Bobbit said:

Warning, don't buy cheap agar from ali express.

It is more likely gelatin. Gelss at lower temperature, stays stretchy and doesn't adhere well to glass/plastic petri

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was just about to post this, I got the 500g from Aliexpress for $34.76 dunedinite linked in the original post. ~15 g to 500 mL of water has made a gloopy soft agar, hopefully it still works. When sliding the cooled petris I only slightly jerked them and the agar splashed up onto the lid

bobwastaken said:

The china sourced gelatin listed as agar is rubbish for this hobbie. I still have my 500g of gelatin purchased on ebay lying around somewhere. Mycelium grows into the media and breaks it down causing colonized sections to liquefy.
This food grade agar from the UK has proven to be of high quality. At 15g/l it'll set very firm.

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inski said:

I usually make 500ml batches, 10g agar, 5g light malt extract and I use distilled water, that way I always have a consistent pH.

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inski said:

I'm not sure what others do, I use 20g/L agar and 16g/L light malt extract so my recipe basically has half strength nutrients, I use distilled water.

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