What is liquid culture?
Liquid culture is essentially a special water mixture that’s made sterile and then infused with sugars to create the perfect environment for your mushroom culture to thrive. This nutrient-rich liquid is home to live mycelium that grows and multiplies within it. To make it, you’ll need non-chlorinated water and a source of fermentable sugar – such as honey or light malt extract – which are added in just the right amounts to create the ideal growing conditions for your mushrooms.
Liquid Culture recipe link. (click the here for liquid culture recipe and how to make it).
How do I use liquid culture?
Using mushroom liquid culture is a versatile approach to growing your own mushrooms, and there are a few different ways to incorporate it into your cultivation process. Once the mycelium has established itself in the sugary liquid, the liquid culture can be used to inoculate a grain medium of your choice or stored as a living mushroom culture.
Most growers will add the now-cultured liquid to sterilized grain or agar plates. However, liquid culture can be challenging to work with because it’s easily contaminated and not always visible to the naked eye. Therefore, it’s usually recommended for more experienced growers.
To ensure the quality of your liquid culture, you can test it on plates of agar to see if any contamination is present before adding it to your grain. This process involves adding a few drops of your liquid culture using a sterile syringe to several agar plates and waiting to see if any contamination appears. By taking this extra step, you can prevent the spread of contamination to your other growing mediums and help ensure the success of your mushroom cultivation.
Agar recipe link. (click the here for Agar recipe and how to make it).
Liquid culture vs spore syringe
Spore syringes are often mistaken for liquid culture. Unlike liquid culture, spore syringes contain spores that require germination before they can begin growing.
Liquid culture syringes contain living Mycelium, usually isolated and selected for specific genetics, and are ready to grow straight away from inoculation.
