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I did every thing as the website I got them from said, but the thing I thought might have gone wrong was the amounts of water and cormeal I put in. Does anyone know of a recipe I can follow.Also do I put in the whole starter culturing into the mix? Thanks you

Do you have any starters left?

If so, get some plain quaker oatmeal and make a single serving with no salt, milk or butter. Just oatmeal and water. Add a little more water so it is more runny than thick. You may be able to get away with instant oatmeal, but I don't like using that since I think it has other stuff like powdered milk or even salt. Stove top, one-minute oatmeal is the best.

Get a container like one of those square disposable Glad containers, or two, and pour only a half inch of oatmeal in. You can pour while it is warm, but not cold otherwise it will get too thick.

Take some ordinary brewer's yeast and sprinkle a little from one packet on top of the oatmeal - like, maybe 1/3 packet. Tightly wrap up that packet so you can use more later and store in the fridge.

Once the oatmeal is at room temp, take the tip of a teaspoon worth of culture and gently dip it in a few spots on top so you scatter it around. Then, store it in a warm spot, poking just a few holes in the lid for air. I placed mine under a lamp for warmth. This will make the culture grow faster.

Now, you wait. If you put it in a nice warm place, you may see the top glistening the next day if you look just at it from just the right angle. This is thousands of worms moving about. Within a couple of days, you should start to see them moving up the walls. This means their numbers are big. At this point, you can take a wooden stick, scrape the sides and then swish that into your fry tank (if that's what they are for). I shut the filter temporarily so they didn't get sucked up, but no more than 5 minutes.

You should start a second culture a few days apart. It should last a good week or more, but if it goes bad it will go bad fast. This is why you should always have two cultures going several days apart.

If you have even a few live worms left in your starter culture that should get you going. Storing them at cooler temps, like in the fridge can slow their growth.

How long have you had the starter? Once you take from it, you may want to store in the fridge, but make sure you open to give them air a couple times daily if they are in a tight fighting jar. Once you get your own cultures going, you can dispose of them. You don't want to feed your fry bad cultures. When they smell strong, they are bad, but I found I can still start a new one with a small dip of them.

Good luck

[span class="edited"][Edited by Cory_Di 2004-07-07 22:12][/span]

I put the entire starter in. Would that be why it failed?

Oh no - does that mean you have none left? Is there anything living on that cornmeal? Look down at an angle near a light and you should see a glistening appearance. Does it stink?

If you have some yeast in your house sprinkle a little over the top for now.

Unfortunately, you may need to get another starter culture. I got mine complete with a care sheet from this place.

http://www.biosierra.com/Catalog/bugpages/4048.html

If I had any left I'd send you some, but I didn't need them anymore and it was a pain to keep the culture going.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Cory_Di 2004-07-08 07:54][/span]