On the 04th September Northway Mushrooms, in conjunction with DARDNI, held a workshop on Bacterial Blotch Control at Emyvale, County Monaghan.

A very informative presentation was given by Mairead Kirkpatrick, from AFBI, Loughgall,  on Bacterial Blotch disease development, factors facilitating its spread and disease managements strategies.

Valuable additional information and discussion points were voiced during the presentation and in the  following dialogue by Brendan Burns, Sylvan, who assisted with the workshop.

 Some of the key points covered were the need for accurate and stable climate control, especially in maintaining dry caps; knowledge of your casing type and suitable casing management procedures; mushroom canopy management and proper site hygiene procedures.

 After the presentation a farm walk was held on the farm of Niall and Brendan McKenna, Errigal Mushrooms.

All in all there were 25 attendees at the workshop, including a large group of Northway growers;others in attendance were: Elaine Shaw and David Dallas – Northway; Kieran Walsh- Gold Circle, Tom Kellegher and Barry McMiel – CMP; James O’Brien – Monaghan; John Conway – Conway Services; Kieran Lavelle - DARDNI