Liquid Culture Jars

You now have one of our awesome liquid culture solution jars; now, if this is your first time, you may be wondering how I use this thing. Don't worry we got you covered! 

First, we'll start with a brief introduction to liquid culture solution and its uses. The solution you have is a combination of sterilized distilled water and a specific measured ratio of glucose or sugar, in this case, corn syrup.

When this solution is inoculated, or a small piece of mycelium is added, which is the white thready substance of fungi, the mycelium will begin to feed off of the sugar in the water, creating what we call a Liquid Culture. 

This culture may be drawn into a syringe and used to inoculate your all-in-one grow bags or grain bags/jars. It is essentially a way to cultivate and, at the same time, store your favorite mushroom genetics. Okay, so how do you use it?

Step 1: First thing first, make sure your environment has no breeze or airflow; you want your environment as still as possible to ensure any contaminants aren't flying around your workspace. So turn off any fans, AC, or heaters.

Step 2. Sanitize your workspace by wiping down the surface you are working on with 70% isopropyl alcohol. Your jar kit should have arrived with an alcohol wipe, take this alcohol wipe and wipe down your workspace, jar, and the injection port.

Step 3: This tutorial assumes you are already using a liquid culture syringe with live mycelium. If you are using agar, I will also create another tutorial for this. Remove your syringe from the packaging, and use another alcohol pad to wipe down the syringe well. open the needle packaging halfway, exposing just the part you screw on, hold your syringe upright and unscrew the lock, take the needle, and screw onto the syringe.

Step 4: The needle was already sterile during its first use, so there is no need to wipe it down. While holding the syringe, shake it vigorously to get the mycelium mixed into the solution. Now, hold your syringe horizontally, and while holding the syringe with one hand, use your other hand to swiftly pull the needle cap away from the syringe in one swift motion so as not to accidentally stab yourself.

Step 5: Quickly insert the needle into the injection port and inject 1-2cc of liquid culture into the jar. Remove the syringe, cap it, and save it for later use. Now wipe down the injection port again with your alcohol wipe. Give the jar a nice swirl for 5-10 seconds to get everything mixed in.

Step 6: Over the course of 2 weeks, you will start to see your mycelium multiplying. It should look like little white puffy threads of snow. If you see this, congratulations you just made your very own liquid culture.

Step 7: This last step is just a tip, make sure to swirl the solution daily to get oxygen to the mycelium and ensure they can eat the sugar. If you have a jar with a magnetic stir bar. Just stir it for 5-10 seconds and that should suffice. Do this every day for 2-3 weeks until your jar has the desired amount of mycelium in it.

That's it! If you would like to learn how to create your own liquid culture syringes using your solution, click here!

 

Much love!