Liquid Culture Available Now

The most prevalent complaint we’ve had over the past few months has been the amount of time it takes for our products to ship. We understand that frustration and decided to focus our efforts on improving our systems to speed up the order process without losing any quality. Part of that effort has involved a rearrangement of tasks and time management, but our endeavors alone were not quite enough.

With assistance from Lenny Rockwell of Mycelium Emporium and Peter McCoy’s book, Radical Mycology, Andrew realized that the solution to our problem came from the place he least expected. Liquid Culture, contrary to Andrew’s original assessment, is what will enable us to get future orders out much faster, and the beginning strains are available on our website now. 

Over the years, we’ve had fantastic results using agar and growing our cultures on plates. As it grows, the mycelium looks gorgeous, but also showcases any contamination loud and clear, enabling us to deal with it before it gets out of hand. However, growing on agar is time-consuming and slow. Getting it started takes a fair amount of hands-on work, and takes several weeks to grow in enough to use. One of the most essential benefits of liquid culture comes from the fact that the mycelium is suspended in the nutritious liquid. When it is stirred, the mycelium is torn apart. Each separate surface then begins to grow anew, allowing it to spread out along multiple dimensions, instead of only on a flat plane, cutting the development time down to a few days. 

There were fears about higher contamination rates with liquid culture, but over several months of trialing it, we have discovered that the processes and tools available have lowered that risk considerably; enough that we feel confident adding it to our store. 

We’re always looking for ways to improve how we operate as a business, and being able to address the largest concern facing our customers is just a small part of why we’re excited about switching over to liquid culture. 

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFxqNV3paaM[/embedyt]