Liquid culture is where I start my mushroom cultivation. I purchase syringes with liquid culture in them. They typically come in a 10 – 12 cc syringe. I expand this out using this liquid culture recipe so that I can grow out as much as I want.
Liquid cultures are essential to successfully grow mushrooms. This is because they are used to expand a variety of mushrooms.
If you’re new to growing mushrooms, liquid culture is the easiest thing to do. This is a great way to store your culture long-term, with no loss in vitality. Agar plates are expensive and prone to contamination without the right equipment.
Preparing liquid culture is a pretty straightforward process. The key is to have good technique and be clean. Mushroom mycelium grows quickly in liquid and so do contaminants.
Here’s a simple liquid culture recipe for mushroom cultivation with no additives and no expensive equipment.
Items needed:
250 ml water or 1 cup
.5 gram Extra Light Malt Extract or 1/2 tsp
Process:
Mix all ingredients together in a small saucepan.
Slowly simmer together until liquid is clear. Do not boil.
Pour solution into pint jar, seal it. Cover with foil before placing into the sterilizer.
I use specialized lids that can be found here. They last a long time and as the injection port wears out it can be replaced.
I also use these filter discs.
They help keep the contamination to a minimum AND I hate using the rubber gaskets that come with plastic mason jar lids. These replace those gaskets preventing much aggravation while sealing jars.
Be certain that the lip of the jar and the threads are clean before sealing. This is the most common area of contamination.
Sterilize at 15 psi for 30 minutes in a pressure cooker.
You can also sterilize it along with grain spawn. The liquid will darken from the longer sterilization time but it will not hurt the nutrient quality.
Once the time is up, allow the jar to completely cool.
Caution
It is important that the sterilized liquid is below 106 degrees before inoculating with your mushroom liquid cultures. Anything at or above that temperature will kill your culture. You can also cultivate spores in this liquid culture. It takes a little longer but I have had good luck with this technique.
Shake the syringe you bought with the culture in it till the strands are broken up and loose. Then inject about 3cc into the jar. Swirl the jar gently after injecting then place in a dark area and wait.
Mycelium can take about a week before you notice growth with some strains, others it happens quickly. Check it every couple of days. After you get a clump growing in it, shake the jar to break the clump up. Then let it rest to grow again.
I allow it to grow for about 14 days, or until I feel I have a good batch growing. Then I store in the fridge for later use.
Be sure to shake the jar vigorously to break up the strands before pulling out the liquid. I pull out liquid as I need it from the jar and replace it in the fridge. For the home grower, one jar will last a long time and make a LOT of mushroom bags. I also verify that there are strands in my syringe before inoculating.
In conclusion, the purpose of this blog post was to provide a simple, easy-to-understand, step-by-step method to cultivate mushrooms in an effective and efficient manner. The most important thing about this process is its simplicity. When you follow this process, you should see significant results within a few weeks.