Hi --
We are having trouble with our OP50 lawns being 'crusty' -- that is,
they
form a hard surface that the worms have a hard time moving around on.
The
worms often get under the crust, which is a pain, and it 'chips' off
like
paint chips, which makes worms difficult to manipulate. We have been
pouring
and spotting plates for years with no problem, and have gone back to
frozen
strains of OP50 with no big improvement seen. We have grown the
bacteria in
LB and Hershey broth with similar results. We did move to new lab space
recently, but the problem started a couple months later.
Has anyone ever encountered this problem? If you found a solution to
it, we
would be eternally grateful if you would share it with us. We are
starting
to suspect witchcraft... Thanks!
Liz Ryder
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