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Hello,

The fastest and best way to make agar plates is to get the nutrient broth and agar from your chemical supplire, in Qld Bayside chemicals have good items.
Mix 1.5g of the nutrient broth and 1g agar for every 100ml deionised water.

You can make about 12 plates with 300ml total water.

Place all the items into a 500 ml conical flask and place in the microwave for 60sec intervills. Generally takes about 3-5 minutes depending on the microwave.

When the agar starts to boil keep a close eye on it to prevent spillage, you want to wait until you get big bubbles so just stop and start the microwave till you get these bubbles and then it is ready to pour using genreal aseptic technique.

I have never had any contanimation issues with this method and always good growth.

Regards
Michelle

Hi

Just to let you know. I asked about making nutrient agar last year and got many tips that were very useful.

i used one of the recipes on this thread and the microwave for sterilizing and it was cheap and easy to do.

The thread is on Chemistry and General forum page 2 - the last post was Aug last year. There are some great recipes here.

Cheers

Thanks Nikki

I asked the question about agar plates last week and you have given me exactly what I was looking for.