Hey AFN Fam. Here's a tek that I will be re-working for everyone here. This is definitely where you will want to start if you plan to grow mushrooms. Buying spore syringes can be expensive, and spores suck to work with anyways. They are SLOW. One spore syringe can create 10 liquid cultures which can be used to make 100 liquid cultures which would last for God only knows how long (years if stores properly). Will be adding more info and new methods but here is a good place to start once you have a spore syringe. You will be forever glad you made a Liquid Culture.
So, the first question many people ask is how to make One spore syringe go as far as possible. To do this you will want to make a Liquid Culture. What you are doing when you create an LC is giving your spores a liquid medium to grow in which you can later use a syringe to pull Living Culture from as needed. There are many advantages to having made a LC. The colonization times from LC will be dramatically faster than starting from spores. A LC is Living Mushroom fungus that is past the stage of spores, and germination. You don't have to wait for spores to germinate using an LC. Spore mating, and germination can actually take a long time. When you shoot spores into a medium two Compatible spores have to come together to create mycelium. Not all spores are compatible, and even when they find mates they have to fight other strains for dominance. In an LC this is already done. You have good living mushroom fungus to work with. I want to start by saying that LC's from spores can be a crap shoot. Not all methods work for everyone. Starting from spores is a pain either way though, so getting an LC down is the best thing you can do for yourself starting out.
First we'll start with the materials needed to make a simple LC.
- Corn Syrup.(found cheap at any food store). Honey will also work, but can cause sediment making it hard for the beginner to tell good mycelium from a contamination.
- Malt Extract is optional, but a tiny bit will up the success rate of these LC's by 50%.
- Baby bottles with screw off tops, and rubber nipples, and caps.(I get them from the dollar store)
- RTV high temp silicon. (found cheap at any hardware, or automobile store)
- A pressure cooker is really necessary for this. You can try boiling, but I doubt you will have any success. There are ways to make it work but it is alot of work and takes alot of time. If you are starting out just save yourself the frustration, and headache, and get a Pressure Cooker.
That's all you need. So. Baby Bottles, Corn Syrup, and RTV High Temp silicon. Very simple, and very cheap.
- The first thing you do is open all of your baby bottles, and wash them out with soap, and water. Rinse them VERY well.
- Now open up your RTV silicon, and set it on something like a paper towel, or tinfoil to keep it from getting everywhere. Keep a rag close by to wipe your hand on. Latex gloves work well for this.
- Take the rubber nipples from all of your bottles and fill them with about a half of an inch of silicon. Allow this to dry FULLY before continuing to the next step. 24-36 hours should do it. Putting then in from of a fan speeds up the process. This will serve as a self healing inoculation port meaning you can stick a needle through the silicon to pull out a syringe full of Liquid Culture, and when you take it out the silicon will just close back up keeping out contamination.
- Once the silicon in your baby bottle nipples is dry we will start to make up our Liquid Medium.
There are many ratios you can use. I like to use a leaner mix of Corn Syrup. This creates faster growth. If you have many nutrients in the medium the fungus just gets happy in one spot, and grows VERY slow. If you use a smaller ratio of nutrient than the fungus will stretch out, and reach to find food within the medium. This is what we want. I like to use about a 5% Corn Syrup to 95% water. Most of your jars, and baby bottles will have measurements on the side in milliliters, or CC's (they are the same)making it easy to figure your ratios. I use a syringe to measure my karo. To do this first heat the karo in the microwave for 15 seconds. If it is not liquidy yet microwave it for another 15 seconds, or until it is thin enough to suck up into a syringe. (It will be impossible to do when it's cold)
So, if you have a 300cc Baby Bottle you will want add 15cc's of Corn Syrup and 285cc's of water.
Basically just add 5cc's of Corn Syrup to every 100cc's of water.
- Once you have got your water mixed with the Corn Syrup take your nipples, and invert them. Point them inside the baby bottle, and then screw on the ring. Place the cap on the bottle.
- Microwave for 15 seconds, and then shake it very well. This will mix the Corn Syrup with the water very well, and will help avoid sediment, or caramelization during pressure cooking. Caramelization won't really hurt anything, but it will cause your LC to turn brown after Pressure cooking. This just makes it harder to see mycelium, and spot contams.
