Cobweb-free mushrooms
Helen Grogan, Donal Gernon, Patrick Sedeyn, Nancy Pyck
Industry impact: Cobweb disease is a troublesome pathogen of cultivated mushrooms. A recently completed EU project, MushTV, co-ordinated by Teagasc, sought to identify potential new biological or chemical products to control this and other mushroom diseases. Metrafenone, a relatively new fungicidal active ingredient (used to control powdery mildew in grapes), was evaluated and shown to be very effective. The MushTV results facilitated getting metrafenone approved for cobweb control across Europe. Donal Gernon, Teagasc Specialist Mushroom Adviser, says that since the introduction of this product in Ireland in 2016, disease levels have dropped. There is a significant economic upside for producers as disease reduction is immediately visible on the bottom line. Once under control, good crop management and hygiene are then used to keep it in hand.
Contribution of non-research stakeholders: The mushroom industry across Europe participated in seminars to obtain information on this new product and to learn how to incorporate its use into their integrated pest management (IPM) procedures. Data was provided to BASF to facilitate registration.
Other contributors and collaborators: MushTV was a consortium of 17 mushroom businesses, mushroom grower organisations and research organisations across Europe. The trial work was done at Inagro, Belgium.
Funding: EU FP7-SME-2011-286836.* Provincial Government of West Flanders. Teagasc core funding. *The views expressed reflect the authors’ views. The EU is not liable for any use that may be made of the information.