Description
Make your own MEAG agar petri dish contamination-free.
General MEAG with Antibacterial powder information
This is a premium product revolutionising mushroom cultivation.
MEA with antibacterial powder is a gelatinous medium that is used to purify, germinate, isolate, and manipulate mushroom mycelium, reducing chances of contamination drastically due to its antibacterial compound.
We recommend MEAG with Antibacterial powder for the following:
- Germinating spores
- Isolating a specific strain of mushroom
- Purify mycelium from other contaminated agar plates
- Clone wild mushroom tissue, which has a likelihood of bacterial contamination
Quantity specifications:
These quantities are measured based on 90*15mm size Petri dishes:
The number of plates made will vary according to pouring techniques; we recommend using just enough to cover the surface of the petri dish if pouring plates for short term use, pour thicker so that it can store for longer without drying.
- 21 gm makes about 15 Agar Plates (Use 500ml of hot water)
- 42 gm makes about 30Agar Plates
- 63 gm makes about 45 Agar Plates
- 84 gm makes about 60 Agar Plates
- 168gm makes about 120 Agar Plates
Instructions
- Dissolve your MEAG packet in the specified ratio of hot water (i.e.1000 ml water for 42 gm of MEAG) and stir thoroughly with a long spoon. If you have a magnetic stirrer, this will mix the solution properly. The content needs to be poured slowly and not all at once.
- Autoclave or pressure cook for 20-45 minutes at 15 psi.
- After taking it out of autoclave, ensure the agar and mix does not settle at the bottom, we use a magnetic stirrer machine, to continuously stir the mix while its cooling. We use a infrared thermometer to check the temperature of the agar . If you use a magnetic stirrer machine, ensure you have added a magnetic stirrer bar into the regent bottle before sterilisation.
- Pour into Petri dishes when it reaches 50 degrees Celsius (Approximately hot enough to hold the flask/ jar with one hand). Agar will start to solidiy around 45. So this gives you a window of about 20-25 minute to pour your plates.
- Once the Petri dishes are set, inoculate them and wrap them with parafilm. Keeping the plates aside for a week is recommended to check for contamination.IF its your first try.
- Petri dishes are best to be stored upside down to avoid condensation.
- Petri dishes are poured in a still air box or in front of laminar flowhood.
Why use MEAG instead of just MEA?
Spores obtained from wild, homegrown, or trustable spore sellers Might include bacterial contamination. That is due to methods of spore collection, preservation, and transportation (Such as spore syringes and spore prints). In several cases, when spores are infected, they carry bacteria attached to them and introduce them to the Agar media. This will result in fast-growing bacterial spores that make it difficult for mushroom spores to germinate (as they are slower than bacterial spores).
On the other hand, when infected spores are introduced to MEAG, the mushroom spores will germinate and grow, leaving behind bacterial contamination. That is because the cells composing the mycelium (Hyphae) have long and sharp filaments, which carry reduced populations (if any) of bacteria when they pass through the MEAG.
Checkout our Pre-Poured Agar Plates category if you are not wanting to make your own plates.
Do not have a pressure cooker? You can also Microwave Sterilize , its a learning curve to use microwave but becomes easier with practice. Tip-you would need a smaller reagent bottle like 500ml so that it can fit your microwave. May be just make 10.5gms with 250ml of water for your initial try.
Please check our category Make Agar Plates, and see list of everything you would need to make your own plates at home.
You can also buy just the Antibacterial powder from our store.
