EAT SWABS PLATES™ 
A Step By Step Guide

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Hello Shroomery!

This is how I inoculate plates with spores.
I used to use a spore loop where I would have to sterilize the loop everytime I would scrape spores onto a plate. With swabs I find it far simpler and I don’t have to sterilize anything right before swabbing the spores onto the plate. It’s quick, it’s easy and I can make enough swabs in one 30 minute pressure cook to last a year or two. They are also awesome because you can keep them wrapped prior to putting them in the SAB then open when you need them.
SUPPLIES FOR SWABBING- Sterile Swabs. Synthetic are preferred but cotton will work.


- Pasty Plates: make your pasty plates on the firmer side by adding a little more agar to the mix so when you swab you aren’t puncturing softer agar.

- a dry clean OG SPORE PRINT™

- 70% isopropyl alcohol

- spray bottle with a fine mist

- SAB



PROCEDUREThis entire process takes around 5 minutes if you are slow.
1) Setup your SAB
I usually use a wet SAB but use what procedures you are comfortable with. I flip my SAB upside down and use the lid as the work area. In addition, I use magnetic vent covers to let the air settle between clean work.
First I douse the entire inside, tops and bottom of the SAB with the iso in the spray bottle. I do not wipe with a towel. I leave the iso heavily misted and dribbling on the sides, top and bottom so I work my SAB wet the entire time.
I close the vent covers and leave them closed. I only open the vent covers when I place items in the SAB or I am placing my arms in to do work.
2) I put on gloves, douse my hands and arms up to my elbows with iso. I place all my supplies in the SAB. The pasty plate, foil covered swab, spore print, paper towel drenched with iso for sanitizing. I also re douse my gloves and forarms with iso anytime I take them out of the SAB before placing them back in.
3) The pasty plates are covered with foil so I Remove the foil, wipe the entire plate with the iso towel and loosen the lid. The lid is left on until you are ready to swab the plate.
The sterile swab is wrapped in foil so this is placed Directly next to the pasty plate and print. I keep everything in close proximity so the movements are not reaching far. I use a steady work pace. Not too fast not too slow.
I unfold the side flaps of sterile swab foil but leave the longer side flap closed. I do not expose the swab yet. This is so when I am taking the swab, I can lift the foil easily to access the swab before I am exposing the swab to the SAB. You can see in the image below how the side pieces of foil are folded.

4) I close my vent covers prior to doing any work. I let the air settle for one to two minutes before I do the work. I then douse my gloves and forearms before opening the vent covers to do the work.
5) once the air is settled, take your print foil out of the plastic wrap. I unfold 3 sides of the foil but do not open the print yet until I am ready to make the swab swipe.
This is the way I wrap my prints. What it does is allow you to open the print easily. The top part of the foil can act as a shield from things falling from above when you use the swab to swipe the print. You can also flip the print upside down with the print facing the bottom of the SAB. My spore prints are wrapped nicely and in a plastic bag. In addition, the prints unfold very easy and are sealed nicely. It makes doing this type of work very simple. I feel the way you fold your prints is a key factor in getting your clean work streamlined and efficient.



5) With your working hand you unwrap your swab. With your other hand you will simultaneously open the print. I flip the print upside down so the face of the foil the print is on is facing the SAB floor. I hold one side of the qtip with my gloved hand and use the untouched side to swipe spores. I make sure I twirl the tip as I swipe the print so I cover all sides of the swab with spores. It should look purple at the top like this.

6) I put the print down and fold the top back over the print.
I turn my pasty plate 45- 90 degrees to the SAB surface. The lid and side of the pasty plate act as a barrier to anything falling from above.
I use my thumb to slightly open the lid. While my fore finger holds the top of the plate open and my 3 other fingers hold the pasty plate. I swipe my qtip on the plate in a zig zag or streaking pattern. While I do this I am also slightly rotating the qtip to maximize the spore distribution. This is a very subtle and smooth motion. Nothing too hard so you do not pierce the agar surface. You should gently rub the swab on the agar and it will look unscathed on the surface after you are done. (Remember the note about a slightly firmer agar for swabbing spores).


7) put the lid on. Then label your plate. Done.
8) a few days later your plate will look like this. If you flawed your technique and any contamination is present you would then proceed to transfer to clean up the culture. There are a number of guides on the forum on how to clean up a culture.

Many people spend tons of time and transfers to get things growing for them. I at most do two transfers and 90% of the time the transfers look like this from multispore. My philosophy is this, you can spend months and months making a culture look perfect on a plate with transfer after transfer. Some people make a monoculture. Even then, until you fruit the culture you really don’t know what you are getting. Let’s say you spend 2-3 months making this culture look awesome on a plate. You spawn and fruit the culture and it performs like shit. You just wasted two months of your time on an IF. Something I could have found out after two transfers. I don’t discourage doing the cleanup. It’s fun, but I also don’t go over 2-3 transfers at most. Yes, sometimes you can’t get the culture clean until you do more transfers. I honestly never experience this issue. I can get full canopy flushes off multi spore and two transfers. So personally I don’t spend more time on the transfers as I do taking a good specimen clone off of a good flush. Narrow the genetics to what you like, repeat. 2 transfers should be an average with awesome performance. That’s my personal opinion so take it as you will.
This is a Texas yellow cap culture from two transfers below. The initial spores were swabbed to a pasty plate.

After you swab plates it is time to start preparing grain jars. First make the lids.
HOW EAT ROCKS HIS LIDS™