Sterile Inoculation Loops

Loop volume: 1 microlitre, calibrated

Length: 15 cm

Material: Moulded polystyrene

Sterilisation: Gamma irradiated

Reuse: Single use

Pack size: 20 loops

Ready to use: No flaming or cooling needed

A clean tool for moving spores onto agar

The loop is moulded from medical-grade polystyrene. The ring on the working end is calibrated to hold a set volume of liquid, so it picks up a consistent, tiny sample each time. The opposite end is a fine needle, useful for stabbing into a slant or lifting a single colony off a plate.

Because each loop is sterilised by gamma radiation and sealed in a bag, you skip heating a wire loop in a flame and waiting for it to cool. You open the bag, take a loop, and use it. That is the main reason home growers reach for the disposable version.

Loops come in rigid and flexible types. Rigid loops are firmer for streaking and stabs; flexible loops bend without snapping. Either works for picking up and spreading a sample.

Streaking spores onto an agar plate

Work in front of a still air box or flow hood, and lift the agar plate lid only as much as you need. Streaking drags the sample thinner and thinner across the plate, so toward the end you get single, well-spaced colonies you can later pick from.

1

Open one loop

Peel back the bag and take a single loop by the handle. Do not touch the loop or needle end against anything. Reseal the bag to keep the rest clean.

2

Pick up the sample

Touch the loop into your spore print, spore syringe drop, or liquid culture. The loop only needs to wet the ring. For mycelium already on agar, most growers cut a block with a scalpel, but the needle end can lift a small amount from the surface.

3

Streak across the agar

Glide the loop gently over the surface in a smooth line or spiral, moving outward so the sample thins toward the edge. Keep the pressure light. Pressing in gouges the gel and buries spores, which holds back germination.

4

Close up and dispose

Replace the plate lid, tape it, and label it. Throw the used loop away. Use a fresh loop for the next plate so you never carry one culture into another.

For a quadrant streak, use a fresh loop for each quarter and turn the plate about 90 degrees between them. That thinning across clean passes is what isolates single colonies. A metal loop is flamed between quarters; with disposables you just reach for the next one.

Keeping them sterile, and where they fall short

Store the loops in their resealable bag, kept closed, somewhere clean and dry at room temperature. While the bag is sealed and undamaged the loops stay sterile until you need them. Once a loop has left the bag and touched a surface, treat it as used.

A loop suits spores and liquid samples. For lifting a firm wedge of mycelium from agar, a scalpel gives a cleaner cut. The loop is not a measuring tool for your work here. The 1 microlitre figure is just the volume the ring holds, not something you dose by. These loops are lab equipment for microscopy and the lawful cultivation of gourmet and edible mushrooms, nothing more.