prevent condensation in petri dishes

[SharkieJones]

I've got a deluge of condensation in my petri dishes. I've been wanting to take some pics and show ya but the condensation is too great. Is this bad or good? How can I avoid this? The dishes are sealed with parafilm so it seems the condensation is there to stay. Will all this excess water harm the mycellium if it's prolonged? Thanks for any advice.

[slp]

Just always keep them upside down. Helps keep the agar moist too. slp/fmrc

[Hippie3]

stack em high
place extra dish on top
wait a few days
most will go away

[bassplar99]

Yep, I always stack em high in a column and only the top one gets condensation. I was told by a friend who works in a lab that you can simply shake the moisture off the lid before using.

[SharkieJones]

What do you mean shake the moisture of the lid? Pour the dishes wait to cool and then shake off the water?

[bassplar99]

I let them cool and then parafilm them shut. When I innoculate I gently shake the water off of the lid before placing it back onto the dish.

[SharkieJones]

I've turned my petris upside down and it seems to have cleared up the view of the mycellium. I can now take some pics for my fellow mycotopians. Thanks for the advice.

Originally Posted by fmrc

Just always keep them upside down. Helps keep the agar moist too. slp/fmrc

This is the only way I've experienced no condensation.

[xxanxx]

^Same here. I also incubate them on their sides(I believe RR suggested that?), which works well.

[AgareatedShrooms]

When I was looking around here I found the inspiration to cover my agar'd dishses with some saran wrap.... I keep them in a sterile tupperware container afloat on my terrarium's water floor. All in all the temp is just about perfect, mid eighties or so, and today when I wanted to cover my dishes with SW I noticed the condensation. When I moved the dish over on to the SW I noticed the water droplets had coelesced so to speak and were now terrorizing my baby mycellium. Like 42 hours since streaking. The water was cruisin on the surface of the agar, and I could clearly see that my bright white fluff looked kinda brown...

I red somewhere that if you expose mycelia to water directly they die... So Im asking, first is there a way to not have the condensation??? and secondly did I just basically annihilate one of my first dishes???

[golly]

Two things u can do to reduce condensation ,With new plates - pour at a lower temp..and once poured either keep em in an insulated container or stack them and just insulate the top one..
Stable temps while incubating help to keep condensation to a minimum..
i believe some peeps turn their plates upside down to keep water off the expanding myc as a last resort...

[wtoad]

I haven't had any of my dishes die off because of condensation, but it is annoying.

It's also a good vehicle for getting contams in dishes.

I've had bad luck at pouring at lower temps. In my case the dishes looked great until they went into the fridge after cooling completely. After being put in, they pretty much gave up half their moisture to condensation. Now the agar looks all granular. Which sucks, because pouring more plates sucks.

The best luck I have is to pour hot and stack your dishes 15 or so high while pouring. The added heat to the lid form the bottom of the new dish will keep the condensation from forming and also help push some of the moisture laden air out of the dish. Let them cool completely in the stack. After cooling, use the para film, which is porous to allow for gas exchange.
If you stick them in the fridge they always seem to condense, but with the hot pour and stack, once they warm back up, the condensation should be minimal.


In my experience at least...

[Lazlo]

If you stack your dishes on top of one another and keep the temperature 75-80 degrees, condensation doesn't happen. You don't even have to stack them actually. When they're done colonizing and ready to be stored in the fridge, wrap 2 or 3 dishes in foil neatly and mark the foil with a Sharpie of what you've got in there. This really helps to knock back the condensing in the plates while in the fridge.

i sometimes get condensation on my dishes when i remove it from the fridge once it cools down to room temp..

[m00n]

does anyone know how to stop petri dishes from condensation?
it gets TOO wet in side and the pieces of mushroom tissue dont
grow because its way too wet. I cant open it and pour the water out that will just make it contam.
I have some good PE specimens that NEED to be cloned but i cant do it
with all this excess water!

[teesus]

you can store them upside down after one or two days

[teesus]

you should use a small piece of tissue ,then it will stick on the agar upside down. if you using a bigger chunk, you should wait 2 days for the mycelia to fix the tissue on the agar, it might fall of if you store it upside down direkt after preparation.

[Hippie3]

stack them all vertically then place the plastic sleeve back over them all. Stacking them vertically keeps the top and bottom surfaces of touching dishes the same temperature, so condensation only forms on the sides, and the top dish of each stack. This amount of condensation is easily absorbed back into the agar over the first week.



It’s best to leave the flowhood running until the petri dishes have cooled, at which time they should be wrapped with parafilm unless you’re going to inoculate them right away. Be sure to wrap all dishes in parafilm as soon as you inoculate. Be sure to pour out any leftover agar right away, and wash the bottle very well. If it becomes solid in your bottle, you’ll be looking for a new one.

[Myc]

I find that incubating the dishes upside down eliminates condensation.

[Lazlo]

I like to stack mine like Roger has above, but sideways wrapped in a hand towel. No condensation at all.

[Hippie3]

sideways eh.
lids stay on good that way too ?

[Lazlo]

Oh yeah, once taped of course. Hehe.

I lay a hand towel inside of a shoe box evenly and then put the plates in there sideways in a stack. Then I wrap them with the excess towel and put the lid on the box. Works fantastic.