At last!
If you have access to a pressure cooker, you're probably already familiar with these methods. Caring for fungi is pretty straightforward. In all cases, you will want to keep them:
-Warm-between 65-78f is good for most species.
-FAE-several times a day is ideal, but less so is fine, dependent on spawn type.
-Moist- Not saturated, moist.
There are a plethora of spawn types, each requires a range of cleanliness and care. Most common types that we will encounter are:
-Grain spawn- Needs to be sterilized in autoclave before inoculation.
-Live mycelium from a patch- This type of spawn is in sync with the substrate. It does not need to be handled in a sterile environment, as it already technically contaminated.
-Cardboard spawn- Usually grown on moist cardboard rolls after being inoculated with agar, grain, wood chips, stem butts, spores etc...
-Bag spawn- Comes in the form of a block. Very common in professional cultivation. The substrate is either sterilized or pasteurized, then inoculated. Can be fruited directly from bag.
-Dowel spawn- Colonized wooded dowels for log inoculation. Some cleanliness is needed. Some refrigerate the dowels if not planning on using them soon, forcing hibernation.
So what can we do with this spawn? That will depend a lot on what you plan to do with it.
-Grain spawn- Can be spawned directly to a pasteurized substrate, or non pasteurized. Good for shredded paper substrates for some fungi. Also good for inoculating sterilized bags, or sterile grain jars (grain to grain inoculation). Occasionally one can inoculate outdoor areas with this, but various creatures may disturb the patch and consume the grains.
-Cardboard spawn- Can be spawned to wood chips, straw, more cardboard, shredded paper, burlap etc. Since it is not sterile, it should be spawned to other non sterile, or pasteurized substrates.
-Bag spawn- Can be fruited directly from the bag if proper environment is available. Bag spawn is the most common substrate for outdoor bed style inoculations. Can also be used to make more spawn, by inoculating virgin substrate.
-Dowel spawn- Besides inoculating logs, one can inoculate stumps. They do tend to grow slower in these dense substrates so there is a longer waiting period before fruits appear.
Other things to look out for:
-Contamination- Most of the mycelium we will interact with is bright white. Other common competitors can ruin your spawn. In sterile cultivation, there isn't really anything you can do. Most contaminates are some other color. You may not even see them, and may have to rely on smell. Fungal mycelium is often sweet or musky. Contaminates can be sickly sweet, or acrid or something else. They can be green (trichoderma), black (aspergillis or other, fluffy white (cobweb) or something else entirely. There are many competitors and they all exhibit a different range of signs.
These competitors replicate much faster than larger fungi and will outgrow the mycelium quickly. If this happens, bury the spawn in a place that has a food source for the fungi as it may end up surviving. In pasteurized substrates, some amount of contamination is expected. This mainly applies to wood chips or poo based substrates. It is still not a good thing, but can be acceptable depending on where the spawn is housed (or not). On cardboard, one may frequently see contamination, but it's not always bad. In any case, try to dispose of the spawn in a manner that may allow it to continue living.
Other notes
I decided not to outline fruiting procedures in this document. That is a topic that deserves a lot more words. The main thing to take away from this is that there are many methods to care for your spawn. What to do with is next is often species specific. That is an entirely different write up. It is something I am working on so stay tuned, or post it yourself.
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Topic: Caring for mushroom spawn (Read 8090 times)