Source for Good Sauce Containers - No-Pour Agar

[endorfinder]

How does it compare to malt extract? I would guess it similar?

[Bigred]

my recipe is the same except i use 3 grams Vegemite and little less dextrose about 7 grams.

You should change agar from time to time as the mycelium get used to growing on that media

in regards to Vegemite verse malt extract i go Vegemite personally.

Edited February 1, 2013 by bigred82

[Bigred]

im not sure if these are any good judge for yourself

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/200-Pcs-Laboratory-Clear-White-7ml-Capacity-Plastic-Centrifuge-Tubes-/160938979862?pt=AU_Business_Industrial_Medical_Scientific_Equipment2&hash=item2578b5f216

[goneski]

I ended up getting some brewing things, but think I go the wrong thing.

I got a box of Coopers Light Dry Malt (not dry malt extract -- so i'm not sure if this will work).

I also go some other beer enhancer that contains dextrose and maltodextrin. From what I gather, you shouldn't use maltodextrin,

but should it be okay if contains dextrose?

[Bigred]

I heard you can use alcohol free beer just add some vegimite and agar

i see these alcohol free beers at coles will give it a go next batch

[goneski]

I found these at Woolies. $2 each, but were on special. Polypropylene, 250mL.

Possibly a bit big, but should be okay. I like that they're a bit stronger than sauce containers and the lid screw on tightly.

[Sallubrious]

They look like they could be a bit cumbersome inside a glovebox.

They might build up pressure in the PC from the steam coming off the agar too, so you might have to leave the lids loose.

& Keep them off the bottom of the PC too, as I found out the bottom of the PC can get hot enough to melt PP.

[endorfinder]

syner i've tried using those, with filter holes and all, with mediocre results. (no-pour)

edit: i mean i drilled holes in the lid and superglued a piece of filter disc over the top.

Edited February 4, 2013 by endorfinder

[Bigred]

snyer i have tried those containers but i only had two worked fine ( no pour tek )

i found baby jars are the best a dollar each cant go wrong plus they are glass

and they are great for doing liquid cultures .

[endorfinder]

syner fwiw i intend to repurpose the containers i also bought from woolies as spawn bag caps... once i put in rubber ports they're ready to go really.

[Bigred]

you could use it for a glove box for the arm holes if it is big enough so you can seal it

[NSF]

I can't believe people are finding the no pour tek so hard. It's a piece of piss and it's definitely the way to go.

Mix the liquids of your agar recipe, I use Stamets MYEA recipe (have tried others and will use them when ingredients aren't available). Mix in the powders, malt extract is best in powdered form, light malt, not dark malt. It's pretty much another sugar. No you don't want maltodextrin. Heat and dissolve the powders.

Slowly stir in your agar and bring to the boil, keep stirring, it will boil over.

Let it cool slightly, or not if you are pouring from a turkish coffee pot, with the nice long handle.

Put sauce containers all over your bench and pour a good 30 of them. Leave the lids off, let those suckers cool right down to room temp.

Then put lids on them all. I then stack them in towers of 8. I put each stack of 8 into a 80mm wide PP bag, I fold the bottom under and I put them in my PC. So I tend to PC four towers of 8, each in their own bags. Also, put your scalpel or pin or knife or tweezers or lock picking tool into a PP bag, add a drop of water and roll up, put that in your PC too. You could seal the bags up with sandwich bag twist ties.

Let the PC come to heat until it's blowing steam with gusto. Then add the weight. Once the weight starts dancing set your timer for 60 mins and set the temp right so the weight is just dancing a little.

After 60 mins, turn off the heat.

Come back the following day to a completely cooled PC and carry it to your running hood. Open it in your hood and get to work.

If you don't use all your plates, don't worry, they are double sealed from contams.

[Psylo]

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Edited March 23, 2013 by Psylo

[Darklight]

Why does mycology bring about so many perceived complications, and people worrying about the most insignificant details? Seriously, what type of scalpel to buy... doesnt warrant an answer.

Because when you're starting out in any new field it takes a while to understand which details are important and which are trivial. It's fair enough IMO

There's a fair bit to understand in myco if you've no experience

Did someone really ask about the scalpel blade thing? It's a fair enough question tho. I always advise beginners use the one piece blades and handles prewrapped and sterile. Lots of accidents happen in working labs around ppl putting new blades onto handles, and it's a potential contam point as well

[endorfinder]

On that note, GET SHARPS BINS if you're going to be doing myco work. The bins that remove scalpel blades without touching them are particularly cool

[Bigred]

This thread was to do with the containers and where to get them from, as long

as they are ppe 5 there should not be a problem. I really dont know why some people

are getting anoid about this thread, we were all noobs once.

[Psylo]

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Edited March 23, 2013 by Psylo

[Psylo]

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Edited March 23, 2013 by Psylo

[Bigred]

But you know how agar is everyone develops there on style after a while,

[goneski]

I've come across a few people now who are far less fastidious than I, and they're always getting contaminations.

I haven't had any contaminations yet.

Why be lazy, cut corners, etc and get contaminations when you'll possibly be left wondering wtf you did wrong?

Do it right the first time, reduce the number of variables that cause failure. Once you're confident, cut corners a little to see

what you can get away with.

