Mushroom Grain Spawn: Sterile Wheat Overgrown with Mycelium, Sinden 1932

Spawn used to be composted, washed manure packed into bricks, or into bottles that had to be smashed to get it out. James Sinden of Penn State patented spawn on cooked, sterilised grain instead. Every grain ends up coated in mycelium, the spawn shakes out of its jar, and it can be sown in rows like seed. Source: J. W. Sinden, US 1,869,517 (1932), written for the field mushroom (Agaricus). The starter is a pure culture, here from the tissue-culture blueprint.

متوسط

3 weeks

التعليمات

Wet the wheat

Put wheat in a jar with just enough water for the grain to swell as it cooks and leave no excess. You can also use excess water and pour it off after sterilising. Sinden prefers the first way.

المواد لهذه الخطوة:

قمح1 as required

ماء1 as required

الأدوات المطلوبة:

مرطبان زجاجي

Plug and sterilise

Stopper the jar with cotton so it stays sterile after steaming. Steam it at 15 to 20 lb pressure for no longer than an hour. The cooked grain is then about 71 % water.

الأدوات المطلوبة:

قطن طبي

أوتوكلاف طاولة

Inoculate

When the jar is cool, put in a bit of pure mycelium. A few grains shaken from an earlier grain culture also work, with no instrument needed.

المواد لهذه الخطوة:

مزرعة فطر نقية1 as required

الأدوات المطلوبة:

مرطبان زجاجي

Incubate and shake

Keep the jar at 20 to 25 °C until the mycelium has overgrown the grain. Shake it now and then. Shaking spreads the mycelium and keeps the grains separate.

الأدوات المطلوبة:

مقياس حرارة الغرفة

مرطبان زجاجي

Shake it out and sow

The spawn is ready when each grain is covered with a mat of mycelium. Shake it out and break up any lumps. Sow it in rows like radish or carrot seed, or in hills, 2 inches (5 cm) deep in the compost.

الأدوات المطلوبة:

مرطبان زجاجي