The nutrition used is extra light malt extract (ELME). Just enough to keep the mycelium happy but motivated to explore in search of more food, resulting in a healthy culture that spreads quickly across the plate.

Mycelium tends to grow faster and more vigorously on malt extract compared to other mediums making it the go-to for many mycologists. All variations of malt extract contain the same nutrition, but ELME is the clearest.

Please note: Plates will most likely arrive with some condensation. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable due to temperature fluctuations in transit. Condensation will not affect performance and cultures can be inspected from below for a clear view. It is best to store your plates upside down at a stable temperature to prevent build-up.

The Process:

At Centrifungal we take great pride in producing a premium product.

We lay the groundwork for consistent plates by mixing a combination of both filtered and distilled water with agar plus some nutrition for the mycelium to digest. We then encourage the ingredients to blend by gradually heating the mixture to 95°C, continually stirring until everything has dissolved. The mixture is then strained and decanted into bottles. We autoclave at 121°C for 25 minutes as this is optimal to achieve total sterilisation while avoiding caramelisation of the sugars, ensuring a clear pour.

Before pouring, the bottles are cooled to 40°C in front of a H14 laminar flow hood inside a positively pressurised lab to minimise condensation forming on the plates.

After pouring, each triple-vented 90mm dish is wrapped in cling film to keep contamination at bay and prevent drying, given a kiss and they're ready to ship!

Why a mix of distilled and filtered water?

We try to mimic nature as closely as possible and rainwater most resembles filtered water as it contains trace minerals. Distilled water is sometimes called "hungry water" because it is completely devoid of any minerals, so it will want to pull anything it can from its surroundings. Since distilled water is slightly acidic, like rainwater, we add some to slightly lower the PH making the agar simultaneously more suitable for mycelium and naturally antibacterial.