The process of sectoring cultures takes time, especially if you’re doing a big stack of dishes all at once, but it’s really not complicated. To start, you need to collect a spore print from your mushroom by placing it gill or pore side down on a piece of clean paper, glass, or aluminum foil, covering it, and leaving it overnight.
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.
Doing something wrong twenty, or even a hundred, times before finally getting it right, brings a robust sense of accomplishment, one possibly surpassing that which you would’ve felt if you had gotten it perfect on the first try. This perseverance is essential when it comes to running your own business.
While liquid culture is great for bonus materials, it’s best to not rely on it for your primary means of generating grain spawn. For consistency, buying from a reputable seller or creating your own are the better options. Liquid culture often grows well, but contamination takes hold easily, and there’s a large risk of losing an entire batch of grow bags if it’s your main source of spawn. However, for a one time grow or trial run, the inexpensiveness of liquid culture helps equalize the risk.
To accommodate the grow room expansion, we built a new lab several months ago. While the differences between it and our old lab are all pretty small in themselves, together they create a substantial improvement over the old layout. We thought we’d share our set up and what we have going on.
Over the years we’ve developed a system for creating fruiting blocks that has served us well. It’s sure to develop even more in the future, especially as we collaborate with more growers, so keep an eye out for possible updates.