For a long time now, I've recommended prospective mushroom growers to inoculate their grain jars with liquid culture (LC) syringes because it's so easy. Inject and go! But as I've sourced my liquid cultures from different manufacturers, I've realized that this recommendation can only take you so far before you deal with confusion, disappointment, and contamination. This is because many liquid culture producers out there have perfectly viable liquid cultures with a hint of contaminants in them. I've found several times from a recent producer I've purchased from that my LC-inoculated grain jars look great, but once I mix it in substrates like coco coir and oak/soyhull bags, they soon become contaminated. I've provided tried-and-true instructions on completely sterilizing oak/soyhull substrates. So why should they contaminate after mixing with these apparently clean-looking grain jars? This is because bacteria in the liquid culture can still live with the propagated mycelial culture in a grain jar, just waiting for the opportunity to grow when introduced to the right environment. Trichoderma, the most common bacterial contaminant, grows in oxygen-rich environments; grain jars are not great oxygen environments, and a stronger mushroom culture can crowd out the bacterial contaminant, which lies dormant until it's mixed in the more nutritious, open environment of a bulk substrate like coco coir and Master's Mix (oak/soyhull pellet mix). In the end, to better guarantee a clean colonized grain jar and a subsequently contamination-free fruiting substrate, you need to isolate the mushroom culture from bacteria through the use of agar in petri dishes. Agar throws a wrench in the easy process I've outlined for growing mushrooms, but it's effective in identifying contaminants and getting rid of them. This fact has been ignored by me, as I successfully use North Spore's Lion's Mane liquid cultures without any issue, and propagate by own liquid cultures without contamination (you can check out North Spore's liquid culture collection here: https://northspore.sjv.io/Y9zZrB). But for those purchasing from other sources, you'll likely need to propagate the liquid culture in agar to clean out bacteria before inoculating your grain jars.

Hey all, Since May, I've been MIA from Badwater Mushroom Group – no managing, no new posts. I'm a wildland firefighter in the summer. That means two weeks of fighting fire, then a quick three-day breather at home to crash and hang with family. Rinse and repeat for five months. Come fall, I'm spit back into the real world with a whole winter to dive into my personal stuff. BMG has grown since I started it earlier this year, and I want to thank everyone who's contributed to the community—whether through likes, comments, or other means! In the coming month, I plan to reach out to those who want to be more active in our group. I'm pumped to show folks how to grow mushrooms and help others who want to spread the knowledge too. It's super cool that we're in a time where anyone can grow mushrooms right at home. This awesome food, medicine, and supplement isn't just for big farms and industries anymore. If growing your own mushrooms is a way to stick it to the man, I'm totally here to support that! So here’s an update on my re-entry to mushroom cultivation: I purchased an updated version of the North Spore BoomRoom martha tent to improve my current tent setup. The BoomRoom II’s humidifier capacity is 2 or 3 times larger than the last one, and it’s set up on the outside. For years now, I’ve had to refill the humidifier each day; if I forgot one night, it would be dry the time I wake up. Bumping up the capacity to 4.4 gallons seems like a game-changer. The old humidifier also took over two shelf spaces that could have been used by a few more bags of Lion’s Mane. This at least a 20% increase in capacity for the whole tent. Lastly, the exhaust fan used to awkwardly take over the top shelf, connecting to a 4-inch tube that stretched to the floor, which constantly pulls at the plastic it’s attached to. After multiple reinstallations, the plastic tent tore at the exhaust fan's entry point, further compromising the tent’s seal. While I appreciated the first BoomRoom's convenience in assembling a martha tent with the right tools, its design felt clunky. The shelving didn't seem made to accommodate the humidifier and exhaust fan effectively.

From March 22nd to May 3rd, I gave myself a challenge to start growing Lion's Mane mushrooms from scratch, and to end up with fruiting bodies by the end of the 6 weeks. I'm glad to say it was a success, though with a few hiccups throughout the period. On March 22nd, I sterilized 3 grain jars and the next day injected them with 2.5ml of Lion's Mane culture. By April 4th, the grain jars were colonized and ready to be mixed into substrate, so I prepared and sterilized grow blocks. By this time, however, I started to get sick, and didn't want to touch the process until I felt better, so by April 9th, I mixed the grain jars into the grow blocks. Over 2 weeks, the grow blocks were colonized, and by April 23rd, I cut open the grow blocks and set them into fruiting conditions in a humidity tent. By May 1st, the Lion's Mane fruiting bodies began to emerge from the bag! And by May 3rd, the end of the challenge, they were only one day from harvesting. Today, May 4th, I am going to harvest them and extract them to make more Lion's Mane Capsouls. This is a great success, and probably the fastest I've ever grown Lion's Mane from scratch! I think that I can optimize times even better and get it down to 5 weeks, especially since I got delayed a few times while being sick. I'll be coming out with a few videos and photos that tracked the process. But for now it's easiest just to write about the timeline. I'm happy that my estimates were semi-accurate, which you can see attached as images.

I'm finally starting to get to the Classroom, where you can find step-by-step instructions on how to grow Lion's Mane, Oysters, or any other gourmet/functional mushroom that you want. The production quality is low, but I wanted to start getting videos uploaded on each step of the Lion's Mane growing process. You'll also find in the module step-by-step instructions and a list of what you need to successfully complete the process. Once I have more time, I'll be able to have a more detailed video on how to create Grow Blocks But for now, "Step 7: Preparing Grow Blocks" is fully built out, but let me know what I can add to it to help you better prepare Grow Blocks!

This was so good, I prefer to blend it up in the food processor so it really have that picadillo texture. Will be making this one again. It made the best tacos