Efficacy of different culture media on growth and characteristics of mycelium of monkey head mushroom (Hericium erinaceus)

Culture medium is very important for growth of fungus mycelium in laboratory under controlled conditions. The pure culture of Hericium erinaceus was obtained from Mushroom Technology Laboratory of Department of Plant Pathology, CCS HAu, Hisar. Initial culturing was done on potato dextrose agar (PDA) media. The disc (5mm in diameter) from actively growing culture was plated on fresh media plates of potato dextrose agar (PDA), malt extract agar (MEA), yeast extract agar (YEA), oat meal agar (OMA) and Czapek-Dox agar media (CDA). The growth of mycelial disc was recorded daily. The results indicated that PDA was the best medium for mycelium growth. The maximum growth was observed on PDA (90.0 mm) followed by MEA (73.7 mm) and CDA (73.7 mm) in 15 days. It was also observed that the mycelium growth was started after 4 days of inoculation on PDA, MEA and YEA, on the other hand the mycelial growth was started after 5 days on Czapek-Dox agar media. The mycelium fully covered the Petri-plate on 15th day of inoculation on PDA followed by MEA medium in 18 days then YEA in 19 days whereas in Czapek-Dox medium mycelium took 20 days to fully colonize. The density of mycelium on PDA and MEA was very thick and white in color whereas on CDA and YEM mycelium had very sparse growth, less thick and less whitish in nature. The morphological characteristics of mycelium of H. erinaceus mushroom were also recorded.