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phreedom
Stranger
Registered: 03/12/02
Posts: 357
Last seen: 20 years, 9 months
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Post deleted by MOE THE MAD SCIENTIST
#1164850 - 12/23/02 10:41 AM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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EthnoJimmy
Voyage thegalaxy
Registered: 12/02/02
Posts: 244
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Re: great agar bottle (pic) [Re: phreedom]
#1164868 - 12/23/02 10:52 AM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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nice bottle...but disturbing background
-------------------- Don't walk behind me, I will not lead? Don't walk in front of me, I will not follow? Just walk beside me and be a friend.
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phreedom
Stranger
Registered: 03/12/02
Posts: 357
Last seen: 20 years, 9 months
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Post deleted by MOE THE MAD SCIENTIST [Re: EthnoJimmy]
#1164926 - 12/23/02 11:27 AM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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EthnoJimmy
Voyage thegalaxy
Registered: 12/02/02
Posts: 244
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Re: great agar bottle (pic) [Re: phreedom]
#1164933 - 12/23/02 11:30 AM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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I was totally joking. I do all my preparation/picking just after a shower in my skin. I was just giving a little $hit... I don't think it's that uncommon, really.
-------------------- Don't walk behind me, I will not lead? Don't walk in front of me, I will not follow? Just walk beside me and be a friend.
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Anonymous
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Re: great agar bottle (pic) [Re: phreedom]
#1165510 - 12/23/02 04:48 PM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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Good idea. Do you break the seal while it is cooling or does it develop a vacuum when it cools?
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SomeMycologist
some guy
Registered: 12/22/02
Posts: 203
Loc: Mycoland
Last seen: 20 years, 22 days
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Re: great agar bottle (pic) [Re: phreedom]
#1165764 - 12/23/02 06:20 PM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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kool
-------------------- If you cant beat them, join them, then beat them!
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Una
controlleddemolition
Registered: 03/01/01
Posts: 970
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Re: great agar bottle (pic) [Re: phreedom]
#1166487 - 12/24/02 04:37 AM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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In reply to:
i had a problem with the water evaporating out of my agar mix when i pc'd it.
Evaporation of the water in the agar mix? Perhaps you mean that the whole agar mix boils out of the flask. This can be prevented by not filling the flask for more than 1/2 of it's full capacity and slowly cooling the pressure cooker down (no forced cooling with cold water).
I used to use beer bottles for sterilisation of agar and they indeed work great. Never used such bottles though. I plugged the opening with polyfill and capped with tinfoil. Worked great!
Now i use laboratory bottles such as these:
I put the cap on loose and put a piece of tyvek over it. This is tightly secured with rubber bands and then sterilised. Great advantage of not using metal is that the solidified agar can be melted in a microwave (low heat, swirl often).
image borrowed from: http://www.schott.com/labware/english/products/duran/bottles.html
-------------------- www.911blogger.com
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mycophreak
journeyman
Registered: 05/29/02
Posts: 50
Loc: Europe
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Re: great agar bottle (pic) [Re: Una]
#1172837 - 12/26/02 11:55 PM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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I do not use agar very often. But if I do, I do not use a bottle. Nor do I use a pc.
If I only need a few (3 or so) agar cultures I mix half a teaspoon of agar powder, half a teaspoon of not-white flour (of the grain which is later used for spawn) and 25cc of tapwater in a transparent glass pickle jar with screwcap from the supermarket. Boil the jar for 30 minutes, then add a few drops of dilute hydrogen peroxide to the agar when it is still liquid and swirl it around once more. When this agar is solid the jar can be opened without contaminating the agar. This method is only recommended for multiplication of tissue (not spore germination - peroxide is lethal to spores)
This is a very old recipe BTW. It was first published by the Orchid grower K.L. McAlpine in January 1947 in THE ORCHID REVIEW. The recipe was rediscovered by the mycologist Rush Wayne and then adapted to mushroom cultivation. In his two manuals about his method he also describes a possibility to germinate spores in a testtube of agar agar without peroxide and without a glovebox or other sterile area Testtubes with agar can be sterilized in a water filled tall drinking glass, placed in a pan of water. Or in a pan of water with holes in the lid (to stick the testtubes in).
A favorite recipe of me for a large amount of peroxidated agar cultures is this one. Put 25 grams of brewers malt, 3 grams of British Marmite (tm), 8-10 grams of agar agar and 500ml of tapwater in a milkpan. Slowly bring it to a boil (with stirring). Switch off the heat source at the moment that it boils and wait 5 minutes so that all ingredients are dissolved. Add the required amount of peroxide as described in the article and manuals I mentioned, stir and transfer the liquid hot peroxidated agar to the waiting jars/petris/tubes/whatever. Syringes without needles are very useful for liquid agar transfres without spoiling.
This post is too long already. What I wanted to say was that IMHO bottles are impractical for agar because they can be difficult to handle (too hot, cause spoilage (dripping=contamination). Don't pour. Prepare the agar in the final containers (jar, petri, tube) or with peroxide in an open pan&transfer the liquid agar to the final containers by use of a syringe without needle. PC ing agar is in most cases obsolete. In fact I do not see a single necessity for pc-ing agar at all (unless you live high up in the mountains where water boils at temperatures which are not good enough for sterilization). And now I really think about it - where do you need the agar for? A thin layer of grain spawn on the bottom of a jar or in a testtube does all the things agar can do. Making transfers is even easier than with agar because you do not need to cut wedges (transfer grain kernels by means of a flamed pair of tweezers).
(just my experience)
Yachaj
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cheesenoonions
??????????????
Registered: 04/01/01
Posts: 584
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Re: great agar bottle (pic) [Re: Una]
#1173276 - 12/27/02 06:28 AM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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I'm pretty sure he means evaporation of the water. Water does evaporate from your agar mix. If too much evaporates, you will have a very concentrated agar mixture that may not be good for plates.
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