DIY Mycology week 1
Background
I’ve picked up mycology as a hobby. I’m a bit of a science nerd, and for the last couple weeks I’ve been absorbing information off of Youtube on this hobby. This culminated in me buying some basic equipment and trying to grow mushroom at home.
My goal is to cultivate three strains of culinary mushrooms to maturity and eat them while learning more about mycology. There are a number of easy-grow kits out there but because I’m more interested in the science-side I’m trying to work with DIY materials as much as possible.
I’m expecting this experiment to take about 10 weeks from start to tasty finish
My Approach
This is one of these hobbies you can go all-in on but I’ve learned with other sciencey hobbies it’s often best to keep things pretty simple at first so there are less things that can go wrong, and so it’s easier to diagnose where things went wrong when they inevitably do.
While I’m working entirely with DIY materials, in some cases I’m skipping steps by purchasing completed DIY steps to reduce failure points. I can always go more DIY in my next iteration.
Liquid Culture
I decided to work with liquid culture which consists of germinated spores suspended in nutrients to remove the spore germination step (a potential source of failure).
Liquid culture can be purchased from a variety of online stores, I chose to purchase from The Cultured Mushroom but there are many good options out there.
I purchased chicken of the woods, golden oyster and lion’s mane cultures to improve my chances of getting a viable yield at the end of my attempt.
Grain Spawn Jars
Grain spawn jars consist of sterilized grain (food for mushrooms) in mason jars. Liquid culture is injected directly into the grain spawn jars to inoculate the spawn with germinated spores which then colonize the substrate with mycelium (somewhat equivalent to the roots of a plant).
I purchased sterilized grain spawn jars from Midwest Grow Kits. I chose to inoculate 9 jars (3 of each strain) to increase the chance of a viable yield.
Agar Plates (Optional Step)
I decided to create and inoculate some agar plates. This step was optional, but it represented an opportunity for additional learning, as well as the opportunity to quickly verify the liquid spawn I received survived transit.
I created and sterilized an agar medium which I placed in sterilized petri dishes, and then inoculated them with some of my liquid culture. I inoculated 6 plates in total (2 per strain) to reduce the chance of failure.
One additional benefit of this is, if successful, I can use these agar plates to inoculate additional grain spawn in the future.
Cloning Grocery Mushrooms (Optional Step)
I also decided to attempt to clone a regular grocery store baby bella mushroom just to try mushroom cloning. This step was optional, but represented an opportunity for additional learning. If I’m successful in cloning, I’ll be able to apply that technique to clone mushrooms I cultivate if I wish.
I harvested baby bella tissue from a single mushroom and attempted to inoculate two agar plates.
Week 1 Results
After seven days, here are my results so far
Golden Oyster Liquid Spawn Results
Overally I’m really happy with the golden oyster results. The agar plates look to me like colinization, and there is clear development of mycelium.
The golden oyster grain spawn jars are also showing signs of colonization (white fuzzy growth).
Lion’s Mane Liquid Spawn Results
While slower to develop than the Golden Oyster, the Lion’s Mane has really taken off in the agar plates over the last couple days. The grainspawn jars are showing early signs of colonization but it’s still too early to clearly call.
Chicken of the Woods Liquid Spawn Results
Something is definitely starting to grow in these agar plates but to me it’s too early to tell if this is actually mycelium. I’m crossing my fingers.
Baby Bella Clone Results
Similar to chicken of the woods, something is definitely going on here but to me it’s too early to tell if this is a successful clone of a baby bella. The brown mass in the middle of the petri dish is the tissue from the baby bella that was used to start the cloning process.
Next Steps
Over the next two week it should be visually clear which of my agar plates has been successfully colonized. I should then be able to store successful plates and dispose of any unsuccessful ones. Here’s a picture of what a fully colonized plate looks like.
Because my grainspawn jars are relatively small, I anticipate they will be fully colonized in another 3–4 weeks. After that I should be able to fruit them (grow some edible mushrooms). Here’s what a fully colonized grain spawn jar looks like.
Learning Resources
While there are too many learning resources to share here are a couple youtube video series I’ve found particularly helpful:
- Mycology 101 by The ODIN — this covers all the techniques I’m applying and much more with a healthy dose of science
- PhillyGoldenTeacher — This creator uploads tonnes of short, practical, how-to videos on home mushroom cultivation quickly and clearly.
