Learn How to Make an Easy Mushroom Spawn at Home

Gourmet mushrooms, such as oyster or shiitake mushrooms, can be expensive, but they are easy to grow. Most people use commercially available mushroom seeds for the type of mushroom they want to grow.

They mix the seed in a growing medium, such as wood dust or sawdust, and harvest the mushrooms a few weeks later.

Taking a step back and spawning the mushroom is more difficult. A good source of spores and laboratory conditions are required for a sterile environment. Once these initial conditions are established, mushroom seed can be produced in large quantities and with excellent results.

Unlock the Secrets of Mushroom Cultivation – Shop Tools and Resources Today!

SaleBestseller No. 1

The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing and Using Magic Mushrooms

SaleBestseller No. 2

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms

Bestseller No. 3

Mushroom Cultivation for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Gourmet and Medicinal...

Making mushroom spawns at home

Fungi are fruits of the mycelium fungus and the spores produced by the fungi are a kind of seed. Scattered spores generally do not produce fungi because they need ideal conditions to grow.

To spawn the fungus, the ideal conditions that the spores require must be created in a controlled environment. Once the spores have generated a well-established growth of the fungus, the fungus culture can be transferred to the kernels.

Placing fungal spores in a sterile medium to start fungal growth and then transferring the culture to millet seeds is a good way to get the oyster fungus to reproduce.

Gelatin with a small amount of sugar, boiled to sterilize and placed in small sterilized jars, is a good starting point. Spores from the inside of the cap of an oyster mushroom gelatinized with sterile forceps will produce mycelial growth in about a week.

Once the mycelium culture has established itself in the flasks, the culture can be cut into pieces with a sharp, sterile knife. Millet seeds need to be soaked overnight and boiled for an hour to sterilize them.

Once cooled, they are placed in sterile glass jars together with the mycelium culture pieces, and the jars are shaken well to mix the seeds and the culture. The jars should be kept in the dark at room temperature for 10-20 days until the mycelium fully penetrates the millet seeds.

These seeds are the mushroom spawn seeds that are used to grow mushrooms in organic matter.

Sterilization methods for grain production

Gelatin medium and millet grains are very fertile environments for the growth of all kinds of fungi and bacteria. Household spores and contaminating organisms can easily come into contact with seed production materials.

Fungal spores only grow in the absence of competing organisms, so maintaining a sterile environment is essential.

For the production of mushroom seeds at home, the main methods of sterilizing tools and growing media are disinfectants, boiling, and flames.

Tools such as knives and tweezers can be sterilized by placing the tips or blades in the flame of a Bunsen burner or similar clean heat source. The vials and culture media can be boiled for at least an hour to sterilize them. The work environment can be cleaned with a 70 percent ethanol solution to remove contaminants.

When everything is clean and sterile, the starter culture prepared from the spores and mycelium of the millet grains will exhibit strong and healthy growth for high-quality mushroom reproduction.