I fuss over the small details because whatever makes life easier is worth doing, and I want to get things right and minimise

failure. Taking a little extra time, and paying more attention to detail and being successful is worth it. Why do a half-arsed job

and be left with contaminated spawn or bulk substrate? Again, I keep seeing people who get pissy because all they seem to produce are contams -- and these are the same

people who don't pay any attention to detail whatsoever.

By paying attention to detail, if/when I do get a contamination, I can assess it much better, and have a high probability of determining whether or not it was the print, or some

other factor was the source of the contam. Pretty simple reasoning, really. Expend a bit more effort now, rather than later wondering 'was it from not using gloves, was it the print,

was my transferring technique not quick enough or appropriate? Was it some other variable?' and then having to start all over and try to eliminate possibilities. Help to eliminate

possibilities/variables at the onset.

I recently had a couple of people over who did some g2g transfers to show me their style, which was quite lazy. Sure enough, the jars contaminated. Awesome. Back to square

one.

Who gives a shit about people fussing over scalpel blades? There was a thread several years ago discussing blades, yet no one got up in arms over it.

Some people were saying they preferred blade #x because it worked better for picking up agar wedges. Good for them. Thanks for the tip.

Edited February 11, 2013 by SYNeR

[Darklight]

I disagree with you. It's unreasonable to be at a point of absolute panic or stress over such trivial matters.

We'll just have to agree to disagree then. To me it just sounds like you're shirty cos people learn differently from you

I've taught sterile tek at a professional level one-on-one to more than a dozen n00bs over my career, and worked with lots more with different experience. It's amazing what comes up, and what becomes important where. For example, in one lab I worked in there were two *pipetting* techniques. One for genetics work, and one for sterile work. I have no idea if the sterile work tek would compromise the genetics work, but I'd flip if I ever saw that tek being used in the lab I managed, or the one I run now as the potential for contamination in that work is high using the genetics tek. The genetics ppl felt the same about the sterile pipetting tek.

It's a matter for people to work out what's comfortable, convenient and successful for their own situation, and that takes time and a lot of questions.

I reckon about 5% of people will never ever learn any tek because they are obsessed with asking unproductive questions rather than just trying stuff and keeping good enough records and not worrying about failures. But this too is situation dependent. People have different time and financial constraints and expectations of success. If a few good questions after UTFSE give them the confidence to continue I'm all for it.

Seriously, if you don't like watching people ask questions that make you cross, you'll need to give up teh interwebz

To the panicky people who may read this, and are just getting into it, I have this advice. Tell yourself that mycology IS NOT COMPLICATED.

You're right. Once you have experimented, had a few failures, understand the basic philosophy behind myco it's quite forgiving, much more so than aseptic plant work. But getting a sense for it is rarely immediate. And a lot of it is rote, which takes a few successes to get sometimes

Understand what these products (and others) actually do in the process, and you qill quickly realise that any number of locally available substitutions are possible.

Well, yes. Myco work is forgiving as I've said. But again, why not ask if you're not sure? For example I can't count the number of times I've had to reiterate that it's the *final concentration* of bleach that's important. We use 1.5% final concentration of bleach, calculated from the stated % of bleach on the bleach bottle. Lots of people believe it's a solution of 1.5% of the contents of the bleach label, which is never 100% anyhow and differs from brand to brand.

If you don't like questions you regard as stupid, you'll need to give up teh interwebz. And probably TV too

Also bear oin mind that although he is a legend in the field, and has a wealth of information & knowledge to share, Roger Rabbit often takes the discussion of contamination vectors way too far into the realm of exaggeration. Buy his video, for sure, it's the best $10 a new mycology student will ever spend, but don't think you need to be as fastidious as he is when it comes to transfers etc.

Ooh thanks for the reference

But you know how agar is everyone develops there on style after a while,

Oh hell yes, so true. I've worked with people in sterile tek whose technique gives me the absolute horrors, and most ( but not all ) of them got the same results in the end. For me it's often a matter of walking away and waiting for 2 weeks to see if their tek is causing any problems, or assessing whether it's of actual benefit to me if it doesn't

[Darklight]

The bins that remove scalpel blades without touching them are particularly cool

This. They hold about a hundred blades and are easy to use and work really well if you put the blade right side up

Anyone who can invent a similar device which safely puts disposable scalpel blades onto handles is going to make a motza. One miss putting on a scalpel blade and you risk a deep surgical cut. You'll appreciate safety much more after it too

[Psylo]

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Edited March 23, 2013 by Psylo

[Darklight]

Ooh thanks for the reference

Actually I was being sincere. Sorry if that was confusing. It's a good reference

[NSF]

This is a side track but I really think we educate new comers to mycology the wrong way around. We go in the same way as the mushroom lifecycle but really we should do it in reverse.

We should help people make their fruiting rooms and encourage people to buy ready to fruit blocks.

Then once they pass that, they go backwards to grain inoculation of substrate and substrate prep.

Once they are successful, go to grain to grain.

Then last and hardest is sterile tissue work...which is the bit we're currently discussing. In my opinion it's the easiest to get wrong and the most disheartening when it goes wrong, as it prevents all other parts of the life cycle from being possible.

Edited February 12, 2013 by NSF