Magic Mushroom Liquid Cultures: How, Why And Where To Buy
We at the Fungi Academy believe in the potential of mushroom liquid cultures when it comes to home scale mushroom growth!
Why?
They are simple and inexpensive to construct, incredibly scalable, colonize grains far faster than agar cultures, and may be used to create an infinite number of liquid cultures or to inoculate grains in non-sterile conditions. That is unparalleled for small-scale producers when compared to other growth strategies.
For these reasons, the Mushroom Liquid Culture King, Paul of Fungaia, will shortly begin to provide liquid cultures on our website. In that spirit, we thought we’d give you a crash course in mushroom liquid culture.
Magic Mushroom Liquid Culture Syringe
With our new liquid cultures, growing magic mushrooms has never been easier. Enjoy quicker and safer immunization. Magic mushroom liquid cultures include live, isolated mushroom mycelium contained in a sugar solution (which aids in keeping the mycelium nourished for an extended period of time). Liquid cultures are good for inoculating grain media because they reduce the danger of contamination and colonize the medium faster.
How Is Liquid Culture Different From A Spore Syringe?
Whereas liquid cultures contain living mycelium, spore syringes carry just mushroom cells (or spores), which must germinate and proliferate in order to colonize a medium and create mycelium. Liquid cultures, in essence, save mycologists a few more steps after inoculation, resulting in a faster growth cycle and a faster harvest. Furthermore, liquid cultures have greater germination rates than spores.
What Is A Mushroom Liquid Culture?
A mushroom liquid culture is just live mycelium suspended in mildly nourishing water. 500 millimeters of filtered, non-chlorinated water coupled with 10 grams of honey, light malt extract, or any simple, readily fermentable sugar is a basic, standard recipe for this healthful water combo.
What’s The Difference Between A Mushroom Liquid Culture And A Spore Syringe?
As previously stated, a mushroom liquid culture is just mycelium growing in liquid. Spores and spore syringes, however, are not mycelium. Before spores to produce mycelium, they must first germinate. When you inoculate a substrate with spores/spore syringe, it must germinate before it can start growing mycelium. When a substrate is inoculated with a mushroom liquid culture, it instantly begins to develop (additional) mycelium.
What Are Some Of The Benefits Of Mushroom Liquid Cultures?
The most significant advantage of mushroom liquid cultures, in our opinion, is that once you have a clean mushroom liquid culture to work with, you may inoculate grains in a non-sterile setting such as your kitchen counter.
This eliminates the need for a Still Air Box or a flow hood, decreasing the barrier to entry into small-scale home mushroom farming significantly. Because the chance of contamination is low, there is less failure, which frequently discourages beginners from continuing on their mushroom gardening path.
Other advantages of mushroom liquid cultures are their rapid colonization rates (the more liquid culture you use, the faster the colonization), simplicity of manufacturing and extending mushroom liquid cultures, and low cost of production. Even in today’s bizarre world, water and honey are rather inexpensive.
What Are Some Of The Challenges Of Working With Mushroom Liquid Cultures?
We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out a few disadvantages of mushroom liquid cultures. For one thing, when you initially create a liquid culture, it is vulnerable to contamination. As a result, we recommend that novice growers get a mushroom liquid culture syringe from an expert mycologist like Paul.
Then there’s the problem that contamination in mushroom liquid cultures might be difficult to detect. That’s why trustworthy sellers put their cultures through rigorous testing before selling them. However, for the novice, a sterile environment and some basic lab equipment and abilities are required. Purchasing a tiny syringe of liquid culture from a specialist and then expanding it yourself avoids this problem.
Another problem is that in order to keep your liquid culture vibrant and healthy, you must agitate and oxygenate it, which necessitates the use of a stir plate. You could twist your culture by hand every day, but it’s not ideal. Stir plates are very inexpensive ($25), and you can easily make your own with a computer fan and some magnets with a little study and patience.
You probably got the picture by now: mushroom liquid cultures are useful for mushroom producers of all skill levels and scales. And if you can perfect the process like Paul, you might be able to start a lucrative business.
How To Make Magic Mushroom Liquid Culture
With a simple and easy-to-follow mushroom liquid culture method, you may learn the key to cultivating numerous mushrooms. Learn how to make liquid culture and take your mushroom growth to the next level!
What Is Liquid Culture?
For mushroom production, liquid culture is utilized as a beginning culture. It can be used to inoculate agar plates, sterilised grain for spawn generation, or to extend and generate additional liquid culture.
Liquid culture is frequently made in jars with adapted lids from sterile broth with a specified sugar-to-water ratio. A mycelium culture has been injected into this soup. The mycelium will absorb the sugar and continue to grow, producing an almost endless amount of mycelium.
A syringe is used to remove liquid culture from the jar via the injection port in the modified lid. To avoid the transmission of impurities, the needle point of the syringe can be heat sterilized.
