Obtaining or Making Agar for Germination

[Dart21]

Would anyone have any homemade recipes for an agar-agar based germination mixture? In particular I have some Ophrys apifera seeds that I am looking to propagate. I have access to a laboratory facility through school and I have all the equipment necessary for proper sterile procedures at home (pressure cooker, alcohol sprayer, glove box, bleach solutions, etc...)

I've also purchased some agar flakes from the local Whole Foods in hopes that I would be able to use these in my various mycology experiments OR for orchid prop.

---------- Post added at 11:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:20 PM ----------

I've stumbled upon this site in my pursuit so far; Ophrys, Serapias, Comperia and Mediterranean Orchis

I plan to use their recipe, but anything a little more simple or explanatory would be greatly appreciated. The more types of medium to experiment with the higher my chances of success with at least one is the way I see it.

[OCRC_Dir_China]

You can go to the Social Group and then go to Flasking ect…. I posted some easy basic vitro formulas there.

[Dart21]

Wow, these are wonderful and exactly what I was looking for!

Is there a particular mix you would recommend for something like an Ophrys?

Is Agar flakes that I purchased at the local Whole Foods Health Store going to be sufficient or will I need a finer grade of Agar?

How do you go about sterilizing once you have mixed? Would I throw the mix into a glass jar and potentially pressure cook it sealed off and then proceed to pour the mix into flasks... or would it be suitable to simply create the mix, put it in the flask, seal the flask off and pressure cook the entire thing?

Thanks so much for the information, sorry for all the questions :-P

[OCRC_Dir_China]

Food grade or health food grade agar will work…….

As for sterilizing; make up the formula you that intend to use. When you heat the formula in say a pan, bring it to a gentle boil; now you are ready to load your vessel/flask remember to keep stirring the vitro as you poor so its contents stay uniformed. When the vessel/flask are loaded you can autoclave but do seal the vessel/flask to autoclave, we use some common aluminum foil to cover them during autoclave.