How To Inoculate Grain Spawn

         

      How to Innoculate Grain Spawn

                 

   *If you don't know what inoculation is, we recommend you check out our guide: Inoculation: A Full Guide with Tips & Tricks

            What you'll need for this process:

                #1.  To inoculate grain spawn you will first need a viable culture usually consisting of spores or mycelium, a Spore or Live Culture Syringe being a good example of what is commonly used for inoculation. Spore Syringes contain the desired culture in liquid form and are useful in inoculating your substrate easily and efficiently. While Live Culture Syringes are superior, Spore Syringes will work as well.

            #2.  Next, you will need some substrate to inoculate. A standard way to go about this is to find or make yourself a grain jar, which is exactly what the name would suggest: a substrate that has been put into a jar and then sterilized to ensure the mycelium has an environment to properly develop without the risk of infection.

#3.  A sterile environment that you can use while injecting the spore syringe into the grain jar. This includes:

-Disinfectants such as isopropyl alcohol 

-A pair of rubber gloves

-Clean clothes

 -An oven

 -A lighter

Keeping a clean workspace with sterile supplies is necessary for successfully producing a healthy mycelium culture. The air all around you contains mass amounts of contaminants which is why we need an oven, as it provides an area of relative cleanliness that will be a key factor in avoiding unwanted bacteria or mould from entering the jar. The stove will create a flow of air that travels outward, thus deflecting anything unwanted in the air away from the jar.

Where Can I Find Spore Syringes or Live Culture Syringes?

We offer a wide variety of both Spore Syringes and Live Culture Syringes at CanadianMagicMushroomSpores.com and would love to supply you with a strain that suits your needs. We also stock Spore Prints in case you want to make your own, as well as already inoculated Grow Kits to save you the trouble of having to do it yourself.

Inoculating a Grain Jar 

#1.  Start off by making sure that you're wearing a fresh, clean change of clothes and a new pair of gloves. Disinfect your workspace using isopropyl alcohol, the risk of infection during this process is very high which makes it quite risky to do without the proper precautions. Ideally, the air in the room that you are working in is still and without circulation to minimize the number of contaminants floating around. When this is done, preheat your oven to 300 degrees to make sure it's sterile. After about 20 minutes has passed, turn the oven down to about 260 degrees.

#2.  Be sure to sterilize the tips of the spore syringe with a lighter or isopropyl alcohol and to keep the syringe somewhere easily accessible. Once the oven reaches the desired temperature, put the jars into the oven. After shaking the sterilized syringe, put your hands into the oven WITHOUT removing the jar and inject approximately 1cc from the syringe directly into the substrate. When injecting the culture/spores, be sure to use the holes in the jar that are made for the process of inoculation.

#3.  Once you are finished inoculating your grain jar, remove the jar from the oven. After resterilizing your syringe you can repeat this process with the rest of your grain jars, just make sure that the syringe is recapped as soon as possible after injection.

The inoculation process is now finished and you are able to start incubating the grain jars so that the mycelium can begin growing. Good luck!