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 Tao_Shin_Li
newbie
Registered: 10/27/01
Posts: 35
Last seen: 23 years, 1 month
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 Agar help? 
#504937 - 12/30/01 02:57 PM (23 years, 4 months ago) |
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I want to start using agar. I got the petri dishes and scalpel and glove box and alcohol lamp.
Where to get some good agar and what else will I need to do everything?
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 Compiler
Registered: 11/03/01
Posts: 162
Loc: USA
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Post deleted by Administrator [Re: Tao_Shin_Li]
#504942 - 12/30/01 03:00 PM (23 years, 4 months ago) |
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Compiler
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Tao_Shin_Li
newbie
Registered: 10/27/01
Posts: 35
Last seen: 23 years, 1 month
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Re: Agar help? [Re: Compiler]
#504964 - 12/30/01 03:16 PM (23 years, 4 months ago) |
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What is better malt extract agar or potato dextrose or antibacterial?
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felixhigh
plumber
Registered: 06/24/01
Posts: 7,623
Loc: Ly
Last seen: 3 months, 17 days
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you should buy both potato and malt extract agar... (not antibacterial, at first)
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Tao_Shin_Li
newbie
Registered: 10/27/01
Posts: 35
Last seen: 23 years, 1 month
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Re: Agar help? [Re: felixhigh]
#505792 - 12/31/01 11:09 AM (23 years, 4 months ago) |
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Is that for the purpose of variety so the mycelium remains resilient?
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oscill8
*bondage fairy*
Registered: 02/26/01
Posts: 1,215
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or instead of buying premixed agar (potato and malt extract) you could buy just agar (from science supply stores, from myco stores, from asian food markets) and add your own malt/potatoes to the mix... find your own recipe- what works for you. some people prefer different types of agar mixes (some types work better for them than others), so its always nice to try different types and supplements...
[edit] what i mean is, some prefer less agar in the mix, or less nutritive additives (like the malt and potatoes) for various reasons...such as some people have a problem with agar sticking to glass, some people prefer to use agar in slants for long term storage and dont want an extremely nutritive mix, some people want to tinker with what they add to agar and like to change recipes accordingly (adding ground grains, etc. and reducing the amount of other nutritives like potatoes-), some people like several types of agar mixes running at the same time (think: control groups to their experiments)... this doesnt mean premade agar mixes are bad, but its another option, and usually is less expensive, as well.[/edit]
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? oscill8 2001, 2002
"Any data submitted to Shroomery.org becomes our property"
Edited by oscill8 (12/31/01 05:02 PM)
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Suntzu
Geek
Registered: 10/14/99
Posts: 1,396
Last seen: 4 months, 19 days
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Re: Agar help? [Re: oscill8]
#506228 - 12/31/01 09:14 PM (23 years, 4 months ago) |
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Hey Tao; the general thought on the subject is that varying the agar medium keeps various enzymes [genes] in production mode throughout generations and subcultures. I think it's important if you're cloning a lot, continually transferring agar cultures and such. Also, it seems that a few spore providers, in their neverending quest to provide the meeps with the highest quality of potent spores [lol] continually rotate not only their agar formulae, but also the bulk substrate. Personally, I think once you hit spore stage again, it's a clean slate, at least with cubies. Could be wrong, but most people will never grow enough to find it matters.
I had ONE case of senescence, it was an australian clone that I'd sub'd a few times to potato dextrose. There was a few months' lapse during a move, more of a lapse while I enjoyed the dope in my new town, then finally I put it to grain and castings. It fruited very shittily. The spore prints from the retarded crop performed phenomenally next time around, though.
So to answer your question about agars, find the cheapest stuff around. Food grade is fine. The bacterial grade agar is significantly more pricey, but will give you nicer, smoother petris. Not any more nutritive. You could even go for molecular grade agar, we just bought some 'nuseive' agarose for DNA fragment separation, it was about 2-3 bucks a gram.
And as far as what formula to use, I don't think it matters one bit. PDA, MEA, just the initials tell you there are only three or four compounds for the fungus to synthesize enzymes. As opposed to the hundreds when it hits a birdseed jar, the thousands when it hits the chemical jungle of worm castings or dung.
One other thing, it really doesn't have to be agar. Agar is chosen because it pours at a decent temperature, forms a smooth surface to pick out contams, and is easy to formulate to exact specifications. I think it's really cool whoever came up with the 'brown rice paste tek' or whatever. All you need is a flat surface to isolate growth sectors.
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Anno
Experimenter
Registered: 06/17/99
Posts: 24,168
Loc: my room
Last seen: 17 days, 22 hours
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Re: Agar help? [Re: Suntzu]
#506406 - 01/01/02 03:13 AM (23 years, 4 months ago) |
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>...PDA, MEA, just the initials tell you there are only three or
>four compounds for the fungus to synthesize enzymes. As
>opposed to the hundreds when it hits a birdseed jar...
I tend to disagree on this a bit.
What is malt? it?s a dried water extract from germinated, roasted barley.
So malt really contains near all of the water soluble components of the grain. Which are many.
Same with the potato broth used in the PDA.
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Suntzu
Geek
Registered: 10/14/99
Posts: 1,396
Last seen: 4 months, 19 days
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Re: Agar help? [Re: Anno]
#507045 - 01/01/02 08:36 PM (23 years, 4 months ago) |
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You're probably right, I was thinking malt as in 'maltose' but that's wrong. As far as the potato, yeah that is a mixture as well. woops, I take it back!
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