How do you grow bacteria using agar and a petri dish?
First you need to combine the dissolved and autoclaved agar with some sort of sterile nutrient medium, like tryptic soy broth or sheep’s blood or some sort of sugar (mannitol, sucrose, etc…). Then pour this mixture into the sterile Petri plates. Let them cool and solidify, usually overnight but at least several hours. Streaking: Then you should inoculate your plates with the bacteria you wish to study. Bacterial stocks usually are stored in liquids or on slant tubes. To do a typical inoculation, you should use a sterile applicator (an inoculating loop, inoculating needle, or a sterile toothpick). And get a barely visible bit of bacteria on it, then slide it along the line towards the side of the agar surface. Then heat and sterile your applicator (or get a new toothpick) and make another line that extends from the old line into a different direction along the side of the agar surface…the point here is to make a line that barely intersects the previous like so you make a line that i
