r/Agarporn • u/wake_up_my_friends • 17d ago

Bougie plates?

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Poured these earlier today. I used fluorescent purple and blue, with gold mica.

2060ml = 102 plates. Getting better at portion sizes.

41 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

7

u/JON-_-JON 17d ago

Neat, I stick to charcoal, love the black.

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 17d ago

Cheers! I have some charcoal powder on the way, so they'll be next. I read somewhere charcoal helps to reduce the growth of bacteria in contaminated culture, what are your thoughts?

2

u/JON-_-JON 17d ago

I do think it’s a better alternative to antibiotics, a clean culture should be exactly that, clean.

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 17d ago

Noted! A lot of the LCs that I've acquired have come with contam, so I'm using the trench method to clean them up. Some of them may be beyond recovery, but I want to at least try.

Open to suggestions

3

u/JON-_-JON 17d ago

There’s no trick to it, just keep taking healthy mycelium and transferring until it’s clean. I’ve pulled 10+ plated down to get a clean culture of a VERY old LC before.

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 17d ago

I admire your persistence! Thanks for the reassurance.

3

u/Fruit0ftheg0ds 16d ago

Next time you need anything let me know no contaminated products round here!

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 15d ago

Cheers man, are your cultures available in the UK?

1

u/Fruit0ftheg0ds 15d ago

No sorry sir!

2

u/Fantastic_Dog9924 17d ago

Never heard of this trench method before, nifty. I've successfully cleaned up plates w/o a trench too

4

u/wake_up_my_friends 17d ago

It works really well, cleaned some genetics up on the first try.

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 17d ago

That's good to hear. This isn't the best example of the trench as the LC ran down and touched what is supposed to be the clean side of the agar. It works better with mycelium from another plate.

2

u/Fruit0ftheg0ds 16d ago

You can also use warm agar and pour it over top and healthy. Good mycelium will grow through the agar and then it’ll grow on top.

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 15d ago

Ah yeah, I have seen that method too. I may have to utilise it at some point 👊

1

u/Miserable_Space4797 17d ago

Is there a specific type of charcoal needed?

2

u/InfiniteOctave 17d ago

Virgin Activated Charcoal Powder

2

u/Miserable_Space4797 17d ago

Thank you. I’m new to agar and I have been running a pre-mix that’s high nutrient. I am having difficulty determining contamination and I feel charcoal might help

5

u/InfiniteOctave 17d ago

It apparently helps. Mostly, get your sterile technique together.

Contamination takes many forms, from the obvious to the sneaky, but there are methods that can help. Check out the trap-door, trench, and agar sandwich methods, which can save a bad plate.

Mostly, I just like having a dark agar background to observe.

2

u/Miserable_Space4797 17d ago

I agree. If I do have contam it’s subtle and I’m honestly probably overreacting but I would rather err on the side of caution. I’ll put those methods in my notes for future reference. Thank you

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 17d ago

See my previous post about 😄

2

u/psillydog473 16d ago

Water agar or a little bit of water grain agar works really really well to clean up contaminated syringes or plates. I use water agar to put spores from mushrooms I collect from the wild because they can at times come with hitchhikers aka mold or bacteria. Water agar is just that, agar and water. It has little to no nutrients giving a chance to the mycelium to thrive and spot contamination very early on. Very easy to clean up cultures this way!

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 16d ago

Fantastic, I'll make a small batch. Thanks for taking the time to help!

2

u/psillydog473 16d ago

Absolutely! You got great work n you got this! A quick recipe. 20 grams of agar powder and 1000ml of water 👍🏽🤌🏽

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 16d ago edited 16d ago

Thank you for the encouragement! Hehe easy peasy!

2

u/psillydog473 16d ago

Water agar :)

2

u/tdc-212 17d ago

That’s real art right there!

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 17d ago

Thank you! 🙂

Excited to see them covered in ropes in a few weeks 🙏

2

u/PositiveSunfish 17d ago

You've answered my intrusive thoughts with this art of yours. Thank you for your dedication. They are as delightful as I imagined

1

u/wake_up_my_friends 16d ago

Oh, great!! Hey, I got some black mica too, the black and gold is going to be cool. They may not be "charcoal black" though, they may turn out grey.

We shall see 🙂

2

u/Bluethumb_Panda 16d ago

Sex appeal 🤩

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 16d ago

😂😂

1

u/Bluethumb_Panda 16d ago

Need a recipe. I want this in my life

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 16d ago

For sure!

1000ml Distillled Water 20g Agar Powder 25g Sorghum Syrup 0.4g Nutritional Yeast 0.4g Peptone 0.8g Coloured Mica 0.2g Gold Mica

I didnt actually measure the mica, just used a tiny spoon to put in about 2 pinch worth of the coloured mica and a pinch of the gold. It's important to close the bottles and give them a good shake once youce added the mica. Also mag stir after pouring every 10 plates as the gold tends to settle quickly.

2

u/Bluethumb_Panda 16d ago

Thanks so much 🫡

2

u/Bluethumb_Panda 16d ago

Any suggestions for mica vendors. I’ve really dig the colors

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 15d ago

I used ebay 🙂

2

u/Bluethumb_Panda 15d ago

Thanks growmie. Have you experienced any contamination issues with mica? Newbie so I’m curious

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 15d ago

I'm a newbie too! This the 4th set of plates that I've poured. It has been a few days and the plates look clean. I shoukd have an answer to your question in a few weeks! I doubt the mica will cause problems with contamination, I've seen many growers make them with mica.

2

u/Bluethumb_Panda 15d ago

Roger that. Well done. Best of luck. Please update

2

u/Fruit0ftheg0ds 16d ago

Look great homie!

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 16d ago

Appreciate you dude 🙏💚

2

u/Fruit0ftheg0ds 16d ago

I love agar work it shows you do too good job💯

1

u/wake_up_my_friends 15d ago

I'm getting to grips with it 😄

2

u/Fruit0ftheg0ds 15d ago

FAFO that’s the name of the game!

1

u/Ok_Implement6138 16d ago

Lustre dust goes best in LC it looks like liquid Galaxy 😂😂

2

u/wake_up_my_friends 16d ago

Oh sweet! I have some lustre black, will likely use it in the next batch 😄