How To Use Magic Mushroom Liquid Culture
Liquid culture is a typical method in mushroom cultivation for propagating and developing huge quantities of mushroom mycelium. Mycelium grows in a nutrient-rich liquid solution, often in a sterilized jar or bottle. The liquid culture serves as a medium for mycelium growth and expansion, supplying nutrients and resources for the fungus to thrive.
Once the mycelium has colonized the liquid culture, it may be used to inoculate substrates like as grain or sawdust, which will serve as the mushrooms’ ultimate growth media. Liquid culture also allows the grower to swiftly and readily duplicate vast amounts of mycelium, making it a simple and efficient method of propagating the fungus.
Liquid culture is important in mushroom cultivation because it provides an easy and effective technique to propagate and produce mycelium, which is required for creating healthy and vibrant mushroom harvests.
Making Magic Mushroom Liquid Culture: An Overview
To produce a liquid culture for mushroom growing, it is necessary to inoculate sterile media with the mycelium of the desired mushroom species. The following are the steps involved in inoculating sterile media to produce liquid culture:
- Sterilize the media: The first step is to sterilize the media that will serve as the nutrient solution for the mycelium. This is usually done by heating the media to a high temperature for a specified amount of time to kill any bacteria, fungi, or other contaminants that may be present.
- Prepare the mycelium: The mycelium can be obtained from a previous culture or a commercial source. It is important to ensure that the mycelium is healthy and free of contaminants before it is used to inoculate the media.
- Inoculate the media: The mycelium is then added to the sterilized media in a sterile environment. This can be done by transferring a small amount of mycelium from a petri dish or by adding a spore solution to the media.
- Incubate: After inoculating the media, the liquid culture is incubated at the optimal temperature for the mushroom species being grown. During this time, the mycelium will grow and colonize the media, forming a homogeneous mixture.
- Monitor the culture: It is important to monitor the liquid culture regularly to ensure that it is growing and colonizing properly. Any issues or deviations from the expected growth patterns should be addressed promptly.
Magic Mushroom Liquid Culture Recipe
Making a liquid culture broth is a straightforward process. A sugar content of 4% is required. A variety of sugars or carbohydrates can be employed. Because granules are easier to measure, we use light malt extract. A transparent but slightly slower growing liquid culture will be produced with karo or corn syrup. Brewer’s yeast is an optional addition that promotes quicker mycelium growth.
- 1L water
- 40g light malt extract.
- 1g brewers yeast (optional)
- Magnetic stirrer or marbles
- 4 x 16oz (500ml) mason jars.
- 4 x modified lids for mushroom growing.
- Pressure Cooker
- Aluminium foil
Step 1. Measure Ingredients
Using precision scales measure the light malt extract and brewers yeast (optional).
Step 2. Bottle & Cover
Fill each mason jar halfway with liquid culture broth. Include a glass marble or a magnetic stir rod. This will help break up mycelium clumps later on. Put a customized lid on each mason jar and cover with aluminum foil.
Step 3. Sterilise
Sterilize the liquid culture broth in a pressure canner for 20 minutes at 15 PSI. Allow the pressure canner to cool fully before attempting to open it.
Step 4. Inoculate With Agar Or Liquid Culture
- Prepare the inoculum: Obtain the agar culture or liquid culture that contains the desired mycelium. Ensure that it is healthy and free of contaminants before using it to inoculate the media.
- Inoculate the media: Using a sterile instrument, transfer a small amount of the agar culture or a few drops of the liquid culture to the sterilized media. Mix the inoculum into the media thoroughly.
Step 5. Agitate & Oxygenate
To enhance oxygenation, gently rotate the liquid culture jar on a regular basis. Take care not to splash fluids near the lid, since this may allow viruses to enter.
To ensure that mycelium is equally dispersed throughout the solution, a magnetic stirrer can be employed to agitate mycelium in a liquid culture. This is significant because a consistent blend of mycelium and nutrients promotes mycelium development and health.
Before sterilising a magnetic stirrer, place the liquid culture in a container on the stirrer plate and the stir bar inside the container. The stirrer then rotates and agitates the liquid culture by magnetically driving the stir bar. Depending on the intended effect, the stirrer may be adjusted to a given speed and operated for a specific period of time.
Step 6. Monitor Growth
The time it takes for a liquid culture to colonize is determined by a number of factors, including the type of mushroom cultivated, the temperature, and the nutrients utilized in the liquid culture. A liquid culture might take anything from a few days to several weeks to completely colonize. Some mushrooms, such as oyster mushrooms, may colonize a liquid culture in as little as 3-5 days, while others, such as lion’s mane, can take up to 2-3 weeks.
Temperature also has an impact on colonization time, with higher temperatures frequently favouring quicker colonization. Furthermore, the type of nutrients employed in the liquid culture might influence colonization time. Some nutritional solutions, such as those containing brewer’s yeast, may encourage quicker colonization.