Agar recipes
agar recipes
The idea is that you are growing on a 2-dimensional plane (the agar surface) instead of a 3-dimensional substrate (PF cake, grain in jars, etc.) On the flat surface of the agar, contaminates cannot hide from you. You can isolate clean mycelium from dirty prints. You can also clone fragments of tissue, do breeding experiments by isolating single spores and select and propagate specific isolates. Agar is also often used for the storage of favored strains. Just pop them in the fridge for several months.
Agar culture is just a more powerful and precise way of doing things. If you like control, agar is for you. If not, just inject your spores and cross your fingers ;) "