plate/tube condensation

[jsled]

I'm having a heck of a time with condensation in my plates and slants. I waited until my wort/agar was near its gelling temp (which turned out to be too long, so now I have a bunch of interesting (read: useless) 3d plate surfaces, but that's not the point), but it didn't seem to help at all. I have my plates and slant-tubes in a 80°F ± 2°F make-shift incubator, but even … 4+ days later, both still have *lots* of condensation internally. Plates are vented poly, tubes have the caps as loosely fitted as I can get away with.

Any recommendations or advice?

 

[postal_penguin]

Are you storing/incubating the plates upside down so the condensation drips onto the lid rather than back onto the media? With an incubator like that you are going to saturate the air with humidity.

One way we dry out plates is to place them in our cold rooms for a few days and the dry, cold air will dry out the plate. An alternative is to place them in a non-humidified incubator and within a day or two you can completely desiccate the media. You could replicate this by leaving the lid on your incubator open. Or you can set your oven to its lowest setting, let cool to about 100 and stick the plates in.