plantation using serial dilution
agar plating technique (Krishna et al. 2012). Five soil
samples were collected from the top 10 cm15 cm depth of
soil profiles and bulked. The bulked samples were air-dried
on a laboratory bench for 4e5 d at room temperature
(27 2 C) to minimize the bacterial population and to make
the fungal isolation easy (Jayasuriya & Thennakoonm 2007).
After air-drying, soils were passed through a 0.5 mm mesh
and stored at 28 2 C until ready for used. A five-fold serial
dilution of the soil sample was prepared in sterilized distilled
water and 0.5 ml diluted sample was poured on the surface
PDA. Cultures were incubated at 28 2 C in an incubator
for 96 h. Morphologically different colonies appearing on the
PDA medium were isolated and purified on PDA, preserved
at 4 C until required for use.