Journal of Advances in Biology & Biotechnology

Pigeon pea is known by a variety of names, including Guando in Brazil, Anglo pea in the United Kingdom, tropical green gram or Gungo pea in Jamaica, red-gram in Australia, and arhar and tur in India. The pathogen Fusarium udum is the source of the common Pigeon pea wilt, which has grown to be a serious biotic threat to Pigeon pea farming in all growing zones. The study aims to explore the effect of solid media, temperature and pH on the growth and sporulation of Fusarium udum in pigeon peas. Fusarium udum is the causal agent of a wilt disease on pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) and causes huge economic loss by destroying half or the entire plant. An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of solid media, temperature and pH on the growth of Fusarium udum. This study was conducted in the years 2023-24. Nine types of media, with water agar as a control, were utilized to determine the most appropriate media for the growth of the test pathogen and to compare the cultural and morphological characteristics of the pathogen across various media. Each treatment had three replications, and measurements of the radial growth of the test pathogen were taken at 48-hour intervals, continuing until the pathogen completely covered the plate for any treatment. The result revealed that the best mycelial growth was observed in potato dextrose agar media (90.00 mm) while the minimum growth recorded in water agar media (22.98 mm), in case of temperature maximum growth is observed at 28°C (90.00 mm) while minimum at 45°C (8.14 mm) and in case of pH the best growth was recorded at pH 6.5 (90.00 mm) while minimum at pH 5.5 (31.00 mm). In conclusion, Fusarium udum isolate showed a fluffy colony pattern when grown on Carrot agar, Czapek dox agar, Oatmeal agar, PDA, Pigeon pea seed extract dextrose agar, Pigeon pea root extract agar and Richard’s agar medium, whereas an appressed colony growth pattern on V-8 juice agar and Water agar.