Growth of edible and medicinal mushrooms on commercial agar media

The growth of 30 cultures of edible and medicinal mushrooms was tested at 27 degrees C on commercial malt extract agar (MEA, pH 4.7), potato dextrose agar (PDA, pH 5.8), wort agar (WA, pH 4.7), yeast malt extract agar (YMA, pH 6.2) media, their pH modifications and experimental agar medium GPPA (pH 6.0). Among nutrient agar media used in these experiments, commercial MEA medium provides maximal growth rate only of Ganoderma lucidum and PDA only of Agaricus maskae, WA-3 and YMA-5 cultures of mushrooms. GPPA provides the maximal growth rate of 15 investigated cultures of Basidiomycetes from various ecological groups. This nutrient agar medium is available for comparative or screening investigations with new species and strains.