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throwawaiting
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How many agar dishes should I make? Is 20 not too much?
#26433381 - 01/14/20 02:52 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Hey everyone. I'm starting to read up a lot on agar dishes as I want to start getting into cloning, and also want to try starting from a spore print -> agar -> liquid culture -> pf cakes.
Almost every guide I see has a recipe for about 20 petri dishes. As I looked into it a bit, I saw that these dishes should be used within 2 weeks before inoculating, which isn't that big of a time frame. I guess my question is, what do you guys do with all these dishes once you make them? Do you inoculate every single one of them right away? I've heard that with agar you can do transfers so wouldn't you need a clean dish for that? So do you keep a few in the fridge to use for transfers in the next two weeks?
I feel like innoculating 20 dishes would be a little wasteful, since from what I understand, even with just one dish I can start a liquid culture that can last me a long time.
It's just weird to me that 20 dishes is the "standard". Perhaps I'm missing something and you do just use them so much in these 2 weeks so having 20 makes sense. Anyone with some experience please enlighten me!
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A.k.a
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Re: How many agar dishes should I make? Is 20 not too much? [Re: throwawaiting]
#26433386 - 01/14/20 02:55 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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They come in sleeves of 20 or 25 that’s usually why, also thats what a 500ml bottle will hold.
They’ll be ok longer than two weeks, but you will run through them faster than you think.
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UpRigger
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Re: How many agar dishes should I make? Is 20 not too much? [Re: A.k.a]
#26433446 - 01/14/20 03:21 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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I brought 40, then another 40 which is roughly half of what 500 cost, being a thrifty guy, I brought 500. And so glad I did, I’m noob as all get out but I don’t believe you will get anything much useable on just inoculating agar. I’m a month into, starting on third transfers tonight. It’s very addicting....
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Barrel
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Re: How many agar dishes should I make? Is 20 not too much? [Re: A.k.a]
#26433452 - 01/14/20 03:26 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Go ahead and pour 20, then inoculate 10. By the time the first 10 are ready for transfer, you'll be able to verify your sterile technique. If there's nothing growing in the empty plates, you're good to go. Two weeks is a bit short, even for extremely thin pours. If you're planning on waiting a while before using a plate, pouring a bit thick will give you some extra time before they dry out, but with 500ml between 20 plates it takes anywhere from 6-12 weeks for them to dry out at room temperature. If you're inoculating while the agar still looks like agar you're usually safe.
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throwawaiting
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Re: How many agar dishes should I make? Is 20 not too much? [Re: Barrel]
#26433466 - 01/14/20 03:32 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Barrel said: Go ahead and pour 20, then inoculate 10. By the time the first 10 are ready for transfer, you'll be able to verify your sterile technique. If there's nothing growing in the empty plates, you're good to go. Two weeks is a bit short, even for extremely thin pours. If you're planning on waiting a while before using a plate, pouring a bit thick will give you some extra time before they dry out, but with 500ml between 20 plates it takes anywhere from 6-12 weeks for them to dry out at room temperature. If you're inoculating while the agar still looks like agar you're usually safe.
Amazing answer man thanks a lot. That gives me a little more relief about taking from 6-12 weeks for them to dry out. I'll follow your advice and inoculate 10 of them (some with spores some with clones) and leave the other 10 for transfers.
My only other question is about storage. Is room temperature better than storing in the fridge? Trying to figure out what to do with them once I pour them out
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Tattersail



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Re: How many agar dishes should I make? Is 20 not too much? [Re: Barrel]
#26433484 - 01/14/20 03:42 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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I use "no pour" plates and do 15-20 at a time. They keep for a couple of weeks as long as they've been PCd properly. I normally do 2-3 spore plates, then take 2-4 transfers from each, then those each get transfered again and probably again. You get through 20 quickly. If they didn't get used I wouldn't mind much since the no -pour tubs are reusable. I store them at room temperature in a lidded plastic tub, as the fridge always seems to have something deciding to mould.
If I use pour plates (petri dishes) I'm more likely to do 10 at a time. I make up just half the amount of agar, to reduce waste.
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Barrel
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Re: How many agar dishes should I make? Is 20 not too much? [Re: throwawaiting]
#26440945 - 01/18/20 10:55 PM (4 years, 29 days ago) |
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Refrigeration will slow evaporation, due to the temperature, but I've got about a dozen plates in my grow room at a steady 69F (nice) from October, and only about half of them are starting to show signs of drying out, and the mycelium has grown straight over the agar and up the walls.
I've stored a few colonized multi-spore oyster plates in ziploc bags in the fridge and they looked fine 6 months later when I pulled them out because I needed the fridge space.
Edited by Barrel (01/18/20 10:57 PM)
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