite Hypomyces perniciosus (formerly Mycogone perniciosus). Recently it has been found that related pathogens, including M. rosea and M. xinjiangensis, can also cause symptoms.

A new Hort Innovation project, led by Dr Aimee McKinnon from Agriculture Victoria, investigates effective alternatives to complement current pest and disease management strategies for the mushroom industry. Mushroom parasites and bacterial diseases cause heavy losses in commercial mushroom farms worldwide, and the risk of such outbreaks in Australia has been identified as a major threat to the industry.

When you have a pest or disease problem on-farm that you are unsure of, or when you need to confirm the right way forward, what do you do? For Neil Newman of Country Farm Fresh Mushrooms, the answer is as close as the computer and the phone.

Over the last five years, Warwick Gill from the University of Tasmania and Judy Allan have led the levy funded
project MU 16003 Pest and disease management and research services, creating an exhaustive and detailed body of knowledge for the Australian mushroom industry.

A mushroom industry-funded project has delivered a commercially available early disease detection service which has revolutionised the way growers manage disease.