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scoobin Reged: 03/19/19 Posts: 3820 |
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glass petris:![]() actually kinda cool been doing glass petris for a bit & figured a little write up on them might be nice to have for people considering using them. a lot of the info on glass petris i've found is scattered across random shroomery posts & not necessarily compiled in a way accessible to people unfamiliar with how to navigate the site. this post is more so just a bit of a guide for people who may be new to agar or who are looking to upgrade from more traditional no pour containers. there isn’t really anything groundbreaking here, so i doubt more experienced cultivators will get much useful information out of this. but there are a lot of ways for a cat to have skin & i feel like it never hurts to have a write up. pros:
cons:
i use these plates specifically, but anything glass in the same sizes should be fine. there are a few sizes to choose from. i have the 60mm, 75mm, & 90mm plates. i mainly use the 75mm plates. i didn't realize it when i first bought them, but it seems most people use 90-100mm plates around here. personally, i think the 75mm is a great size to work with. the plates are big enough that you can let a culture grow out substantially but won't be pouring tons of agar that will go to waste when taking quick transfers. the 90mm plates feel a bit excessive to me, but are my second choice in size. i'll sometimes use them as spore germination plates or when growing out a culture to send to like 5+ grain jars, but recently i have been using them for water agar since the myc seemingly likes to run on WA. the 60mm are rather small, & i don't find myself using them much. they are good for quick transfers, but i don't know if they are worth buying specifically for that. the 75mm are the best balance of size to practicality imo. my plates are mostly 15mm deep, with the 90mm plates being 20mm deep. 15mm is plenty deep for no pour agar, just don't fill them up half way (this is way too much agar anyways) & don't throw around the PC while they are cooling & you should be primo ![]() again, nothing ground breaking, it's just a no pour agar tek. but i want this to make sense for people unfamiliar with agar & there are a few little details that might make glass petris easier to work with. if you really wanna pour them, you can follow sandman420's guide here to sterilize the plates. i recommend using them as no pour containers though. you can really use whatever agar recipe floats your boat. i personally use d3’s recipe but the recipe isn’t really what’s important here. pastywhyte's, or really any agar recipe will work. my process is essentially the same as making any no pour agar plates, just with some special considerations in method for the glass petris you can kinda try to figure out how much you'll need per plate... but most recipes are made relative to 90-100mm plates, & my dumb ass can never figure out the right ratios to get the exact amount of agar i'll need to fill the specific number of plates i'm making. to get around this, i've just been making more agar than i actually need & pouring the left over stuff into a PC safe vessel (a mason jar works excellently, just make sure the jar or vessel is able to vent properly during the cycle). PC this with your plates & you'll have agar ready for the next time you have to pour some. (left over agar comes in very clutch when you just need to whip up a smaller batch of plates real quick. i've let jars sit unused for a month + & the agar is totally fine. you can reheat it by microwaving it for a few seconds at a time until it starts to melt. WATCH THE AGAR THE ENTIRE TIME IT'S IN THE MICROWAVE!! the moment you look away is the moment it will boil over. it happens fast, so the moment you see bubbling, stop the microwave. stir it up, & if there are still chunks, keep heating it until there aren't. alternatively, you could probably try scooping out chunks of agar into a pot & heat it that way, or just heat the jar while holding it with tongs in a pot of boiling water, or just place chunks of agar in the plates to melt in the PC cycle, or... anything idc get creative- it's your life) i use a pyrex liquid measuring cup to pour my agar into my plates, but you can pour out of the pot or out of a jar or whatever you want really, the little spout just makes it easier to pour without drips. i like to have a paper towel ready in my other hand to wipe up any agar drips off the vessel i'm pouring from like a sommelier pouring wine. i will let them solidify & cool off a little before placing the lid on them. now you'll wrap them in foil & stack them as high as you can in your PC. the way i lift my trivet & the size of my plates lets me do 7 plates in a stack in my 16qt, you may be able to do more or less depending on your set up. test this out before you wrap them, obviously. i like foil because it keeps the plates sturdy so they won't slide off each other during the cycle, & you can reuse the foil if you're careful enough! recently, i haven't been wrapping mine for the most part, as i use containers to PC them in now. but when i do have to wrap in foil, i find wrapping with two pieces & making a top & bottom like pictured makes it much easier to unwrap once you're ready to use them. these are some quart sized ziplocks that fit my 75mm plates well. there is unfortunately some headspace lost to a slight taper, which leaves me able to do 6 plates at a time when i probably could fit 8 in there otherwise, but it's not a big enough issue for me to work around it yet. happened to have these on hand & wasn't using them so said fuck it lol. 24 plates a run is super acceptable for me right now, easy enough to make more containers if i needed them. i just drilled out some largish holes with a knife & covered them with 2 layers of micropore tape. i made about 6 holes, may bump it to 8 just to help with drying times, they can stay moist for quite a few days it seems. i cover the tops with foil in the PC just to keep the top tape from getting too soaked. you could probably used SFDs if you