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Creating Master Grain Spawn
Mycelium Grown out on Birdseed
Materials:
Glove Box - Prepped.
Mycelium Agar Dish
(2) Prepare Birdseed in one-quart mason jars (wide mouth = 90mm).
(2) Plastic lids with a 1/2" hole drilled into it. (Catalog)
(2) 90mm Filters. (Catalog)
Small dish of alcohol with the filters in it.
An alcohol soaked paper towel.
In your prepped Glove Box place inside:
- Prepared one-quart jars of birdseed (2 jars for every mycelium filled petri dish).
- Alcohol soaked paper towel.
- Flat head Xacto razor (hobby knife).
- Petri dish of mycelium.
- Two caps (1/2 hole in center) and filters (place filters in a small dish of alcohol, inside the glove box, until ready for use).
From inside the Glove Box follow these procedures:
Loosen the pressure out of the grain jars but, do not take the lid off!
Open the petri dish and cut six squares, as large as you can make them. Do this while holding the petri dish lid in your other hand.
Place one square of mycelium on top of one another (2 stacks).
When you have three balanced on your scalpel, quickly put the petri dish lid
back on its base.
Lift the lid to the grain and drop the three pieces of mycelium into the jar and close the lid.
Wipe down the scalpel and repeat the process with the 2nd. jar.
Now you are going to take one filter out of its alcohol filled dish and lift the lid off of a grain jar while simultaneously replacing it with the filter. Take a plastic lid and tighten it down over the filter and onto the jar of grain.
Wait 30 minutes and take the jars out of the Glove Box and begin turning the grain and the mycelium. The idea here is to breakup the mycelium squares into smaller pieces. This will allow the mycelium to grow from different areas of the grain.Place this in a converted Poor Boys Incubator. You can also place the jars on top of your refrigerator, toward the back where a good deal of heat rises. That is not the best place to incubate your jars but it is better then nothing at all.
In about 4-7 days you should be seeing growth in your inoculated grain. What you should do next is break-up and rotate the grain again. Set it back into the Incubator and watch closely for contamination signs. You will know it is contaminated if you see any color then white or a rancid smell coming out of the filter hole.
Allow the grain to
become completely engulfed with the mycelium. You can do a couple of
things with it:
a. Inoculate pasteurized straw
b.
Transfer inoculated grain to other prepared grain jars using the same sterile
techniques in the Glove Box. Just use a spoon that has been sterilized with
alcohol and "scoop" the mycelium covered grain into awaiting
jars. One jar can inoculate up to 10 more!!
Also see... Creating Master Spawn (GRAIN)
Build a Professional Flowhood!
Dangers of Eating Magic Mushrooms
Help Identify These Mushrooms!
