Alternatives to Agar for Growing Bacteria. DO I need it?
Bacterial plates need to contain at least 2 things: food for the bacteria and a “solidifying agent”, something to make it solidify. You will need both to have a successful experiment. So first the food. Most laboratory will use a yeast extract or other general nutrient broth. You can buy this online, e.g. see http://www.madsci.org/libs/areas/reagent… As an easier alternative would be beef broth (e.g. a soup carton, or the little cubes that you can dissolve to make broth). You can add a little sugar if you like. If you want to grow bacteria on a plate, secondly you will need to have a solidifying agent. Agar is the most commonly used solidifying agent, and it will give the best results. Agar is made of a certain type of seaweed. You need to use about 2 grams of agar in 100 ml of liquid medium. You can actually get that easily online. Simply type in “agar” and go to Google Shopping. But there are a couple of easi
