im anne halonium
some know me some dont.

this is our fert agar tek.
AKA " V -tek agar 4D masses"

this tek presents performance agar for a variety of applications.
as always , i present with pictures when possible.
for educational purposes only / all disclaimers apply.
kids dont try this at home................


once upon a time there were many formulas for agar.
ive tried them all.
some work better than others.
naturally my peeps demand performance agar.
so in the late 80s we developed this mix.
we have used this variation for over 25 yrs.........

im going to assume that my readers have basic kitchen skills,
basic cleanliness ,and im going to assume those reading have the safety awareness.

as with all my teks, if ya want my results, then follow the tek.
variations , produce different results.
i will not take questions for every type of agar on the web.

this tek is designed to provide performance agar with minimal effort, and an " easy supply / low energy use" profile.


as a bonus...........
included in this tek is an alt to agar , we call " fert millets".
a most useful and fun thing to make , youll be pleased.



all the luv to my peeps.
lets begin.

*making fert agars.

fert agars are simple and straight to make.
select a select a common NPK fert and mix as directed.
seriously , mix as directed.
then.
add 1 TBPS of BRF per pint of liquid.

^ thats the basic, you can juice it up with water from other boiled grains ,
or even other powdered grains.

next,
micro wave/ boil and add agar..........
use an extra large container as agar boils and bubbles wildly
container volume should be at least 5x the volume of agar.
watch it closely, in seconds it can boil over.
stir and boil until mixed well.
(this is the part where like ninja you master art of gel and microwave)

at this point , its a game to stir the stuff while hot and as it cools.
look at the pics,
its pretty easy to see how you can make liters easily in a half hour.

once the stuff is made, it can be used direct, or saved in a freezer.
reboil to re use.

at this point its a contest of containers and PC.

*tools and containers.


we use a variety of tools including screw drivers.
we also like torches.
we like any tool we can torch.

our favorite contianers are plastic.
you can use any container ya want if it survives a PC

*we strongly suggest a PC for agar.
we run all agar for 20 minits, it sterilizes fast.

pics show how we do polycarb culture bottles
the key is small agar big container, or youll regret it.
loose lids to PC on all containers

containers can be made to slant, or sit as is.
we do it both ways.

* handling

once sterilized , and cooled, cap lids tight for temp storage,
or prepare to innoc.

spores/ clones or even grain to agar is possible.

* growth

fert agars are fast.
fresh spores can germ in 2-3 days if fresh and correct temps.
cultres will show re growth about the same speed.


growth will be dense and rhizo.
strain selection and selecting rhizos are possible with ease.

fert agar cultures last for ages, mileage varies by conditions,
months of viability at room temp is common.
longer under better conditions.

larger cultures should be loose lids for slow air exchange.

* contams.

we use hepa filters whole room, and a SAB and face mask.
we also use bleach wipes for disinfecting SAB.

we suggest destroying any contamed cultures immediately.

* agar fruiting

agar fruitng is common with fert agars.
full spore adult specimens are common.

fert agar can even flush up to several times if allowed to sit.

even torn up waste fert agar will fruit.

this is a perfect way to get seriously sterile spore swabs.

* lighting.
dark or light , they colonize the same.
red light inhibits pinning, blue light makes em pin.

we often incubate under blue to search for invitro clones,
or to generate spores..........

we use 100% LED for all our grows.
for fruiting 450 nm blue LED is ideal.

bonus , fert millets.


common millet is boiled in fert water.
you may cut to container size.

millets are then stuffed into contianers, and PC 25 minits.

innoc and use like G2G , tweezers are a must for this.

these grow fast and dense.

* commentary............

the stuff works for us.


peeps dont be afraid of agar , its your friend.
a good agar farm is the key to a sustainable grow.

unlimited mycelia bolting over agar is now easy.


i have carefully selected the pics above.
now you too can make this stuff.
dont make it complex, its grain powder , some ferts , agar and water.



all the luv peeps.
questions specfically to agar accepted.

This should definitely dispel all agar-phobia! Txs for sharing, Anne.
Cant wait to try this!

Looks easy enough, just have to work on getting all the supplies I would need to do this. Thanks for the write up with pics anne, it's always nice to see what it should look like.

Anne, I'm sure you don't mind a bit of tag-team!


Anne's culture bottles are very cool and certainly a worthwhile investment.
Personally however I have used the same ziploc screw-top containers as the vtek for ALL of my agar and culturing uses. Essentially I just use the one container for the entirety of the grow process!

So here are some photos to show what that looks like, using these containers until upgrading to bottles etc. or just using these as one-piece-fits-all equipment!


The middle container shows how is best to keep the lid on these containers during pressure sterilization - slightly loosened! At LEAST an inch counter-clockwise loose is necessary to break the seal so that they can be pressure sterilized.
The container on the right is the MOST they CAN be loosened for any purpose - enough to where the lid doesn't come off when lifted, picking up the container as well.
The left container is Totally Sealed - as they should be after removing from the cooker, until and after inoculation until the contents are ready for use!

I put just about 25mL of grainwater agar, typically strained away from brown rice or grass seed boils and mixed with agar-agar powder, in each container.

Use .5g of agar-agar powder for each 25mL of solution!

After sterilization (I typically do 20-25 minutes at 15PSI) and the agar cools and solidifies, they can be inoculated in your still-air box or in sterile airflow.
Here I rained LOTS of spores from one of my sterile-taken prints on a single dish to start a round of heavy culturing:



These containers work excellently as multi-purpose agar dishes.

Violet, I can't see your pics?!

I do see them so the problem is prolly from your side.

That is strange, I can see pics elsewhere on the site.
Probably my Tor client screwing up..too bad!

Thanks for this anne, nice write up.

I will be using this when I get around to fungi and will probably have plenty of questions then.

Love the V Tek might give this one a try aswell

Thanks Anne,

I'm mostly experimenting with LC right now, but have been reading up on different agar teks and this one is really interesting. I don't think I've seen any others that begin to fruit!

Love seeing your stuff

if agar doesnt fruit prolifically,
id question it.

alot of things work to grow mycelia and shrooms.
replicate others, get the others results.

replicate annie, get annie results.
id suggest fruiting agar is the ultimate expression of vitality.