ABSTRACT

Lentinussquarossulos is a tropical whiterot micro fungus that belongs to the family Polyporaceae. It is an edible higher fungus valued for its high nutritional composition.  In order to investigate  the effect of pH and salt, the vegetative growth of L. Squarossulos ,pure culture of L. Squarossulos was obtained. The result shows that the effect of pH on the mycelial growth of L.Squarossulos ranges from 3.0-11.0 with maximum mycelial yield observed between pH 10 and pH 11, while poor growth was recorded in the acidic pH region at pH 4.0,5.0 and 7.0 respectively. Appreciable mycelial growth was equally recorded between the various pH treatments without significant difference between the groups. Such concentration usually inhibits the vegetative growth and reduces the physical characteristics of fungus. During this study it was observed that mycelial growth in determination of the mycelial density rating using salt under various treatments ranging from 3.0 to 5.0 and 20.0 had equal mycelial densityrating.

These results signified that concentration of salt and pH of the growth medium of L.Squarossulos influenced the mycelial growth and biomas positively. Hence, further studies should be carried out to ascertain the effect of growth of L. Squarossulos in Salt and pH.