Well, if the problem is only the drying, I would wrap the plates in more
layers of plastic and keep them at +4 in the dark and, as Judy indicated,
test them about every month after 6 months or so. I am more concerned about
contamination that might eventually take over unless you poured and wrapped
your plates in the strictly aseptical environment such as sterile hood,
which you probably did not. You have nothing to loose, so you can certainly
try anyway, but be prepared to eventually have to poor new plates after all.
:-)
Emir
"JEDilworth" <bactitech at nospamhortonsbay.com> wrote in message
news:3DEE6C52.D3CA1B43 at nospamhortonsbay.com...
> Not until Spring, 2004. When we made home-made media without blood
> enrichment in our medical microbiology laboratory we used to put an
> outdate of six months on them. You can try subbing organisms on to them
> periodically to see if they still work. Even if you wrap them in
> plastic, the plastic will breathe and the plates will end up getting
> dried out.
>> How are you keeping the organisms alive? Are you planning on using this
> media? It will work for awhile, but you'll seriously need to consider
> freezing at -70 Degrees F (or minimally at -20 degrees F but that
> doesn't work that well), or subbing weekly to media. At about the six
> month mark you'll probably be making a new batch of media to sub onto.
> Why not make some slants? Those will store your subs better. What
> organisms are you saving?
>> I'm sure other people on the group will have ideas also.
>> Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP)
> Microbiology
>>> Sara Caldwell wrote:
> >
> > We poured too many plates for microbiology this term. We want to keep
> > the cultures we have alive till spring of 2004 when the class is next
> > taught. How long will the following refrigerated un-inoculated plates
> > keep? Brain Heart Infusion, MacConkey, Nutrient, and Tripticase Soy
> > Agar plates?
