If you are searching for an authentic Liquid culture recipe, continue reading the post till the end.
What is Liquid Culture?
Liquid culture is the most efficient and easiest way of growing tasty mushrooms at home. It usually has 4% or less sugar content and other ingredients in small amounts like protein, lipids, scratches, minerals, vitamins, and more.
How to Make Mushroom Liquid Culture?
If you would like to know how to make mushroom liquid culture, you can follow this recipe. This recipe suits all varieties of mushrooms.
Things You’ll Need to Make Liquid Culture Recipe
- Airport jar (also known as a grain spawn jar)
- Pressure cooker
- 10ml syringes
- Needles (18 gauge recommended)
- One of the following sugar, mixed with water: organic honey, corn sugar, corn syrup, light malt extract, dextrose (glucose).
- Aluminum foil
- Modified lids for mushroom growing
What is the best sugar-to-water ratio?
The best recommended sugar-to-water ratio is 4%. This equates to 1 teaspoon of honey per 100ml of water.
A 3% to 5% ratio is fine, but be aware that too much sugar (10% and more) is harmful to mycelium.
Instructions for Making Liquid Culture
Here is a step-by-step guide to make your own mushroom liquid culture:
- Carefully measure all the ingredients.
- Mix the sugar of your choice with water. If you use warm water, the sugar will dissolve quickly.
- Put the lid on the jar by ensuring your jars are clean and dry.
- Cover the top of the jar with aluminum foil, put it in a pressure cooker, and turn on your heat source until it reaches a pressure of 15 psi.
- Cook at the recommended pressure for no more than 15-20 minutes. Over-cooking the sugar will lead to caramelization, which results in poor to no mycelium growth.
- Allow the pressure cooker to cool off naturally and then take the jar out. Allow it to cool down at room temperature.
- Now your sterile liquid is ready at the exciting stage of inoculation.
Important note:
Don’t remove the lid if you’re using an airport jar until you are ready to inoculate your substrate and put back the lid as soon as you are done. This will protect the airborne contaminants from entering in the jar and ruining your mycelium.
How to Storage the Liquid Culture?
When it comes to liquid culture storage, proper care must be needed. Always sterilize your jar and your hands before handling it, then agitate twice daily with either magnetic stir bar agitation or by swirling. Store it in a dark environment which helps slow the aging process while simultaneously helping prevent contamination. Before using your liquid culture for any purpose whatsoever, take time out from its storage to test some small amount on either an agar plate or piece of spawn bag to make sure it remains viable.
How to Use the Liquid Culture?
Before using the liquid culture mushrooms, the first step is expanding the mycelium which can be done by using different types of grains like wheat, oats, corn seeds, or rye.
First of all, prepare the grain to receive the liquid culture. For this, you need to soak, boil, and drain your grain. Overcooked grain will spoil the liquid. Moreover, the grain cannot be warm when you put it into the bag.
Put the grain in a bag, and place it in a pressure cooker, and cook it for 90 minutes at 15 psi to sterilize. Then allow the grain bag to cool and seal it with tape. Your bags are ready to be inoculated using your liquid mushrooms.
After 3 or 4 weeks, your mycelium should have colonized 70 to 75% of the bag. Spawn the colonized grain to a bulk substrate, and tend to your mushrooms according to the type of mushroom you choose to grow. You can nurture them until they are ready to harvest.
How to add mother culture to liquid culture?
When your jars have cooled after being in the pressure cooker, add a few ccs of mother culture. Mix the mother culture rapidly to break the mycelium.
Wash your hands with eco-friendly soap or sanitize them and dry them thoroughly with a clean paper towel. Sterilize the syringe needle if you are using it for the first time. Otherwise, use a lighter or candle to sterilize the needle by holding it in the flame until it becomes red hot. Use an alcohol wipe to cool the syringe down.
Place the needle through the self-healing injection hole in your jar lid and inject 1 to 2 ml of liquid culture into the jar. Repeat the same if you have more than one jar. You can use biodegradable wet wipes to clean the outside of the jars before use.
Final Words
Once you have learned the basic techniques of liquid culture, you can expand your mushroom cultivation skills by using tools like Erlenmeyer flasks, blenders, and magnetic stirrers that can enhance your Liquid Culture production and make the process of cultivation easier.
