OTTAWA – It’s not quite like looking for a needle in a haystack, but it’s close.
Scientists in Ottawa are trying to pinpoint a microscopic fungus that is slowly spreading across mushroom beds reducing mushroom yields by 75 percent.
“The fungus takes over the mushroom beds,” said Ann Pouliot with the project at the Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Station during a Canadian Farm Writers Federation tour.
So far they have identified three aggressive strains of trichoderma harzianum, also called green mould, that stops mushroom growth.
Read Also
Canola support gets mixed response
A series of canola industry support measures announced by the federal government are being met with mixed reviews.
Trichoderma has always lived in mushroom beds, but the aggressive strains have only recently developed in the $168 million Canadian mushroom industry.
“There are great patches of non-producing areas. It breaks out as white fluff and then turns green,” she said.
The fungus was first identified in Ireland 10 years ago. Between 1985 and 1990, Irish producers lost about 1.5 kilograms to green mould.
It has been reported in the United States and has become a problem in Canada.
Collection of fungus
In Ottawa, Pouliot works to identify different strains of trichoderma. So far, she and other researchers have 10,000 strains of fungus in their collection.
Along with researchers at Brock University at St. Catharines, Ont., and Vineland Station in southern Ontario, they are trying to find how the fungus is transferred between farms, find a control and a quick identification technique.
Once it’s in the mushroom beds the only control is to dump rock salt on the infected area. Digging up the infected growing medium spreads the fungus throughout the barn.
