Steps to Gourmet Mushrooms Cultivation:
- Cindy
- Jun 29, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 19, 2022
The first step in mushroom cultivation is to obtain a mycelium culture for the strain of mushroom that you are looking to cultivate. Mushroom mycelium is available from many online sellers and we are one such supplier. We make available for purchase the same cultures that we use in our commercial production.
Types of cultures:
There are many types of culture types that are available and one that has come into favor as of late is the use of liquid culture. This is a culture that is grown out in a sterilized water suspension consisting of different formulas that provide nutrients (primarily sugars) that the mycelium will consume as it expands. This method of expansion has many benefits and a couple of drawbacks.
Benefits of liquid culture include, large volume of culture to work with in a condensed form. The solutions are usually made in various sizes of mason jars depending upon the quantity needed. Liquid culture is easy to draw up in syringes which will contain the mycelium and can be used to inoculate whatever grain spawn formulation you choose to use. The mycelium is able to expand and grow out faster in a three dimensional environment versus a two dimensional environment, such as a petri dish.
Some of the drawbacks with liquid culture is that it is very difficult to know if it is contaminated until you use it for grain inoculation. Seeing as how both liquid culture and grain spawn can be quite expensive and valuable to your grow, buying quality samples is of the utmost importance. Additionally, each time you want to use the culture you have to insert a sterilized needle into the jar (or open the jar for direct pour; not recommended unless you have a very sterile work environment). This action creates a possible contamination point each time you go to use it. In order to test a liquid culture you will need to inoculate a small amount into a small jar of sterilized grain to allow it to grow out or test a few drops on an agar plate.
Mycelium Cultures can also be obtained in the form of inoculated petri dishes that contain a living culture that is growing out on an agar formula poured into the plate. There are benefits and drawbacks for this method as well.
Benefits include very fast results which are visible within an average of one to three days. This is a good way to identify if contamination may be present in the culture, and if you are working with a isolate (one culture) or multi culture. More on petri dishes and culture sectoring in a future post. Grown out plates can be cut up and used to inoculate jars of liquid culture, grain spawn, even direct to fruiting substrate as well as to additional plates to expand.
Drawbacks include, limited expansion room, and limited nutrients for the culture to absorb. Plates can dry out rather quickly and this will affect the viability of the culture you are or are planning to grow out. Many people struggle when working with agar and petri dishes. It can be difficult to work with when making and pouring your own plates. It takes practice and patience to develop the skills needed for consistent results.
Grain spawn is also another way to obtain cultures:
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