METHODS OF INOCULATION:

>Spore Syringes

Most commonly sold. When you are using a spore syringe, think of it as a ton of different seeds that are being grown at the same time. The benefits of spore syringes are their ease of use. Alcohol, flame, stick it in and push the plunger... that's all you gotta do. The drawbacks are variability in genetics. Often a spore syringe will give you big shrooms, little ones, and mutant ones. Sometimes you get a canopy, but you never will really know what you're gonna get.

>Spore Prints

They are just about as common as spore syringes, but most online vendors sell you syringes so you don't have to turn your prints into syringes, or use them to inoculate agar. Basically, you scrape the spores into something and use that thing to inoculate grain. If you submerge the spores in liquid and then suck them into a syringe you get a spore syringe. If you scrape onto agar, allow to colonize and use a chunk to inoculate a jar or a bag, then that is another way to introduce the spores to grain. The benefit of spore prints are that they last longer than syringes and do not need to be refrigerated. They can also be cheaper because you have to make them into syringes or inoculate agar with them (whereas with syringes, the work is already done for you).

>Agar

Ever get your throat swabbed? Remember the big red petri dish that they rubbed the cotton swab into? Agar is a lot like that. There are different recipes and different types of agar to use. The benefits of agar include strain isolation and the ability to cut healthy chunks of agar away from contaminated pieces. Drawbacks: it takes time to isolate strains and it's pretty hard to do if you don't have a schmuv box or a flowhood.

>Liquid cultures

This is where you introduce your spores to a nutrient liquid. They grow mycelium inside of a liquid solution (kind of like kombucha) and then you suck that up with a syringe and use it to inoculate jars/bags/cakes. Benefits: This can be faster since part of the mycelium is already growing and takes less time to colonize grains or cakes. Another benefit is that you can increase the amount ofa spore syringe by ten fold. Basicallym when you inoculate the nutrient liquid, you have just amde a giant spore syringe. The drawbacks: can be hard to tell if contammed, can introduce contams every time you draw from the jar of LC.

SUBSTRATES USED WHEN SPAWNING TO BULK and COMMON GRAINS USED FOR SPAWN:

Coco coir - This is coconut fiber commonly used as reptile bedding. It comes in bricks. It is sterile and you can either pasteurize or not. It is better to pasteurize it though. Can be found in pet stores.

Vermiculite - vermiculite is a 'hydrous silicate material' it comes sterile. Verm is mixed with brown rice in the pf tek. It is also mixed into substrates to get the right moisture contents.

Manure (cow, sheep, horse). Must be pasteurized.

Straw (usually mixed with something else). Can be pretty cheap. You may need to cut it because it needs to be a certain length.

Worm castings. This is what the worms leave as a left over. It is a little difficult to get the right moisture levels with this one. Is usually pasteurized and mixed with another material. It is like soil.

Compost manure.

>Common grains used for grain spawn:

Brown rice for pf tek. Grocery store.

Wild birdseed - get the stuff that doesn't have any additives like fungicides and has the least amounts of black sunflower seeds. Really easy to find this grain at walmart or at the gas station.

Pop Corn. grocery store. You can also used feed corn or cracked corn, but the safest bet is to just use popcorn.

>>1053
Other common grains include:

Rye - this is a really common one in the shroom growing world!
Millet
Sorghum

Fruiting Chambers: These are a little complex, but depending on your method of growing, you use a different container for growing with different methods.

>DOUBLE TUBS
http://www.shroomery.org/9107/Double-Tub-Pictorial

>SINGLE TUBS
https://mycotopia.net/forums/grow-chambers-clean-rooms-%5Bterrariums%5D/25448-tv-guide-wet-towel-tek.html

http://www.shroomery.org/10677/Monotub

>AUTOMATED TUBS/ENVIRONMENT
http://www.shroomery.org/9047/Poor-Mans-Pod

https://mycotopia.net/forums/grow-chambers-clean-rooms-%5Bterrariums%5D/32029-greenhouse-build.html

http://www.shroomery.org/9664/Cybers-Martha-Tek

>PERLITE FILLED TUBS
http://www.fungifun.org/English/Pftek

For bags and invitro, since the environment is right in the bag, or jar for fruiting, you just want to keep the temps regulated at all times.

Jars have to be incubated anywhere from 75-80 degrees. The less heat you have, the slower the colonization. The more heat you have, the slower the colonization and the risk of the mycelium dying. You have to kind of hit the sweet spot with temps.

One really good way to make an incubator is to use a heat bomb. This is basically a fishtank heater inside of a plastic bottle filled with water.

https://mycotopia.net/forums/incubation-germination-incubators-heat/10148-heatbomb-incubator.html

Another good way is to put a fish tank heater (submersible) inside of a tub filled with water and put another tub on top of it. You need spacers though, between the two tubs, so that the heater is not touching the tub. Fill with bleach water.

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/12293295

JARS/BAGS

A single hole drilled into the top of a jar (1/8ths inch to 1/4 inch) stuffed with poly fill will do the trick. You can pressure cook poly fill and put a needle right through it and it will still be fine. You can also re-use it!

Also this: https://myco-tek.org/showthread.php?5180-Prof%92s-RTV-Injection-Port-Polyfil-Lid-Tek

Bags - http://www.shroomery.org/9665/Cybers-WBS-myco-bag-Tek

This is if you are using WBS as your grain, but if not then do the same thing, but use a different grain.