Combining an interest in mycology with 30 years’ experience as a mathematician, grower John Ward was eager to apply his knowledge in the growing rooms of his exotic mushroom farm nestled in Victoria’s high country. John has helped developed AI technology that can monitor mushroom growth stages through image recognition and sensors.

One of the highlights of the recent ISMS Conference in Las Vegas was the opportunity to meet senior researcher Dr Nancy Pyck, and hear about some of the work they have been conducting at the amazing INAGRO Facility in Belgium. I had a chance to talk to Nancy after her presentation, and discuss the work further.

As fungi go, Agaricus mushrooms are surprisingly social. Unlike some other species, Agaricus bisporus not only grows better in the presence of other microorganisms, but may actually require them to grow, mature, and form harvestable mushrooms.

Monaghan Mushrooms is one of the largest mushroom-only companies in the world. Started by Ronnie Wilson in the early 1980s, it has grown to a company of more than 3,000 staff, with composting yards and growing facilities in Ireland, the UK and Canada. Like many mushroom businesses, Monaghan Mushrooms is facing the dual challenge of increasing productivity while also improving sustainability. To achieve this, the company invests strongly in Research and Development (R&D), and are heavily invested in the search for an alternative to peat.

A new trial, managed by AHR in collaboration with Dr Michael Kertesz, has been set up in the unit to examine the benefits of fertigation. The study is an integral part of the Hort Innovation project Optimise nitrogen transformations in mushroom production (MU17004).

In his book Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake imagines the soil as a “horizonless external gut – digestion and salvage everywhere, with flocks of bacteria surfing waves of electrical charge... like the Wild West with all those bandits, brigands, loners, crap shooters… and the seething intimate contact on all sides by fungal hyphae.”

When people think of horticulture in Ireland, they probably think potatoes. However, the largest horticulture sector in Ireland is actually mushrooms. With 40 farms employing more than 3,500 people and a farm gate value over €120 million, mushrooms are a major industry on the Emerald Isle, a country with a population of only 5 million.