Abstract:
Mass multiplication of beneficial microorganisms is considered to be important as they could be used as bio inoculants in agriculture. commercial media available for growth of microorganisms are expensive. Therefore, identification of suitable low cost growth media for mass multiplication of microorganisms is important' The study was conducted to identify suitable low cost growth media for mass multiplication of three phosphate solubilizing rhizobacterial isolates isolated from the rice rhizosphere. Four media namely coconut water, coconut water supplemented with sugar (15 g/L),rice porridge and rice porridge supplemented with sugar (15 g/L) were tested for their suitability as growth media for growing three selected bacterial isolates. Nutrient broth was used as the control. Results revealed that all four media used for the study supported the growth and higher cell yield of three bacterial isolates after incubating at room temperature (30 t2 oc) for 24 hours. However, the medium that gave the maximum cell yield varied with the bacterial isolate. Significantly higher growth of three bacterial isolates was observed in the contained rice porridge supplemented with sugar [15 g/L) than rice porridge alone. The study revealed that the suitability of rice porridge and coconut water based media for mass multiplication of solubilizing rhizobacteria.
