How long can an agar plate be kept if refrigerated?

Question

At what temperature do you recommend?

Answer 1

urm about two weeks (if i'm not mistaken and was paying enough attention to my lecturer... hehe). then it becomes too dry coz it's got a large water content. keep it refrigerated at 4oC. if you want to keep it longer, use a slant instead.

Answer 2

I suggest you make agar plates before using them, thats the best method to prevent any ambiguities. I usually keep pre-made plates at 4C. Off course the longer you keep the plate the more it will dry up and more chance to get contamination, but technically if you freeze, it can be stored for quite a while.

Answer 3

It depends on what kind of plate you have.

It it is non-selective, no specializing components that breaks down overtime, as long as it is not dry you can keep using it.

However, some media plates such as blood agar, there's limitation on how well the blood in the plate can keep. Gradient plates need to be use as fresh as it could. Antibiotics containing plates need to be used before the antibiotics renders inactive. which should base the information on the specification from the manufactor .

Answer 4

Til they get moldy.

At 4 degrees C.

If the agar contains antibiotics, I'm a little suspicious of them after a month or two and make fresh plates.

Answer 5

if its kept sterile, forever.

make it a good day.

Answer 6

for eternity!

Answer 7

This is hard to answer, but in a lab a recently worked in, we would keep them 2-3 weeks. You can't just make things sterile and expect them to stay that way, however a refrigerator does slow the time of bacterial growth down.

Freezing can be done and kept for years however.

Answer 8

As long as it remains sterile you may keep the agar plate in the refrigerator.

Answer 9

In our lab we kept our agar in 4C for 2 weeks after that time we dispose it already. We do not freeze our agar in the plates because it will break and may affect the analysis.