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Potato Dextrose  liquid culture  Tek

You will need :

- Pressure Cooker  capable of 15psi
- Either ½ Pint, Pint or Quart jars
- 1.5 gallons of distilled or spring water (try not to use tap water)
- 1-2 large potatoes diced into pieces
- 10 Tablespoons of Light Karo  Syrup (the Dextrose  source)
- A few coffee filters
- Several foam ear plugs. (Two per lid)
- Drill with 3/8th bit (or a bit smaller depending on your earplugs)


Measure out 8 cups of distilled water & set it on the stove to boil.

While the water is heating, dice up 1-2 large potatoes & add that to the water once it starts to boil.

Turn the heat down on the stove to med low and set the lid on your pot & cook the potatoes until they are done - maybe 15-20 minutes or so or until you can jab a fork into the potato easily.

When they are finished cooking, discard the potatoes or set them aside to eat later.

This potato water is very nutrient rich and is the base to this liquid culture  recipe.

With the coffee filters, filter out 4 cups of potato water and discard the rest. You can use the fliter housing of your coffee maker for this step. Tip: you may have to squeeze the water by hand to get it to flow through the coffee filters or try one of those gold basket filters.
You may have to filter it a couple times to remove most of the particulate matter from the water.

Take the 4 cups of filtered potato water and add 12 cups of distilled water and mix in 10 tablespoons of light Karo  syrup and mix the solution thoroughly.

Although you can use any size jars I like to use quart jars for liquid cultures.

Drill two holes into either side of the jar lids and fit in one foam plug mid way per hole.

These plugs act as a self healing injection site as well as the gas exchange method.

Add 2 cups of the potato Dextrose  water to the quart jars, slap on the lids, wrap with foil and pressure cook at 15psi for 30 minutes & let fully cool before removing from the pressure cooker.

inoculate  with spores (1-2 cc's) or another liquid culture  and within a few short days you'll have an excessive amount of the most beautiful & healthy Mycelium  at your disposal.


Also:
Don't peel the potatoes, lots of minerals and nutrients in the skins. I don't think the kind of potato would matter much. Incubate in the low 80's. It'd be pretty easy to make half a batch of this or a quarter of it. I'm sure any type jar would work as long as it can handle a pressure cooking and keep contams out. You'll definitely know when your culture is ready to draw up into syringes. The mycelia  growth will be thick & if you swish the LC  around a bit in the jar, the Mycelium  will break apart and it will disperse in the liquid. Just by eyeing that liquid you'll know if the syringes will contain enough Mycelium  to be effective.

If you decide to do half the recipe:
Use 2 cups filtered potato H2O  and add 6 cups of distilled/spring H2O  and 5 tbsp of light Karo  . This is 8 cups of solution, which is half a gallon. You can use empty 16oz (1 pint) salsa jars and 8oz (1 cup) of the potato/Karo  solution in each jar. After PC'ing, allow them to cool to room temp and then inoculate  each jar with 1-2 cc's of spore solution. Incubating low 80's. If you don't want to use earplugs, you can use a couple of tyvek  layers over the lids and after each time you poke through the tyvek  with your needle, you'll want to cover the injection hole with a fresh piece of medical tape.


If the LC  turns out looking like a urine color it may be that the Karo  syrup you used caramelized... it should be fine... but next time put a green scrubber or something underneath so it doesn't directly touch the metal tray that holds it off the bottom of the PC  . If you use distilled water it usually comes out clear instead of yellowish.

You can get the earplugs at any walmart. they are orange or yellow and used in noisy environments, like a shooting range. they can be conical or just regular cylindrical.

you simply drill two small holes in each lid. then you take your earplugs and roll them between your fingers until they're skinny enough to insert halfway through each hole in the lid. Once the earplugs are in place, they will expand back to normal size. You now have a self healing injection port. No need to glue the earplugs in place. The foam will not get stuck in the needle during injections.

As for the tyvek  . your FOAF  can get that free in the lobby area at any USPS in the form of envelopes for mailings. Just cut them up and place a couple of layers over each pre-drilled lid, then screw the band on. In other words: Lid with two holes drilled, 2 layers of tyvek  , and then the band. If you want to get fancy, you can do a hybrid method combining both earplugs AND tyvek  . In this order: 2 layers of tyvek  , lid with earplugs fitted in both holes, then band.

Keep in mind, you will want to stick a couple layers of aluminum foil over each lid and put them in your PC  . The PC  will sterilize the tyvek  and/or earplugs.
Each time you plan to stick a needle through the tyvek  or the plugs, just remember to swab the tyvek/plug with alcohol and of course flame sterilize and swab the needle before each injection. If you use tyvek  only (no plugs) then you will want to place a new piece of breathable medical tape over each injection hole each time you poke a hole through the tyvek  , remembering to swab w/alcohol each time as well.

Once you PC  , let it cool on its own till the locking pin drops. then remove the foil and let cool to room temp before injecting 1-2 cc's per jar of your spore syringe. Use a glovebox  if possible.

OK, after you inoculate  , keep the jars at upper 70's to low 80's and you will see growth in 1-2 days. In 7-10 days you will have some dank-ass LC  . You can swirl the content of each jar around a few times each day to break up the Mycelium  .

OK, this part is very important IMO  : When the LC  is ready, you're going to need to use an empty sterile syringe with a 16 gauge, 1.5" needle. Why 16 gauge? It's a bigger needle hole than the standard 18 gauge you get when you order a spore syringe. The Mycelium  will be so thick, you'll have a much easier time sucking it into the syringe with a 16 gauge.

Don't know where to get 16 gauge needles? Go to mycofactory.com and type in 16 in their search box. then click on needles. you can get 10 for $4.00 plus S&H. or you can click on "plunger and needle combo" and get 10 16 guage needles and 10 syringes for $8.50 + S&H. I'd recommend finding some empty 30 or 60 CC sterile syringes because you will have a ton of Mycelium  at your disposal. You can suck it all up into your larger syringes, cap them, and store the loaded syringes in a fridge. If you need to go stealth, you can store them in a cool dark place if the fridge is not an option.

Also, if you plan on loading up a bunch of syringes with LC  for storage, I'd recommend investing in some plastic twist caps. You can get them at howardelectronics.com. Item # JG-TCCX. You get 100 of them for $4.00 + S&H. Just wrap them all up in foil and sterilize them in your PC  before using them.

Happy trails!

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