Mycelium Liquid Cultures

[Goonie Goat]

Planning on making a few mushroom bags in a while. Normally I'd swab a few agar plates with spores but the last time i did it kind of took a long time for mycelium to grow. So figured I might change my method.

After purchasing a few liquid cultures i decided that i would be best off making my own jars of LC so i didn't run out and need to buy more syringes.

I watched a few videos on YouTube and they all required laminar flow hoods, magnetic stirrers, all sorts of pumps and stuff to make syringes which was kind of off-putting, as all this professional gear costs quite a bit...

So I think I've came up with a way of doing it which should work..
Parts i bought:

Kmart 500mL Preserving Jars
Rubber Self healing injection ports
4mm grommets
1 way check valves
Syringe Filters
4mm tubing
13mm vinyl cap covers

14/16 gauge 10cm hyperdermic needles
80x luer lock syringes
18 gauge needles
Luer lock caps


My idea is to drill 2 holes in the lid, 1 port hole for the self healing plug, the other hole will be for air to pass through using a grommet, check valve connected to the syringe filter, which will pull any contaminants like bacteria out of the air as it passes through.

So after making and pressure cooking liquid culture solution in jars for 10 mins, its just a matter of letting solution cool off, lids go on, then inject a small amount of mycelium into jars through rubber ports with the needle/syringe.
Vinyl cap to then go on the syringe filter on the lid.

Wait for the mycelium to grow.
Grab sterilized 14/16 gauge needle and empty syringe, jam it through rubber port, take the cap off the filter and collect liquid culture.

So basically just letting clean air pass through into the jar so theres no kind of negative pressure working against the syringe plunger if that makes any sense.

Sorry for ranting lol.

 

[SRH]

Hey mate I've done the same I've just multiplied my spore syringes from spore spec works a treat no flow hood has worked well for me and getting into pf tek at the moment easy as fuck

 

[SRH]

lc pr tek

 

[Goonie Goat]

lc pr tek

Very nice, i have 25kg of millet so i might have to give the pf tek a shot.

My plans were to do 2:1:1 cow manure, coco coir, vermiculite with a bit of gypsum along with the millet on the bottom of the bag to start the mycelium.

What strains are you growing?

 

[SRH]

I've got the golden teacher and apes going pf tek seams to inoculate very fast so the plan was to stager batches to keep a constant supply

 

[Aye Shroomer]

Marbles work as a cheaper alternative to the magnetic stirs.
Just pop one in before sterilisation.

 

[Orb]

impressed with the ingenuity Goonie, sounds fucking difficult

what strains are ya starting with?

 

[Goonie Goat]

impressed with the ingenuity Goonie, sounds fucking difficult

what strains are ya starting with?

I ended up getting lizard king, moby dick, pe6 and koh Samui super strain,, do you have any suggestions?? Don't know much about these strains hope one can produce some ok results

 

[Orb]

had a google and they all sound interesting, especially the moby dick, keen to see a pic of ur setup when ya get going

 

[Goonie Goat]

had a google and they all sound interesting, especially the moby dick, keen to see a pic of ur setup when ya get going

Yeah I'll post some more in depth pics of the liquid culture jars im putting together too with a parts list if things go accordingly and work.

Basically just the same thing SRH has made but with reusable autoclavable filter, instead of the sticky pad ones.

 

[Orb]

how long do u reckon the lc will last + how will u store ‘em?

 

[Goonie Goat]

how long do u reckon the lc will last + how will u store ‘em?

Ive got some gourmet mushroom syringes in the fridge that are still alive after a few years.

Think you just let the mycelium grow and then stick them in the fridge. These little 500ml kmart jars should be good, not too big, not too small

 

[SRH]

Pretty

Planning on making a few mushroom bags in a while. Normally I'd swab a few agar plates with spores but the last time i did it kind of took a long time for mycelium to grow. So figured I might change my method.

After purchasing a few liquid cultures i decided that i would be best off making my own jars of LC so i didn't run out and need to buy more syringes.

I watched a few videos on YouTube and they all required laminar flow hoods, magnetic stirrers, all sorts of pumps and stuff to make syringes which was kind of off-putting, as all this professional gear costs quite a bit...

So I think I've came up with a way of doing it which should work..
Parts i bought:

Kmart 500mL Preserving Jars
Rubber Self healing injection ports
4mm grommets
1 way check valves
Syringe Filters
4mm tubing
13mm vinyl cap covers

14/16 gauge 10cm hyperdermic needles
80x luer lock syringes
18 gauge needles
Luer lock caps


My idea is to drill 2 holes in the lid, 1 port hole for the self healing plug, the other hole will be for air to pass through using a grommet, check valve connected to the syringe filter, which will pull any contaminants like bacteria out of the air as it passes through.

So after making and pressure cooking liquid culture solution in jars for 10 mins, its just a matter of letting solution cool off, lids go on, then inject a small amount of mycelium into jars through rubber ports with the needle/syringe.
Vinyl cap to then go on the syringe filter on the lid.

Wait for the mycelium to grow.
Grab sterilized 14/16 gauge needle and empty syringe, jam it through rubber port, take the cap off the filter and collect liquid culture.

So basically just letting clean air pass through into the jar so theres no kind of negative pressure working against the syringe plunger if that makes any sense.

Sorry for ranting lol.

You can also use honey instead of liquid culture solution to grow the liquid culture I've yet to do it but the honey is meant to be good because of the antibiotics and when the liquid culture has used up all the nutrients it goes clear I'm not sure of the ratio but it's on you tube

 

[Goonie Goat]

Pretty

You can also use honey instead of liquid culture solution to grow the liquid culture I've yet to do it but the honey is meant to be good because of the antibiotics and when the liquid culture has used up all the nutrients it goes clear I'm not sure of the ratio but it's on you tube

Yeah i'll probably add it to the water.
Have you used peptone in your liquid cultures?
I've done it with agar and it's like steroids for mycelium, notice a difference in the growth patterns too alongside the faster growth. You should try it

 

[SRH]

Il have to look into I've just been using the powder from Australia mushroom supplies but was going to just try just the honey this week and see how it goes

 

[SRH]

I'm always keen for faster results haha inoculating is the longest hardest part for takes ages but having more lc is speeding things up but the pf tek has been the fastest for me so far

 

[Goonie Goat]

I'm always keen for faster results haha inoculating is the longest hardest part for takes ages but having more lc is speeding things up but the pf tek has been the fastest for me so far

So just brown rice flour and vermiculite? I always get pf tek confused with birdseed tek?

 

[SRH]

Yeah mate some people add add coffee grounds and gypsum I think but I've just done brown rice and vermiculite is working well for me only issues I've had was getting brown rice flour so I've been grinding the rice in the coffee grinder

 

[Hudo]

how long do u reckon the lc will last + how will u store ‘em?

I've got a jar over 12 months old, I just started a new jar the other day because I was getting sus on how much longer it will last

 

[Hudo]

I use the high temp injection port and just flame the needle and haven't had a problem, the other thing i do is i use those massive 60ml syringes so I don't have to go into the jar as often, like if I have 6 bags to innoculate i only have to pull one syringe to do the lot instead of pushing multiple needles in risking infection, I tried having the 3 way port with filter on one and tube on the other to pull liquid out, but they would push the liquid up the tube when the jar pressurised from the c02 getting generated, I think it's easier to push the liquid up the tube than the air out the filter, and I don't know if i got dud 3 way valves but it pushed all the culture out into my fridge