Impact of electrical stimulation on the growth of mycelium of lignosus rhinocerus (cooke) ryvarden

ABSTRACT

Corona discharge from multiple needles at an electrical potential of 5 kV generated by a Van de Graff generator increased the growth rate of the mycelium of tiger’s milk mushroom by 10.3% at the end of the first eight days. A similar growth rate enhancement was observed for the next eight days as well. Mycelium of tiger’s milk mushroom was cultured on agar media in Petri dish for five days prior to the exposure to various forms of electrical stimulations. The direct current injection (1.1–1.3 A) to the growing medium, application of an electric potential to the growing environment at low strength (30 V) and high strength (5 kV) with single and multiple needles showed varying degrees of success. This suggests that the mycelium of tiger’s milk mushroom could positively be stimulated by specific electrical stimulation techniques with selected parameters. This will pave the way to a highly beneficial growth enhancement technique that can be up-scaled to apply in mass production of mushroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Electrical stimulation
• growth enhancement
• mycelium
• tiger’s milk mushroom
• corona

Acknowledgments

The IPS grant GP-IPS/2016/9506500 of the Universiti Putra Malaysia, and the financial support of EPPEI-HVAC at the University of the Witwatersrand are greatly acknowledged.