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.

In my mushroom growing guides I don't try to recommend specific brands and companies because it's important to focus on the fundamentals and not be so focused on who makes the product. This also helps our group innovate on mushroom cultivation methods, as newer and better products will enhance an already great system. But I will dedicate this post to a great company for those who are beginning their journey into mushroom growing, North Spore. I started growing mushrooms using North Spore's Lion's Mane/Pink Oyster liquid cultures, which have always been reliable and aggressive cultures. I've also bought growing apparatuses, like Martha Tents and Monotubs from this company, because they have such strong guarantees on the quality of their hardware that—when issues do occur—they help replace parts as fast as possible. If you have interest in purchasing from North Spore, I have a referral code that gets you $20 off your first purchase if you spend $40+ with them. They also have consistent discounts on their substrate/grain bags, as well as lab supplies, which I like to stock up on as I slowly scale up my production. I can't recommend many companies out there because I've run into so many questionable quality control practices, but North Spore is the rare company that has gone out of their way to be on the top of my mind when I need certain hardware. Here's a brief list of what I purchased from them the last couple months: - Wide Mouth Culture Jar w/ Port and Filter, which are modified jar lids that save me the hassle (and cut fingers) of drilling holes into standard mason jar lids, which have always been a messy process. Their filter patches and ports last for quite a few sterilization cycles as well before replacement, which is cents on the dollar. - Wide Mouth Silicone Lid Covers, which are a less wasteful alternative to aluminum foil - Trumpet, Pink Oyster, Lion's Mane Liquid Cultures, as I needed to re-up my LC stock after doing some failed agar experiments. - I also regularly purchase Organic Millet from them, as I have trouble sourcing organic millet from my local area (I'm still looking though!). They don't have the best rates for Millet when only purchasing 10 pounds, but when I'm spending more than $150, their free shipping makes it an okay deal.

So I’ve been looking into my all in one grow bag that I started with and I’m starting to notice a difference when I see other peoples bags mine doesn't seem to have grains I believe it’s a manure type substrate. And I’m wondering if that’s why I’m not seeing any mycelium colonize? This is still my very first bag and I do have agar plates and more spores/liquid culture on the way to start my mini library. So I will defiantly have more questions along the way :)

No, I don’t think you should purchase a light blocking tent for growing mushrooms. You should get a translucent tent because it allows indirect light to come in. There’s a common misconception that mushrooms should grow in a dark space. This is because of a relatively long history of growing mushrooms in dark areas, especially in France where farmers grow button and portable mushrooms in stone quarries. The benefit of these quarries was not because they were dark, but because they held in humidity and maintained consistent temperatures throughout the year, allowing farmers to grow the mushrooms year-round. Mycelium and mushroom fruiting bodies don’t need sunlight/UV light like plants, but they are guided by light for fruiting bodies to grow toward. I’ve read multiple studies on lights effect on mushrooms and mycelium, and the funny thing is that I can’t find definitive results for light versus dark, or even which color of lights is best. There is a great technical article that concludes green, red, and blue colors of light can have different benefits for certain mushrooms but in the end, what matters is that indirect exposure to light for 10-14 hours per day will result in larger fruiting bodies compared to keeping them in the dark.

I ran into quite a bit of contamination last week with at least 4 grow blocks. The big mistake I did was bulk sterilize about 12 bags in a couple days and wait for several weeks before using them. They hold up really well for up to maybe a week or two, but they will naturally contaminate as a little air seeps through the folded opening at the bottom of the bag. My lessons from this situation: 1) In a home-based growing environment, anything that was once thought of as sterile will eventually become unsterile. There are too many contamination vectors outside of a lab to count on that jar you sterilized a few weeks ago to still be clean. If it's been sitting around for a while, just re-sterilize it. 2) When you need to use something sterile, sterilize right before using the thing, e.g. you need a grain jar, so you should sterilize the grain jars the day before, and keep it in the sterilizer until you're about to use it (let it cool off overnight, of course). This also applies using syringes: Flame sterilize before every use. 3) For grain jars, check your lid gaskets, fresh air exchange patches, and syringe ports. These are parts that are consistently poked, pushed, bumped, squeezed, what-have-you, and will eventually wear out and expose the grain to contamination. Get those parts replaced on an occasional schedule. I once made the right call to re-sterilize my grow blocks after not using them for a while. This time I didn't, and now I've wasted a good amount of Lion's Mane grain spawn. I learned my lesson!