Mycoparasitic and competitive nature of different yellow mould fungi against button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) mycelium revealed by enzyme and volatile markers.

Abstract

The causal organisms of yellow mould diseases encountered in seasonal button mushroom farms were found to be , and . Although all these Myceliophthora lutea Sepedonium chrysopermum S. maheshwarianum yellow mould causing organisms were found to reduce the mushroom yield, but was the most M. lutea devastating fungus causing complete crop failure depending upon the stages of the infection. When M. lutea was inoculated at spawning it caused 100 crop loss whereas if inoculated at casing it caused 42 per cent per cent loss. In case of and they caused 75-80 crop losses, at S. chrysopermum S. maheshwarianum per cent spawning and 27 at casing. Under seasonal conditions, casing is normally chemically pasteurized per cent and causes the problems of fungicidal residue in the mushrooms. As an alternative, solarised casing soil showed drastically reduced fungal counts in comparison to control and also the dominant fungi encountered in solarised casing were mainly thermotolarent. It was also observed that addition of 0.5 phosphate per cent gave 98 increase in yield in comparison to untreated inoculated control and 33 over per cent per cent untreated un-inoculated control. It was observed that the disease could not establish in any of the treated bags. It was also found that maximum growth inhibition was of test fungi were attained with extract of Cannabis sativa A. bisporus without affecting the growth of when added in malt extract agar medium @ 5 per cent. It can be concluded from the present investigations that to minimize that cost involved in steam pasteurization, solarisation of casing soil may be a good alternative along with addition of P O (0.5%) in 2 5 compost to prevent crop losses due to yellow mould syndrome. Moreover, Cannabis sativa also showed anti-fungal activity against yellow mould pathogens, therefore they may be recommended to the mushroom growers for the management of yellow mould syndrome in white button mushroom.