Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) Plates for Mushroom Cultivation (10 Pre-Poured Agar Plates)

I have bought these agar plates 5 times now, and not had any contaminated plates. Very satisfied with this product. I just wanted to add the photo and explanation I bought the agar plates in the photo on Dec. 1st 2022. Today is Nov. 29th 2023! I lost this box of plates in a move and just rediscovered them today. After a year of sitting around at room temp, they are all perfectly clear! There is a little moisture inside two of them, but otherwise they are like brand new! I'm not going to push my luck and use them. I will recycle the plates with my own agar. But I feel that the cleanliness of this product required mentioning.

They did what they were supposed to. They arrived sterile and grew mold when exposed to air for one hour. If testing for mold this ten pack is the way to go. One placed into the center of each room 3-4 feet off the floor in the house opened for 1 hour. Then sealed in a zip lock sandwich bag. Label them and place them in a drawer or cabinet (Dark) for 5-7 days then examine the plates for mold. Remember to also place one outside as a control. In our case the air outside produced 100 times the amount in the house. The air outside was bad. In this case best to use 3M furnace filters to filter air that gets in the house, or use an air cleaner like Winix. . * You can compare mold sample to pictures found on the internet to determine what kind of mold it is or send them to a lab if you have a serious issue ($40ea Ouch).

any other company you order from is going to show up broken, Spilled Out, Wet, contaminated plates. everybody says you should never buy agar plates off Amazon because it's kind of self-explanatory that you need clean sterile durable non-compromised plates. but this company sends them perfect every time! the quality of the radar is amazing the stability of the gel it doesn't fall apart it doesn't leak, I've never had a problem and I order all the time from them after having problem after problem with every single other order I've ever gotten from someone else for agar plates! I wouldn't be able to do what I do if it wasn't for these guys with their plates because I can't make it myself and I need it to be available to me next day when I'm ready at the last minute!

These started out much better than what I experienced with my last order. I use these a lot for agar work in mycology, and honestly it’s easier for me to purchase them than pour my own. Unfortunately, 2 out of 10 plates were bad right out of the box, and the other 8 were extremely dry. My mycelium could barely colonize because there was almost no moisture left in the plates, or they may have simply been poured too thin. I reached out to EZ Bio customer support and initially did not receive a response. I had politely asked if they could include a few replacement plates with my next order and provided pictures. I was also set up on Subscribe & Save.Sadly, the first 5 orders were much better. ————-update———- Update: The reseller eventually contacted me and did a great job resolving the issue by offering either a refund or a replacement order free of charge. EZ Bio also eventually responded and stood behind their product. Customer support is a huge part of purchasing decisions for me, and because they made it right, I will continue buying from them. So far, my latest order seems back to the original quality standards. I think I may have simply received a bad batch.

The good: Presentation and shipping was great. The dishes were clear clean and were in a ziplock bag. The suppliers respond to inquiries quickly but will respond to your question with more questions and don't provide solutions so if your into that kind of thing you are in for a real treat. The bad: Waste of money sadly. Nothing grew on the medium on any of the plates not even a hint of bacteria. The plates have been exposed to all kinds of contaminents and it's been well over a week now. It was a bust and I ended up throwing them away. I thought this would be a good alternative to be lazy and just get straight into agar without all the prep work. Sadly looks like homebrew is the way to go. :(

I've purchased these 6 times over the past few years and 4 of those times the plates arrived in perfect condition. My second order with them a few of the plates showed some condensation and became contaminated quickly after using them, but most were fine and I continued to purchase their product. This last purchase (this weekend) the entire bag was full of condensation, each plate has huge water droplets and the agar itself is visually off on many of the plates, like someone overcooked the media or poured it too early. They may be usable time will tell but for $20 anything less than what I've come to expect (clean, evenly poured/cooked and without condensation) is unacceptable. It's a bit of a gamble buying agar plates online, these served me well as a beginner and the convenience is undeniable but I won't be purchasing again after this order.

Pretty darn clean plates so far. No contam issues on my first purchase. Will buy again.

None of these plates contaminated and they lead to healthy, viable mycelium.