It's really ugly but it's a sign of a healthy environment for soil microbes.
This here is trichoderma ear rot in an organic field. This 100 day variety was chewed on by an earworm. The damaged kernals allowed trichderma to enter and infect the ear. This ear rot produces many toxins and is a big no for consumption.
The twist - Trichoderma is usually a beneficial organism in the soil. It feeds on other pathogenic fungus/bacteria and is applied extensively for biological control.
Although normally a secondary pathogen, it has mutated to become a primary pathogen in both Italy and Germany in recent years.
8 replies
Learning from a shitpost feels weird.
Damnit I forgot to mention that the trichoderma rot causes the kernals to suffer from premature-germination. The stress causes them to pop off too soon.
Edit the post. Add all the relevant information.
a shitpost with corn in it, no less
Wrong community, excellent post. TIL. Thank you.
Beauty is subjective 😳🥵😩😮💨
Like, is trichoderma used as an antifungal/-biotic in corn?
Trichoderma is the genus, there is currently 89 different species classified.
That being said, they did use the species that became a primary pathogen as an antifungal for many years. As soon as the species was identified as a primary pathogen the suppliers changed to another related species. They also claimed to have mislabeled the species on what they sold before (bullshit of course).