Grain Spawn

A while back, we inoculated a jar of sterilized wheat seed with a syringe containing Garden Giant (Stropharia rugosoannulata) spores. It did great, turning white with mycelium in no time.  You can use this grain spawn to inoculate a basket of straw or woodchips, but we’re expanding the mycelium to produce hundreds of baskets, eventually.

[flickr_set id=”72157624463908734″] So yesterday, we injected some sterilized water into the jar of grain spawn, and then took out the water and inoculated three more jars of grain.  We are left with 300 ml of mycelium water, enough to start hundreds more grain jars and eventually mushrooms.  We’ll store this mycelium water in the fridge to be our spawn source for the rest of the year (or more).

Before you know it, it’ll be time to plant the spring crops, and we want the Garden Giants ready to go into each wicking bed. Can’t wait!