We are using membrane filtration to dilute and plate our samples. Wondering what is best - to plate individual 0.1mL samples per funnel with 100 mL of diluent or add 0.3mL of sample to 300mL diluent and distribute over 3 filter funnels?
Even when bacteria is well mixed in a sample you will not get the same number of cells with every sample due to the distribution of the cells.
With taking 3 smaller samples you can increase the chances of getting a more diverse representation of your original, but also increase the chance of contamination and decrease consistency in plate counts between your samples.
With taking a larger sample you can increase your consistency between plate counts, but potentially limit the diversity.
What are your thoughts on this?
My hypothesis is that it is better to take three smaller samples to see them individually and to also recognize varying factors like human errors, mistakes, and differensions among each sample in comparison.
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