Inoculating of Jars

How to inoculate jars

After a substrate has been sterilized, it is ready for the next step: introducing spores of mushrooms.

If you have a sterilized jar, introducing spores is pretty easy.

1. Firstly, get your jar, syringe filled with your chosen spores, and place them in a clean area. Ideally, working under a flowhood or in a still air box is ideal, but not required if you are quick and plan your movements. Shake your jar in order to redistribute substrate and moisture.

2. The syringe will be unused, and thus sterile. Simply wipe down the gray rubber injection port with isopropyl ( I recommend using 70% or higher), then in a fluid motion, uncap syringe, plunge into port, and in a circular motion, slowly inject spores. The more you inject, the faster your jar will be colonized.

3. For each jar you sterilize after this, it is a good idea to flame sterilize the syringe until it is glowing. Take care to avoid the flame as you sterilize. After this is done, simply repeat steps 1 and 2 until the syringe is empty.

Syringes can be reused if sterilized in a pressure cooker for half an hour, or recycled.

Once inoculated, place jar in an area with a maintained temp of 66-76 F and allow to colonize for 3-6 weeks. Once the jar is entirely colonized, meaning the mycellium has taken over the jar, move onto fruiting.

For fruiting the jar, a few things will help. Lower Temperature, more moisture, and more air exchange are all used to trigger and sustain the fruiting process. Move the jar somewhere colder, approximately 60-65 degrees F. Take off the lid, since the jar is colonized we no longer have to worry about contamination. Keep the jar moist, mist 2-3 times a day, or whenever jar appears to be drying out. After 2-8 days, you should start to see some beautiful mushroom pins. Its better to harvest too early rather than too late, as mushrooms degrade quickly once past their prime. Refer to our fruiting post for more information.