FOCUSING ON NOVEL PEST AND DISEASE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR US MUSHROOM FARMS

Our long-term goal is to transition the management of mushroom pathogens and flies, beyond short-term reliance on pesticides that are rapidly and repeatedly lost due to resistance and regulatory processes. Integrate disease management tools, techniques, and diagnostics, with pathogen biology. Increase awareness and implementation of novel and effective IPM solutions by mushroom growers and improve community relations. A previous suite of applications was developed, called Cropsmarts, used for web and mobile crop operations monitoring and data collection/analysis. With this proposed extension to that work, we will continue the cycle of design-development-test working with commercial mushroom farms. Develop and facilitate the adoption of effective IPM strategies to manage mushroom flies on farms. Develop bilingual educational materials for mushroom producers and employees for the management of mushroom flies and diseases. Evaluate natural and mushroom-derived compounds to inhibit growth or disrupt virulence mechanisms of blotch and fungal pathogens and flies. Confirm the thermal death points of several mushroom pathogens in culture and then using an extensive array of remote thermometers, we will monitor post-crop steaming procedures on mushroom farms to confirm the efficiency of their process. Re-investigate the virus symptoms on new hybrid strains that develop under different spore loads and times of infection. Validation of virus testing protocols for diagnostics and improvements to differentiate and detect various virus diseases.