I have to make a growth curve but I have too many samples to be considered simultaneously. Is there any other way of monitoring the growth instead of measuring the optical density every 30 minutes? Something which is not very time consuming as time is the main factor to be considered here.
You can grow your cultures in a 96-well plate and monitor OD, if you have access to a temperature-controlled plate reader that can continually shake the samples.
Remember that most of the time of growth curve experiments is taken up by sampling (take the culture to the hood, take the sample, take the culture back to the incubator, and so on). Changing the parameter to be measured won't buy much time, unless you can monitor it on-line.
There are both direct and indirect methods for determining microbial growth.
Direct Methods:
Plate Counts,
Filtration; comparing to statistical MPN table.
Direct Microscopic Count
indirect methods:
Turbidity; optical density measurement.
Metabolic Activity: measure products as function of time.
Dry weight: weight measurement.
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