# FF culture question



## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

I have tried putting coffee filters, folded paper towels, and pieces of paper in the cultures. Everything that I have used falls down in the media after a while and is wet. Is it supposed to do this? Would excelsior be a better choice? I am not having a problem with production. I have a culture that I set up on 02/10 that is still producing.


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## RGB (Jan 15, 2006)

I've been using plastic craft mesh. The first culture i got had excelsior in it and it was pretty messy. I just cut up a sheet of craft mesh into interlocking squares and use those. I can make enough for two cultures from one sheet which costs like 12 cents. You could even re-use them if you feel like cleaning them.

Here's a culture i just started:










I know it doesn't give as much suface area as excelsior, but it seems to work pretty good.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

You can also use a folded paper plate, or index cards folded accordion style. The maggots will eventually eat these, but they work pretty well for a while. Excelsior is a pain. It always ends up shedding little pieces into the container that you dump the files into.


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## Blort (Feb 5, 2005)

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =parchment

I would be careful keeping cultures as long as you mentioned. It is almost a sure fire recipe for mites.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Anyone have an online resource for the craft mesh?


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2006)

I'm sure you could google up "Plastic Canvas" and find a few sites that sell online.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

It looks like the #10 mesh that walmart sells in the craft section. Its $.25 a sheet. I've got some I use for covering false bottoms.


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

I usually use just vinyl window screen. Often though as im trying to get flies out the whole mix will try to pour out if its a little on the wet side. This time i great stuffed (just a lil) the window screen to the sides of the cups so it atleast wouldnt get messed up if the media came loose.


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## WntrMute2 (Mar 3, 2005)

I've switched to filter floss or parchment paper with great results. No mess and both are easy to find.


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2006)

How about aspen shavings? Would you be able to get that?


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

khamul, lol, I thought Ella Baila Sol means "she dances alone". I didn't think it was a person's name.


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2006)

well you are right about that translation, its the name of the spanish singing group that sang that tune.


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

Ojavascript:emoticon(':lol:')
Laughingk, I get it now. That is what it means, but it is the name of a group. Ok :lol: Are you Spanish?


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2006)

Yes I am. Well, Hispanic American anyway. Not Spanish like from spain. But the group is was from Spain. I was born in Colombia.


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## Guest (Apr 1, 2006)

Blort said:


> I would be careful keeping cultures as long as you mentioned. It is almost a sure fire recipe for mites.


Doesnt seem that long to me thats only a few weeks longer than the "average" legnth of a month. Am I missing something?

Back to topic though. Ive used excelsior and FiberX wich is a compressd paper pulp that is sort of similar and I actually prefere the excelsior.

Matt


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

Okay, thanks for the tips. I will experiment with different things in the culture that won't collapse. I am experiementing with different media too, and hopefully I will settle on something that I like. I have used different media from different places, and one kind produced very well and for a long time. The other kind I am using now I am quite dissapointed with. Next I will try to mix up my own. I am going to set up more cultures than I need because I am getting new frogs, and I certainly can't afford a feeding crisis right now! I'm broke.

Khamul, I grew up in Texas and took three years of Spanish. It still is not enough for me to communicate with someone, but I love the language. My husband takes a mission trip to Nicaragua every summer. I have not gone because we have small children that I am not comfortable leaving for that length of time. But hopefully I will get to go in the future. I was thinking of signing us both up with some Spanish lessons, for him to help in his trip, bor me just because I like it.


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## Guest (Apr 1, 2006)

hehe, I took 6 years of french, 5th grade to 10th, and one more in college. Still not enough to even translate most of it. So good luck with that spanish. You seem to be good at it.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I'm using half of a "stack" of coffee filters per culture. So far so good. I was using 6 per culture, but that ended up with them falling over. I'd change to something reuseable, but I already have to clean mason jars when I make cultures, I really don't want to add somthing to that list.


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## RGB (Jan 15, 2006)

That's what i was thinking with the plastic mesh but i decided i'd rather just cut new ones instead of cleaning all the crap off the old ones.


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

Mike, you use Mason jars? I use the plastic culture cups and lids, but I don't wash any of them. I throw them all away. So I go through a lot of them. I am always interested in trading some plant cuttings or something for some more cups and lids.

I used just a few coffee filters and they collapsed in the culture. So using a lot of them helps with that? That is good to know. Thanks!


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Yep, good ol Mason Jars. I've never cared for the plastic cups because almost always when I harvest files, my culture will fall out. With Mason jars, if it does become dislodged, it'll get caught by the mouth of the jar. I buy 24 of the wide mouth jars and use them till they break. Costs less than 20 bucks to buy them and aside from water and time, there's no more money thrown at them untill I buy more.


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