Spores to Grain: Why it's discouraged & Recommended Alternatives

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Rotnpins
🤮 Rotten-Pins 🍄

Registered: 01/11/22
Posts: 4,738
Loc: in (front of) the hood
Last seen: 3 years, 7 months

Spores to Grain: Why it's discouraged & Recommended Alternatives

36
#27808630 - 06/06/22 05:29 PM (4 years, 2 months ago)

So, you've decided to try and grow some mushrooms 🍄 You do a quick online search so you can get the right supplies... you find a vendor that has spore syringes and another vendor that has pre-strrilized grain jars/bags (or you take the time to prepare your own jars/bags).. You're extra careful and take every precaution when you inoculate your grain. You built a SAB, you followed sterile technique, and you waited for colonization...

A couple weeks later, you go to The Shroomery to post a picture and ask "how does this look?"... and everyone tells you that your spawn looks bacterial/contaminated. Sound familiar?

How can this be? You bought your spores from a trusted vendor and you were soo careful when you inoculated your grain.. It's frustrating, right? :grrr:

Here's what went wrong:

You inoculated your grains with a spore syringe.
...I know... I know.. the bag/jar has an inoculation port, so it must be for a spore syringe?!

Unfortunately, this is incorrect. The port is actually intended for a LC (Liquid Culture) or LI (Liquid Inoculant) but vendors can't sell you a pre-made LC/LI for "magic mushrooms" due to the legality. Spore syringes can be sold legally for microscopy purposes because they don't contain the active components psilocybin or psilocin. LC/LI's are pre-germinated, (hopefully) clean, cultures that are ready to go to grain.

Why won't a spore syringe work?

Spore syringes are inherently contaminated due to the fact that we don't fruit in a sterile environment. When the cap of a fruit opens to release spores, it is exposed to any bacteria or mold spores in it's enviromemt. Mold and bacteria are EVERYWHERE. We breathe in mold spores every day.

Even if the vendor/cultivator is very careful and collects their spores and prepares the syringe in a SAB or in front of a flow hood, there is still a very high chance that bacteria or mold has found its way in to the syringe.

So, when you inoculated your grains, the contamination was able to thrive due to the nutritional content of the grains.

Yes, it is possible to have a successful grow using this method, but it's a gamble. The odds are stacked against you due to a contamination vector that is outside of your control.

What can you do differently next time to greatly increase your odds of success?

Well, you have a couple of options to choose from.

Option #1: PF Tek

Your first option is to start with a PF Tek grow. This is your best option if you're looking to inoculate directly using spores.

PF Tek is a very beginner friendly method of growing mushrooms 🍄 it is more contam resistant, so you don't run into the same issues as you would with grains when using spores.

I highly recommend getting at least one PF Tek grow under your belt while you're learning the basics.

You can always shred the cakes to bulk using a Shoebox Tek so it's a very good tool to teach yourself Proper Surface Conditions and the other fundamentals of cultivation.

Don't believe everything you read about PF Tek cakes having low yields. Check out these cakes

Option #2: Agar

Agar can seem like a lot of work and it may seem complex. A lot of people avoid it at first because of these reasons. Agar is not actually difficult. After your first couple attempts you will start to understand the basics and have a foundation to grow from. Agar opens a whole new world of possibilities in this hobby. Do yourself a favor and start agar asap.

I personally recommend doing both option #1 & #2 at the same time and developing both skills while keeping a constant rotation of different projects.. This will highly accelerate the learning process.

There are 2 different ways of doing agar. Pour, and no-pour.. A lot of people start with a no-pour tek like this one and eventually start pouring their own plates..

The agar recipe I personally use is this one

You can inoculate agar plates with spores and do transfers until you have a clean culture to work with. Then you can use a wedge of agar with clean mycelium to inoculate your grain jars..
You can also use a wedge to make LC/LI. However, it is recommended to hold of on doing this until you know that your agar skills are good and you're working with a clean culture.

I really hope that some of you find this information useful. It seems like one of the most common noob mistakes that pops up on the forums is the use of spores to inoculate grains. I decided it was time to do a write-up that explains why this is discouraged and provide an explanation of the recommend methods.

--------------------
Wire-Lock Challenge Grow Log

Spore to Grain
H2O Agar
Plate Pins: Clone & Test at the same time
Updated PF Tek
H2O tub
Signs of contamination
Agar Transfers
Surface Conditions

Edited by Rotnpins (09/13/22 06:07 PM)

Extras:

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