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Say hello to my little friend Reged: 09/15/12 Posts: 37808 Loc: Canada |
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Easy Agar Tek. I'm starting to see an abundance of people out there who want to get into agar but are intimidated by the thought of pouring petris in a Still Air Box (SAB). There are others who are confident in their technique but don't like the idea of ordering lab equipment off the net to their house. Others still, dislike the idea of waste and having suspicious shit in their trash. To get around this people are turning to no pour agar teks, and there are many good ones out there, they served the basis of how I myself got started with agar. But most of them have drawbacks. Jars are costly, half pints are too deep to work in with ease, fancy jelly jars are unwieldy to handle and quite expensive. The screwtop ziplocks would be a good alternative except they are large and take up a lot of space in the Pressure Cooker (PC) and fridge. Enter "Easy Agar". I am here to say that none of the above mentioned drawbacks should dissuade anyone from getting into agar. In my opinion, agar does not need to be difficult, costly, or create a lot of suspicious waste. Many of the pro's and TC's will most likely flame this tek but, its not being written for them. This is for the new cultivator who wants to experience the benefits of agar without the cost and having to order stuff off the net. Let me say that I do use pour agar and proper petris, but for the lions share of my culture work this tek has served me well for 100's of plates. My PP5 glad mini rounds are much smaller than 1/2 pints and screw top PP5, easier to manipulate in the SAB, and can even be made with a ghetto ass PC that you might have got as a wedding present and never needed or used (like the one I am using for this tek )You will need: -1 pack of Glad mini rounds -micro pore tape -a drill with a 1/4" bit or very hot nail -paper towels -Foil -PC -Bar of agar agar -Potato flakes -Karo or Honey -Coffee grinder -And of course a PC, even a shitty ass one will work First we will prep the lids. They need a hole in them, to provide a bit of Gas Exchance (GE) as well as to prevent a vacuum when its PCing from crushing in the mini round container. You will need to drill a small hole in each lid. You can also just heat a paper clip or nail and use it to melt a hole in the lid, this is pretty quick. The hole does not need to be large, a 1/4" is best. Next cover the hole with a small square or two of micro pore tape. If I am planning to keep the plate around for a long time (more than a month) I would suggest two layers. Ok we're done, these are ready to fill Now we need to prep our agar. Take the bar of agar agar and cut it into small chunks, then place them into the coffee grinder. Grind them until they are pretty fine. Don't worry about making them into powder, just get them pretty uniform. I have even used scissors to get er done, though a coffee grinder is easier. I prefer to grind up my bars and then just store the flakes for when I need them. 2 bars will go a long way. Feel free to use any other agars if you want, powdered agar packets works excellent, just make sure there is no added sugar. I then spoon 2 heaping tablespoons into the pot. I rarely weigh it out, if I want stiffer agar I use a little more, if I want softer I use a little less. If you want to weigh it, for this amount of agar you will want about 2-2.5 grams depending on how soft or firm you want it to be. If your using powdered agar and don't have a scale, a level tsp (5ml) is roughly 2.5 grams. Remember that no matter how much you want to mix up, you want a ratio of 20-25 grams of agar to 1 liter of water. If you have issues with the mix being too stiff while mixing then adjust the ratios for less agar. Some food grade agars will work out to be a little stiffer than others, some experimentation may be required. If all that is a bit confusing the just remember 2% is roughly what you are aiming for. Add 2 teaspoons (10 ml) of potato flakes, and 1/2 cup (120 ml) of water (tap is fine). Then I turn the heat on low on the stove a stir the mixture until its mostly dissolved. At this point I will add a drop of Karo or Honey. Stir it all up well. It does not matter if there are still a few pieces of agar still not dissolved, just get most of it. I like to use either colored agar (some places have this) or else just add a few drops of food coloring to the mix. This will help you see growth real quick, and the contams are easily spotted as well. There will be nowhere for them to hide If you can only get regular agar, I like to use green food coloring to make the contams stand out best, but any dark color (red, blue, purple) will work as well Finally I spoon in the agar mix into my glad mini rounds. I like to just give them a wipe with a damp paper towel first to clear out any dust or debris. No need to be spraying them with alcohol or nothing. Place the lids on the top and close. Finally I like to fold up a square of paper towel and place on top. Condensation can be a bit of an issue and you don't want to get the micro pore tape too wet. The paper towel helps with this. Here is the agar in the PP5's and how I do the paper towel. Now we wrap them in foil before we place in the PC. I like to tear off a piece that is rather square, this will be a good size. Have the tab on the lid directed towards one of the corners of the foil, this helps get enough around and prevents tearing. To help get the bottoms flat I like to grind them down a little on the stovetop, this will help them sit straight in the PC. Place rings in the PC and a piece of folded up foil down if you need more stability. Stack carefully in the PC. It was suggested by a poster (sorry I can't remember which one) that the hole could be drilled through the side and eliminate the need for the foil and towel. I have tried it and it does work. The tape gets quite wet and must be allowed to dry but it does work fairly well. I do miss not having the towel to write on and it's hard to not touch the tape sometimes so care should be exercised when handling. This would be a good option for those who don't want to use the foil. Now you just gotta PC them for 40-45 mins. Done. I like to leave them in the PC overnight to cool, this helps keep the condensation down. Then I when remove them they go straight into my SAB. If you want to keep em around for a while they can be stored safely in the fridge, just don't unwrap em. Remove the foil from them in the SAB and if the tops seem wet, I let them dry in the SAB for a few hours. Leave one of the arm holes open if you do this with a tyvek sleeve stuffed in the hole. Like I said before however, if they feel wet, adjust the way you bring the pressure up in the PC. Now you have lots of cheap, easy to work with plates that don't need to be ordered and can be put together with stuff you can find around town. You can now safely inoculate any media like grains or LC without the issue of invisible contams. You can also store good cultures for a long time and grow them many times before senescence hits. You can also ward this off by changing your media, this tek ends up making PDA (potato dextrose agar) but it will work just as well with MEA (malt extract agar), PDYA (potato dextrose yeast agar), Dog food agar, grain soak water agar, etc. So don't be afraid to mix it up. Hopefully this lets people dip their toes in the agar pool, trust me its well worth it ![]() ![]() Edit; as more people come on board with this, I hear feedback on ways to use it, substitutions, etc. Here are some relevant links to assist users. I will attempt to update periodically. The Tiger Drop Inoculation, transfers, grain inoculation in SAB Tic Tac Toe (Tiger Drop 2.0) -------------------- Pastywhyte's Easy Writeups My Favorite Grow Logs Avoiding the dreaded facepalm in cultivation The worst threads all have the same subjects Q & A.M.U. ![]()
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