Put 2.5 grams of Wheat Grass Powder (see below) in 1 liter of
water, bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes.
Filter through a Mr. Coffee Filter to remove the powder. This
works quicker with a vacuum filtering apparatus, but it isn't necessary.
If you DO use a vacuum, you must take precautions to keep steam out of the vacuum pump.
Mix 100 ml of a 10 g/liter Sodium Phosphate (Na2HPO4) with
900 ml of the filtered solution. Distribute into flasks and
autoclave for 15 minutes at 15 pounds pressure with a slow exhaust.
I use 1 liter flasks and put 500 - 600 ml in each one.
The day before use, inoculate a flask with bacteria (Klebsiella
aerogenes or Aerobacter aerogenes) and incubate
overnight. The next day the medium will be ready to add Paramecium
to. They grow best at 27o C.
The medium will be cloudy when you inoculate but will clear up was the
ciliates eat the bacteria. Often a scum will form on the
top. For most of the exercises described in this web site, it will
not hurt anything and is difficult to get rid of in any case.
Wheat Grass Powder can be obtained from Pines Distributors
International, P.O. Box 1107, Lawrence, KS 66044.
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You can buy Wheat Grains and Straw from Biological Supply Houses
like Carolina or Wards. Use Spring Water, not tap water for this
medium. To about 10 - 20 wheat seeds and a little bundle of straw
about 1.5 inches X 0.5 inches add 500 ml of Spring Water and boil the
mixture. Just bring it to a boil and then remove from the heat and
let it cool.
Add a culture of Paramecium to the mixture. At fist the
bacteria you transfer with the ciliates will brow faster and the medium
will become very cloudy. But then usually the medium gets
relatively clearer as the Paramecia reproduce and eat the
bacteria.
Sometimes these cultures will smell pretty bad, but if there are
Paramecia in the culture, that's ok. Infrequently the Paramecium
will die out when a bacterium they don't eat very well grows in the
culture and uses up all the oxygen.
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