Mycelial Growth Characteristics of Pleurotus citrinopileatus and Pleurotus platypus in Culture Media Variants

Abstract

Pleurotus species, because of their flexible temperature and environmental requirements, have more cultivated species than any other mushrooms. As one of the preliminary experiments for standardizing the cultivation technique of Pleurotus citrinopileatus and Pleurotus platypus, this work was done to find out the basic nutrient requirements and hence the effect of seven different growth media namely Potato dextrose agar (PDA), Malt extract agar (MEA), Yeast malt agar (YMA), Sabouraud's dextrose agar (SDA), Czapek dox agar (CDA), Glucose peptone agar (GPA) and Oat meal agar (OMA) on the mycelial growth of these mushrooms at room temperature(28°C) for a period of 8 days. Since the mycelium of Pleurotus platypus showed a non-symmetrical spreading pattern, the average growth was measured drawing cross sections on the petriplate. The experiments were done in six replications and colony diameter (CD), mycelial density (MD), growth rate (GR) of the mycelium were recorded. The CD of both Pleurotus citrinopileatus and Pleurotus platypus showed outstanding results in PDA medium with a GR of 1.13cm/day and 0.75cm/day respectively. The highest MD for Pleurotus citrinopileatus was indicated in PDA and MEA and for Pleurotus platypus it was in PDA, MEA and YMA. Though mycelial density did not follow the same pattern of inference as colony diameter, there was a positive correlation between CD and MD in all the experimental plates. The overall study proved PDA followed by MEA to be the most suitable media for culturing both Pleurotus citrinopileatus and Pleurotus platypus under in vitro conditions.