Effect of temperature, pH and media for growth and sporulation of Trichoderma longibrachiatum and self life study in carrier based formulations

The most favourable temperature for growth and sporulation of Trichoderma longibrachiatum was found in between 25–30^oC (60–70 mm dia.), followed by 20^oC. Similarly, most favourable pH ranged between 6.5 to 7.5 in which total dry weight of mycelium also varieds between 198.61 to 223.00 mg, and PDA showed excellent in average colony dia. (8.57cm), but excellent average mycelium weight (170mg) was recorded in PDB medium. Shelf life of T. longibrachiatum in three different carrier materials (talc, lignite & charcoal) was determined at 30 days interval indicated that decline in number of propagules was started from 30 days onwards. Among the different formulations, talc based was found the best material to retain maximum number of viable propagules, which was 29.7 x 10⁶ cfu/g against 8.3 x 10⁶ cfu/g in charcoal powder at 60 days of storage. It has also found that the isolate can retain their viability up to 120 days in all the cases.