Experiments with grain spawn

[jonela]

Have you ever tried to "fabricate" your own grain spawn? I mean, home made grain spawn?
Have you ever tried to multiply grain spawn?
We did both things and even got something We saved some money, too.

[Makutzi]

I got some cultures on agar and only use my own grain spawn although it is made with sorghum not grain. I works just perfect and I can make the quantities I need without wasting. I always keep some cultures on agar plates in a small bar fridge - my gene bank - for future use.

I tried on wood chips and saw dust but found that sorghum works best for me. Am starting some this week again and will post a short tutorial.

[Felix]

You can put some photos here..or in the gallery..

[jonela]

Makutzi, what mushroom do you cultivate?

[lenaanthony]

An experiment I saw online showed an oyster grain spawn experiment gone bad, where the bags and jars were filled with horrible odors of smelly molds! Although the person had good batches previously with mushroom spawn growth on cardboard (with a lack of sterility), she concluded that the main two causes of it to fail this time round was that the oyster spawn was not getting attracted to the bait as she harvested them a few days earlier and stored them the stem butts in the fridge, making it a bit frosty and slowing down the oyster mushrooms growth, which was overtaken by the wild mold. Another possibility was that the grain medium was too rich for unsterile conditions.

[Anam]

As the grain spawn are mostly used to make the mushrooms or to grow the mushroom at home by the grains like cereal grains wheat rye and mostly millet and maize are also used to grow them.

[jonela]

Sterile conditions are required in order to prevent bacteria or mold infection of the grain spawn. I remember we put wheat grains in plastic bags and jars that we sterilized in a steamer.

[Anam]

For how much time does the sterilized grain spawn remains? and what exactly is method of sterilizing them. Please do guide me jonela.

[jonela]

The method we used is the moist heat sterilizatin.  In order to do so, one needs an autoclave or a pressure cooker. Samples are placed in a steam chamber. Pressure and temperature are elevated. The temperature must be maintained at 121°C for about 30 minutes. This way all bacteria and fungi (both vegetative cells and spores) will be killed.

If you dont't open the sterilized bag of grain spawn and keep it in the freezer, it will remain sterile.