Evaluation of media for vegetative growth and substrate for spawn production in Lentinus torulosus Fr.

Lentinus torulosus is a recently reported edible fungus from India (Atri et al. 2011). Present studies deals with the evaluation of different solid and liquid and media for vegetative growth and seeds/grains for spawn preparation. Out of the six solid media evaluated, significantly higher vegetative growth was recorded in Malt Extract Agar (6.4 cm) followed by Glucose Peptone Agar (6.25 cm), Yeast extract Agar (5.73 cm), Potato Dextrose Agar (5.67 cm) and Dimmick Medium (5.4 cm). The minimum mycelial growth was recorded in Glucose Asparagine Agar (5.35 cm). Amongst different liquid media, Yeast Glucose Medium gave maximum mycelial growth (4.44 mg/ml) followed by growth Malt Broth (2.39 mg/ml). On Yeast Glucose Medium the floating mycelial mass gained maximum dry weight after incubation period of 16 days at 27 ± 1 ^oC. Five different locally available substrates viz. Wheat grains, Maize grains, Jowar grains, Bajra grains and Mustard seeds were evaluated for spawn production. The mycelium was found growing at different rate on various types of grains. Out of the grains/seeds boiled for different time period, the jowar grains boiled for 30 minutes gave better spawn as compared to any other grain/seed used for evaluation. This was followed by wheat grains boiled for 30 minutes. Although the colonization of grains was not as thorough as in case of jowar grains but the quality of spawn obtained was equally good.