- IMPORTANT: Loosen the rings over the nipples.DO NOT screw the lids tight. after pressure cooking the bottle will create a vacuum and pull the nipples in if they are not left loose. Before pressure cooking wrap the tops of the bottles with tinfoil. This will just help keep the moisture content right.
- Now that you've got everything made, and mixed well it's time to sterilize. Place a folded towel in the bottom of your pressure cooker to keep your bottles from melting, or caramelizing your LC. Add enough water to cover the towel, and add your Baby bottles. Make sure you fill the rest of the pressure cooker with empty jars, or something so that your baby bottles stay upright during sterilization.
Remember to cover the tops with tin foil. I'm only trying to show how to hold your bottles upright. Remember to cover them with foil before sterilization.
- Close the Pressure cooker, and turn the stove on high.
- When the weight begins to rock back and forth turn the heat down a bit but keep the weight rocking back, and forth. Start a timer for 35 minutes from this point. After 35 minutes take the pressure cooker off of the burner, and let your baby bottles cool over night. DO NOT OPEN until your Pressure Cooker is room temp. If your bottles are hot at all, and you open the PC your bottles will continue to pull a vacuum until they are cool sucking in contams the whole time. You can not tighten the rings until they are room temp, or you will have a vacuum in your bottles and it will cause a range of problems.
- After your Pressure Cooker has cooled to room temperature open it, and quickly tighten all the rings on your bottles.
- VIOLA!!!
- Now simply inoculate your bottles with 1-2 cc's of spore syringe, or a small sterile piece of healthy mycelium off of a colonized brown rice flour cake, and incubate your LC jar like you would a cake. After about a week you should see some growth. Don't worry if you don't. No growth is better than the wrong growth. Give it a few weeks before deciding to throw it out. If it turns cloudy, or any wierd color other than white throw it away. After Pressure Cooking the sugars may caramelize a bit turning the LC a light yellow to brown. It is normal and won't hurt anything. You want nice healthy spermy looking myc. It can sometimes be flaky. Post a picture if you need help.
- Once the mycelium growth in your LC appears to slow down, or stop growing in size just put it in the fridge to stop growth, and store for up to a year or even longer.
Here are a few old ones. They are pretty empty so I need some new ones anyway. Was a good time to write this.
So, the first question many people ask is how to make One spore syringe go as far as possible. To do this you will want to make a Liquid Culture. What you are doing when you create an LC is giving your spores a liquid medium to grow in which you can later use a syringe to pull Living Culture from as needed. There are many advantages to having made a LC. The colonization times from LC will be dramatically faster than starting from spores. A LC is Living Mushroom fungus that is past the stage of spores, and germination. You don't have to wait for spores to germinate using an LC. Spore mating, and germination can actually take a long time. When you shoot spores into a medium two Compatible spores have to come together to create mycelium. Not all spores are compatible, and even when they find mates they have to fight other strains for dominance. In an LC this is already done. You have good living mushroom fungus to work with. I want to start by saying that LC's from spores can be a crap shoot. Not all methods work for everyone. Starting from spores is a pain either way though, so getting an LC down is the best thing you can do for yourself starting out.
First we'll start with the materials needed to make a simple LC.
- Corn Syrup.(found cheap at any food store). Honey will also work, but can cause sediment making it hard for the beginner to tell good mycelium from a contamination.
- Malt Extract is optional, but a tiny bit will up the success rate of these LC's by 50%.
- Baby bottles with screw off tops, and rubber nipples, and caps.(I get them from the dollar store)
- RTV high temp silicon. (found cheap at any hardware, or automobile store)
- A pressure cooker is really necessary for this. You can try boiling, but I doubt you will have any success. There are ways to make it work but it is alot of work and takes alot of time. If you are starting out just save yourself the frustration, and headache, and get a Pressure Cooker.
That's all you need. So. Baby Bottles, Corn Syrup, and RTV High Temp silicon. Very simple, and very cheap.
- The first thing you do is open all of your baby bottles, and wash them out with soap, and water. Rinse them VERY well.
