Chlamydospores were mixed with the soil to obtain
the final concentration of 5000 chlamydospores/g of dry
soil of the potting mix (Rush and Kraft 1986). Soil
samples were taken to quantify the fungal inoculum density
in the potting mix, both at the beginning and end of
the experiment according to Steinkellner and Langer
(2004). Air dried soil subsamples of 50 g each were mixed
thoroughly with 100 ml of water agar (0.15 %) and further
diluted by taking 1 ml of suspension in a 9 ml of water
agar (0.15 %). The serial dilutions were made to ten-fold
thrice (10−3) and 1 ml from the dilution was spread
uniformly on petri dishes containing Nash-Snyder medium
(Nash and Snyder 1962). The petri dishes were incubated
for 5–7 days at 22 °C under UV-light with a photoperiod
of 16-h light/8-h dark. Afterwards Fol colonies
were counted and represented as colony-forming units
per g of dried soil (CFU/g of dry soil).