ISBN: 978-1-84076-083-4
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Commissioning editor: Jill Northcott
Project manager: Julie Bennett
Copy editor: Carolyn Holleyman
Cover design: Ayala Kingsley
Layout: DiacriTech, Chennai, India
Colour reproduction: Tenon & Polert Colour Scanning Ltd., Hong Kong
Printed by: Grafos S.A., Barcelona, Spain
About the Authors 4
Preface 5
Chapter 1 Mushroom Growing 7
Introduction 8
Culture 8
Mushroom growing systems 18
Buildings 20
Chapter 2 Disorders: Symptoms, Causes, and
Identification 22
Introduction 23
Names of disorders 23
Causes of disorders 24
Symptoms in relation to crop development 24
Biotic factors responsible for disorders 25
Abiotic factors responsible for disorders 27
Identification of disorders 28
Chapter 3 Effective Pest and Disease Control 35
Introduction 36
Pest and pathogen management 37
Practices and operations 38
Farm design 50
Chemical control 50
Cultural and environmental control 57
Action points during compost production
and cropping 59
Genetic resistance 61
Organic production 61
Chapter 4 Fungal Diseases 63
Introduction 64
Wet bubble or Mycogone 65
Dry bubble or Verticillium 70
Cobweb or Dactylium 76
False truffle 80
Trichoderma diseases 84
Aphanocladium cap spotting 90
Other diseases 91
Chapter 5 Bacterial Diseases 93
Introduction 94
Blotch, Bacterial blotch or Brown blotch 94
Ginger blotch 99
Mummy disease 100
Pit 102
Drippy gill 103
Bacterial soft rot 104
Internal stalk necrosis 106
Post-harvest browning 108
Chapter 6 Viral Diseases 109
Introduction 110
Names of mushroom virus diseases 111
Epidemiology of mushroom virus diseases 112
La France disease 114
Mushroom virus X disease 120
Vesicle virus 123
Chapter 7 Moulds that Compete with
Mushrooms 125
Introduction 126
Trichoderma compost mould 127
Penicillium mould 127
Smoky mould (Penicillium implicatum,
P. chermesinum, and possibly
P. fellutanum) 128
Pythium – black compost 131
Other moulds 133
Action points for control of mushroom moulds 139
Chapter 8 Pests 140
Introduction 141
Mushroom flies 141
Sciarids or fungus gnats 143
Phorids 147
Cecids 151
Other flies 155
Mushroom mites 157
Nematodes 162
Minor pests 165
Chapter 9 Abiotic Disorders 166
Introduction 167
Pinning disorders 167
Whole mushroom distortion 169
Mushroom stems 170
Mushroom caps 172
Mushrooms at harvest and post-harvest 175
Further Reading 177
Glossary 178
Appendix 1 Registered Pesticides 182
Appendix 2 Checking the Chlorine Content of
a Hypochlorite Disinfectant 185
Appendix 3 Some Useful Conversions 186
Index 187
