I am a homeschool student working on biology. I need a recipe for a very easy agar on which I can grow mould. One perferably with ingredients from the kitchen. Thank-you.
Agar, being an extract of red alga, is hardly something normal people would have lying around the kitchen.
However, as we bachelors know all too well, you don’t need fancy ingredients to grow bumper crops. Just about any old food left lying around will do. Here’s a site with instructions for a mold “terrarium.”
http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/mold.html
Fun for all ages.
Nick? Do you have, like, warnings posted regarding food prepared in your house? Do you have dates sign a waiver of liability?
Sella,
this is pretty easy… and just about the first nutient growing surface in biology. Go to the grocery store and get some pectin used in canning jams (or unflavored geletin) follow the directions on the package only instead of using water use chicken broth (a no salt chicken broth from a can as the salt will inhibit growth) use a little less broth for a firmer medium. pour this into sterile petrie dishes (that laura petrie sure was a dish!!) or any sterile covered dish, let set up and your ready to use! The only downfall (and this is what finally sent scientists looking for another medium) is that some bacteria will liquify gelitin so you wont see cultures growing… but then you know you have a protease producing bacteria that digests the protein in geletin!! and thats a test USED in identifying bacteria!
The wisest man I ever knew taught me something I never forgot. And although I never forgot it, I never quite memorized it either. So what I’m left with is the memory of having learned
something very wise that I can’t quite remember. -George Carlin
B_Line12,
Thank-you! I knew it was something easy and simple. Much Appreciation.