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how does my liquid culture look?

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jamie

jamie

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I started this culture in spring water and honey 8 days ago..I have never done this before so I dont really know if I should put it into the fridge now until I use it in another day or 2 or should I let it go a bit longer..

The little balls you can see at the back of the jar are just stone beads I added to help break up the culture.

I dont think there is any contam..it looks like just cube mycelium right? This was started from equadorian spores.

Also, can I use a bit of this culture to start another one right away so that I always have lc handy?
 

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It looks good to me! The mycelium has a nice spiky look, it seems pretty aggressive :twisted:

I would keep it outside the fridge for another week and maybe wait a couple of days before using it for another lc. In the mean time you can shake it to make it colonize faster.
 
Looks good from here...no obvious contams. They say that you can't see all the possible contams that could potentially be in an LC (for whatever that's worth) but all of mine that have looked good have also proven themselves to be good.

I've never put an LC in the fridge so I can't really chime in on that. However, from what I recall, the more generations you grow in culture (i.e. you start a new LC from this LC and then another one from the one that initially came from this one, and so on...) the higher the risk of the mycelium losing its vigor and eventually dying out. I'm not 100% on this, but I'm fairly sure it's been commented on with both liquid cultures and grain to grain transfers. You should, however be able to do it at least a few times with no problems.

Sky Motion, google is your friend 😉

from shroomery
Liquid (tissue) cultures are used to expand mycelium into a liquid solution to inoculate your chosen substrate. Like a multi-spore syringe, except the spores have germinated into a network. Since the spores are already germinated; colonization times are substantially faster and inoculated substrates have an edge over contamination with speed.

In addition to the significant speed boost over MS (multi spore) inoculation, mycelium is not harmed by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), so this can be added to your substrate to help reduce contamination. Normally you can not do this until the mycelium has started growing, because H2O2 kills the spores.

One spore syringe can be made into gallons of liquid culture. One spore print, agar culture and mushroom tissue can also make gallons.
Liquid cultures are economical, as 1cc from a spore syringe can supply you with a large volume of liquid inoculant which can be used on many jars/bags. Also if the liquid inoculant is a clone (generated from sectored agar or mushroom tissue), then each jar should show similar growth speeds and maturity.

Liquid cultures are normally at a 4% dilute solution of various sugars and other nutrients in water. This would be 4 grams of sugars per 96 ml/cc water. (Water weighs 1 gram per ml/cc.)
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Looks good. You can inoculate other cultures right away and keep this one in the fridge as mother culture for months. And always start from the mother culture to stay in second generation.
 
I'd let that grow at room temp a little longer.

The little fluff of mycelium you see will take over the entire jar.

When I do an LC on a stir plate set on low heat and slow stir it takes about 10 day's to turn a mason jar into a snow globe there is so much mycelium. Otherwise it's kinda hard to get it sucked into a syringe.

Good luck!
 
Jamie, I'm interested to hear how your liquid culture turns out. I was thinking about making one soon myself.

So what was the ratio of honey to water that you used?
 
Jamie, this is how my LC look before i start using them. This amount is enough for several syringes. Wish you could see it for real as it is nice, fluffy yet dense. I also grew relativly fast. I'm going to use this one as a starters culture!

How are yours doing? You must have a little cloud already :)
 

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my culture is getting sort fo cloudy..there is def more myc in it though. I have read that cloudy means contam and also that it might not. I used honey and read that the sugars can solidify a bit and cloud it..I dunno will get pic later.
 
The only time I have ever had trouble with a LC is when I bought honey from a store. Most honey at grocery stores has been processed so much you can't really even call it honey anymore. I always purchased mine from a local bee keeper and pasteurized it my self.

Also I would never take time to put the LC in the fridge. Cooling the LC will inhibit mycelium growth and since this type of LC has such a short life there is no reason, use what you need and discard the rest. Some will disagree with me but I have had very little contam problems in the last 15 years.
 
nameless said:
The only time I have ever had trouble with a LC is when I bought honey from a store. Most honey at grocery stores has been processed so much you can't really even call it honey anymore. I always purchased mine from a local bee keeper and pasteurized it my self.
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The only honey I ever ingest is 100% raw unpasturized. This is what I use. It is not filtered or anything..just pure raw honey.
 
okay so I innoculated a jar of rice and verm with the liquid culture 4 days ago. All 4 of the innoculation points are being quickly colonized and the mycelium has nearly wrapped around the jar now in a circle. I cannot make out any contam so I am guessing my lc is fine. By tommorow I would suspect all 4 of the innoculation points will have spread fully into each other.

I did not use a pressure cooker either. I just got a large pot with a lid and boiled the jar in a water bath. My pressure cooker in is storage because we are moving into a house in a few weeks and I figured the lc should colonize fast anyway..and I used a smaller jar than normal as well so the cake can colonize fast with less time for contam..so far it looks good. I cant believe how fast this is colonizing compared to when I used spores. It was taking forever with spores and just ended up with more green mold than mycelium. I was extra careful this time though and soaked the jars syringe, mixing bowls for verm and rice etc in an anti fungal solution and sterilized the whole area around my workspace..sterilized my hards and arms etc..

I will get a picture tommorow. I have a good feeling about it this time..I got another jar ready to innoc tommorow.
 
obliguhl said:
distopia said:
Nice LC obliguhl :)
Can you share your recipe?
Thank you
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I just use a couple of honey drops, pressurecook for 30 minutes, let cool, throw some spores in, shake, wait...can't get any easier than that! :)
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How long did you wait ?

I made the same for three jars, and there isn't much going on.
I might upload pics later.
 
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