really wanted, but i don't see MP tape causing problems in this instance. i also like these containers because i can just slap the cover back on after i grab the plates i need, eliminating the need to wrap any unused plates if i don't want to. mainly it's just nice for going directly onto a shelf until needed- no need to set up the SAB or let them dry in front of a hood. i'm sure you could find plenty of containers that would work if you get creative! i also added a thin strip of foil under the bottom petri that i fold up the sides of the dishes so i can pick the whole stack up by just pinching the sides of the foil, just makes that bottom plate way easier to handle. (there are petri racks like this that can be used, but they are pretty pricey & will probably be too tall for 16qt cookers anyways. would probably be nice if it fits yours, though!) some people may prefer to wrap them with a single piece of foil, which SirPsycho outlines in this post. throw it all in your PC & run it for 20-60 minutes under pressure. you can easily fit 30+ plates in the 16qt cooker with foil or good containers. i usually do 30-45min for my agar. (if you don't know how to use a pressure cooker, check this out.) once it's done, carefully move the PC to a place to a place to cool. make sure to lift it without sloshing it around, as the agar is still hot in the plates & you don't want it spilling out. i let mine cool overnight in the PC. make sure your PC sits level, otherwise your plates may be a little slanted. not the biggest deal typically, but it may bother some people from an aesthetic stand point. you can check if your PC sits level by putting a jar in the PC & checking it with a bubble level set on top. if it's not level, you may have to set a towel under certain parts of your PC so that it sits level & your agar cools flat in the plates. you CAN take the plates out hot using jar grabbers or something, but you have to be really careful when moving the PC and plates because of the liquid agar. ime it's more worth it to just let them cool in the PC once it's cool enough that the agar has solidified, take the PC over to your SAB or flowhood & place the stacked plates in there. slowly begin to unwrap the plates. the foil gets kinda brittle after the PC & when it's all just once piece the plates can be tricky to get out of the foil without destroying it. the two pieces makes this a little easier. it's still kinda tricky, but you can keep the foil mostly intact if you're careful while unwrapping. i can reuse foil quite a few times as long as i don't have any major tears. just take it slow when unwrapping the plates- you don't wanna bump anything during this process. (if in an SAB, take your time. when i used an SAB with these petris, i just exposed the plates but didn't take them off the foil right away & let them dry for a bit. then, i'd remove them from the foil & let them dry more from there. again, smaller batches or a larger SAB makes this much easier.) once the plates are exposed, i'll grab them in stacks of 5 or so (grab as many as you feel comfortable with- better safe than sorry!) & place them where i want them to dry. i'll dry them in stacks of 10, but if you have a cramped work space you probably don't want giant stacks of breakable things where they can be easily knocked over. use your discretion with this. i'd leave the plates at least overnight in the SAB, a day or two if i could afford it (cover the arm holes). a few hours in front of a flowhood should help quite a bit, just make sure it doesn't go too long & dry the plates out. a lot of the condensation should clear up in storage or in use, but even if it doesn't don't worry too much. i find it generally clears up enough during use & shouldn't affect anything on the plates in my experience, you can leave the petris wrapped in foil for weeks on the shelf with no issue. they didn't seem to dry out as well this way, though, so it might not be the best for avoiding condensation. YMMV there, but they shouldn't contaminate on you. sir P leaves his PP5s completely unwrapped, & it seems that even my glass petris do OK unwrapped as long as they are handled delicately. however, i'm too clumsy to trust myself handling them unwrapped so i prefer to wrap them even when unused when your petris are dry on the outside, they're ready to be wrapped!(in case you’re a dumbass like i am when i first got these, you need to wrap petris with cling wrap or parafilm… lol). i will use some plates fresh if i need to make any transfers, then will start wrapping in stacks. wrap your individual plates with a 1-2" wide roll of cling wrap once or twice around the bottom, making sure the cling wrap completely covers all gaps in the petri lid. when doing batch wrapping, it can be kinda hard to wrap tall stacks. cutting your cling wrap down to a size that can wrap 5 plates (or however many you are comfortable handling) will make this a lot easier than trying to wrap 10 all in one stack. i'll kind of pinch the cling wrap to the bottom plate with my pinky, then kind of lean them into the cling wrap & into my hand as i roll & continue to wrap. hard to explain, but it gets easier when you try it. alternatively, you can (very carefully!) wrap your plates like p9hu7 does in this handy gif: put your wrapped stacks & plates on whatever you use to hold plates when you need to use plates, either unwrap the stack completely & individually wrap any plates you didn't use or just use a scalpel/your hands & cut out how many plates you want to use. ![]() if you’re unsure, order a 5 or 10 pack to test out before you order 60 of them & find out you hate them. practice how they feel to use in a realistic scenario before you make your first batch with agar in them. they may not be your thing, & that's totally fine, but i don't think they are as bad as i've seen people make them out to be sometimes. if you want to stick to reusable or no pour containers, glass petris are 100% worth the investment in my opinion. peace![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Edited by hazyhorse (10/27/23 08:41 PM)
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glass petris:

peace
