Favourite agar blends

[Bigred]

my favorite agar blend is Vegemite and ricemalt and yeast agar whats yours

my recipe per 500ml

5 grams agar

4 grams Vegemite

3 grams karo or rice malt extract you could use honey to

1 or 2 grams of nutritional yeast this is optional but i always get better results if i do

you can also add h202 a couple of ml's is all you need

i like this one to because it goes 5,4,3,2 or 1 so its easy to remember would love to here of what others mix i do change from time to time but im not that far into preserving strains getting spores from the super market mushrooms takes a lot of patients

but getting contams is part of the fun as well i got one that looks like genesis and it looks alive with little houses

[goneski]

FastFred's Media Cookbook:

http://www.shroomery.org/9393/FastFreds-Media-Cookbook

I personally haven't tried any of these, though.

[LokStok]

this (and variations of this) is my all round favourite. Its from Punkins recipe from over at EdibleMushroom.

5 Gram Potato Extract (Deb)

9 Gram powdered agar

10 Gram of either Karo or Dextrose

1 Gram Vegemite

500 ml boiling water.

[BentoSpawn]

What do you mean by "nutritional yeast" bigred ? Like bakers dry yeast ?

[Psylo]

Dead yeast is an excellent nutrient (even for live yeast to feed off). It wouldn't matter if you used baker's yeast or brewing yeast. Baking yeast by the 'tin' would be the cheapest, a few bucks from the supermarket

The yeast will be dead as soon as you PC it, so it not going to grow in your agar.

[BentoSpawn]

Dead yeast is an excellent nutrient (even for live yeast to feed off). It wouldn't matter if you used baker's yeast or brewing yeast. Baking yeast by the 'tin' would be the cheapest, a few bucks from the supermarket

 

Thats good to know i do a bit of baking niw and again so i buy thise massive tubes of dry yeast anyway

[Psylo]

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Edited September 11, 2012 by Psylo Dread

[Bigred]

bentospawn i get brewers yeast from my organic store it cost $12 a kilo its great stuff. With the test tubes psylo i get the glass ones with a lid for about a $1.50 each is the plastic just as good i also thought if you could use the little crack vials the are cheap as . I also used a bit of vegemite in my lc so will tell you guys how it goes

[BentoSpawn]

I read bakers yeast is the better of the two when researching - i could be well be wrong on this however.

Edited September 12, 2012 by BentoSpawn

[Bigred]

I have used both i get les crap on the bottom and i get the same results i have been adding h202 and colloidal silver to my batch's and bacteria contams are now a thing of the past

Edited September 13, 2012 by bigred82

[NSF]

Adding the silver and the h202 post cook? Once the temp of the agar has dropped a little but before it sets?

[Bigred]

I add it just before i pour my plates also what would be the best blend for tube slants would it matter when you add your h202 could it go in before the pc. I am about to start doing slants for cold storage and would love a good recipe for slants .

[NSF]

any temp above about 60 (i think) kills h202 and prevents it being effective at all. So you can add it before you PC but it will be rendered useless during the cooking.

Instead of using h202 I like to pour my plates into take away PP sauce containers, 50ml odd, put the lids on, make a stack about 8 high and put those in a little PP bag, fold the bag over and PC (well I make a few of these stacks and PC altogether).

So the only time they are exposed to contams is when I am putting tissue onto them inside my hood. So I go with the less vector theory, rather than defense theory. Defense theory being h202.

[Bigred]

i believe in the less vector theory to but i like to add a safeguard as i only have a hepa glove bag and i try to be as anal as i can when it comes to contams and i don't think its harms growth at all so its like a little insurance

[BentoSpawn]

H2O2 will break down into H2O + O2 in the pressure cooker. The only advantage is having oxygen enriched slants and the small likely hood of maybe killing some organisms that could survive the PC.

So its not neccisarily a complete waste of time, but definitely not needed.

[Bigred]

another good one if you dont want much hassle is to get a tin of home brew like coopers ale and use 10 ml per 500ml and 9 grams of agar . My friend swears buy it he also just adds agar to light beer when he couldnt be fucked opening a tin

[Bigred]

Thought i would bump this thread to see if anyone has s different agar blend

[Electro Gypsy]

mostly depends on what i am doing. i guess if i actually had to measure it my most commonly used blend would be..

500ml h20

10g agar

10g finely powdered millet

2-3 table spoons pure vanilla extract

1g reptile quality calcium

just about any grain will work. millet is just my preference. ime, everything fruits on it.

when dealing with a wood lover i might use the correct wood tea instead of h20. increasing the calcium to 1.5g

this is also a straining recipe, but honestly, it only improves the cosmetics. if one desires a smoother agar.. mix everything but the agar and strain through a coffee filter. then add agar and sterilize.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Electro Gypsy

[spooge]

I use 3/4 agar 1/4 malt extract, dont make any of it, all from the shop.

Nicen quick, even get little fruits in the jars i use as petries, pc 24 agar jars atta time, not the most economical way though does result in very clean cultures.

[fungi1963]

What's the vanilla for?

I'm currently using:

10g agar

10g LME

2g yeast

To this base you can add a small sample of intended end substrate.

Wondering how Therefore went with the PDA type recipe above.

[Electro Gypsy]

What's the vanilla for?

old trick from an old friend. many fungi, especially psilocybe species find it to be an attractive nutrient source. some species may actually grow faster due to it, but i don't have any research to back it up. short of hobbiest posts. the original tek was written for liquid culture, but i have adapted it to agar as well. i actually like the liquid culture also. very clear. nice to work with and very simple. just pure vanilla extract and h2o. it was brilliant actually. the guy never got enough credit.

[Electro Gypsy]

I have used both i get les crap on the bottom and i get the same results i have been adding h202 and colloidal silver to my batch's and bacteria contams are now a thing of the past

 

colloidal silver - this is interesting. please tell me more.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Hey electro gypsy! Did you have a recipe/portions for the vanilla extract LC?!

[Electro Gypsy]

Hey electro gypsy! Did you have a recipe/portions for the vanilla extract LC?!

the original recipe is 500ml h2o with 3 tablespoons of vanilla extract.

although, mycelium for the most part grew very fast in it, I ran into consistency issues. unknown if it was due to the recipe, but I am picky and more of a finesse style grower. I ended up at a leaner formula, not as fast, but long lived and worked very well.. consistently.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract per 300ml h2o. I use about the same for agar.

honestly I would suggest one strong and one weak lc so you can compare for yourself. maybe one in the middle too. lots of room to play in order to find the proper groove for what you are dealing with.

[Bigred]

colloidal silver - this is interesting. please tell me more.

I use a bottle of strong colloidal silver that i got from the states via mail I ad it to a lot of things even straw logs

you can make colloidal silver pretty easy . There is a lot more reasearch to be done in it and i have not got the time