How To Prepare Plant Cell Tech Agar

Table of Contents

What is in our Agar?

Plant Cell Technology Agar is a polysaccharide complex that is harvested the Red Alga Rhodophyceae. The polysaccharide complex is harvested with hot water extraction and undergoes bleaching. With our Supreme Grade Agar, you will have increased clarity for your plant culture media.

Agar is best used in MS media at 0.7% concentration and it has a typical usage rate of 6 - 12 g/L medium.

Why is it Relevant in the Tissue Culture Process?

When working with plant tissue culture media, there are several components that should be included:

• Macronutrients
• Micronutrients
• Vitamins
• Amino acids or nitrogen supplements
• Carbon sources
• Undefined organic supplements
• Growth regulators
• Solidifying agents

The latter on the list, the solidifying agent, is where agar is most relevant. This solidifying property is needed to an essential role in solidifying the culture medium, and this has a domino effect on how your cultured tissues will grow and develop.

What are Agar’s Advantages over other Gelling Agents?

When you mix Agar with water, the Agar has a melting range of between 60 and 100 degrees Celsius and a solidifying point of 45 degrees Celsius. Another advantage is that Agar will not react with media concentrations between .8% and 1.0%.

The perfect medium for your tissue culture operation will need to have the right gel transparency and strength. When using Agar as a medium, the strength should not be less than 800g/cm2 while the transparency should not exceed 10 Nephelometric turbidity units.

How Does Our Agar Compare to the Competition?

Some cultivators use an alternative, Phytagel, instead of Agar as their gelling medium in tissue culture processes. If you want to know which is better, that answer is not so simple. It depends largely on the specific details of the application and specific tissue culture operation.

Take a look at this list of the agar product options on the market. There are several competitors offering fairly similar products, however, the PCT agar comes at just a fraction of the price. Usually, this would sound alarm bells - but here’s the thing, we even offer our certificate of analysis to show you that despite the prices being alarmingly affordable in comparison to other market options, our agar quality is disarmingly exceptional.

Phytotech - 1kg = $210.89, 5kg = $755.51

Bio world - 1kg = $132, 2.5kg = $298.30 , 5kg= $596

Caisson - 1kg = $111.63, 5kg = $553.09

Carolina - 500 g = $137.50, 1KG = $254.35 (COA is upon request only)

Sigma - 1kg = $324 , 5KG = $1300

And what about Plant Cell Technology’s Supreme Grade Agar?

100g = $22

500g = $55

1kg = $85

As you can see, the competitors’ Agar has a remarkably similar composition to our more affordable Agar. We offer quality at a price that is unrivaled in the marketplace.

Why?

Because we are here for you - the growers, the cultivators, and even the hobbyists who are passionate about plants. Because that’s what we are all about.

Do you have any questions? Our team here at PCT is always happy to help, and feel free to let us know how our Agar has done wonders for your tissue culture operations.