- Now open up your RTV silicon, and set it on something like a paper towel, or tinfoil to keep it from getting everywhere. Keep a rag close by to wipe your hand on. Latex gloves work well for this.
- Take the rubber nipples from all of your bottles and fill them with about a half of an inch of silicon. Allow this to dry FULLY before continuing to the next step. 24-36 hours should do it. Putting then in from of a fan speeds up the process. This will serve as a self healing inoculation port meaning you can stick a needle through the silicon to pull out a syringe full of Liquid Culture, and when you take it out the silicon will just close back up keeping out contamination.
- Once the silicon in your baby bottle nipples is dry we will start to make up our Liquid Medium.
There are many ratios you can use. I like to use a leaner mix of Corn Syrup. This creates faster growth. If you have many nutrients in the medium the fungus just gets happy in one spot, and grows VERY slow. If you use a smaller ratio of nutrient than the fungus will stretch out, and reach to find food within the medium. This is what we want. I like to use about a 5% Corn Syrup to 95% water. Most of your jars, and baby bottles will have measurements on the side in milliliters, or CC's (they are the same)making it easy to figure your ratios. I use a syringe to measure my karo. To do this first heat the karo in the microwave for 15 seconds. If it is not liquidy yet microwave it for another 15 seconds, or until it is thin enough to suck up into a syringe. (It will be impossible to do when it's cold)
So, if you have a 300cc Baby Bottle you will want add 15cc's of Corn Syrup and 285cc's of water.
Basically just add 5cc's of Corn Syrup to every 100cc's of water.
- Once you have got your water mixed with the Corn Syrup take your nipples, and invert them. Point them inside the baby bottle, and then screw on the ring. Place the cap on the bottle.
- Microwave for 15 seconds, and then shake it very well. This will mix the Corn Syrup with the water very well, and will help avoid sediment, or caramelization during pressure cooking. Caramelization won't really hurt anything, but it will cause your LC to turn brown after Pressure cooking. This just makes it harder to see mycelium, and spot contams.
- IMPORTANT: Loosen the rings over the nipples.DO NOT screw the lids tight. after pressure cooking the bottle will create a vacuum and pull the nipples in if they are not left loose. Before pressure cooking wrap the tops of the bottles with tinfoil. This will just help keep the moisture content right.
- Now that you've got everything made, and mixed well it's time to sterilize. Place a folded towel in the bottom of your pressure cooker to keep your bottles from melting, or caramelizing your LC. Add enough water to cover the towel, and add your Baby bottles. Make sure you fill the rest of the pressure cooker with empty jars, or something so that your baby bottles stay upright during sterilization.
Remember to cover the tops with tin foil. I'm only trying to show how to hold your bottles upright. Remember to cover them with foil before sterilization.
- Close the Pressure cooker, and turn the stove on high.
- When the weight begins to rock back and forth turn the heat down a bit but keep the weight rocking back, and forth. Start a timer for 35 minutes from this point. After 35 minutes take the pressure cooker off of the burner, and let your baby bottles cool over night. DO NOT OPEN until your Pressure Cooker is room temp. If your bottles are hot at all, and you open the PC your bottles will continue to pull a vacuum until they are cool sucking in contams the whole time. You can not tighten the rings until they are room temp, or you will have a vacuum in your bottles and it will cause a range of problems.
- After your Pressure Cooker has cooled to room temperature open it, and quickly tighten all the rings on your bottles.
- VIOLA!!!
- Now simply inoculate your bottles with 1-2 cc's of spore syringe, or a small sterile piece of healthy mycelium off of a colonized brown rice flour cake, and incubate your LC jar like you would a cake. After about a week you should see some growth. Don't worry if you don't. No growth is better than the wrong growth. Give it a few weeks before deciding to throw it out. If it turns cloudy, or any wierd color other than white throw it away. After Pressure Cooking the sugars may caramelize a bit turning the LC a light yellow to brown. It is normal and won't hurt anything. You want nice healthy spermy looking myc. It can sometimes be flaky. Post a picture if you need help.
- Once the mycelium growth in your LC appears to slow down, or stop growing in size just put it in the fridge to stop growth, and store for up to a year or even longer.
Here are a few old ones. They are pretty empty so I need some new ones anyway. Was a good time to write this.
