Mushroom Jars: a Cradle of Life

About our Jars

Our 32 Oz, 64 Oz, and gallon sized wide mouth grain jars are made to be the best growing medium possible for mushrooms, outside of nature. We use whole grain oats with a mixture of hardwood or Soy pellets (not pictured) . Most types of mushrooms you would want to grow can be grown on this medium with a little tweaking.

Of course, jars are only one way to grow mushrooms. Pretty much any container can be used, assuming it can be properly cleaned and sanitized. A lot of growers use polypropylene plastic bags, due to their heat resistance and ease of mixing ingredients. Even though there is little to suggest polypropylene is toxic, it does leach into the growing medium. It is still after all, a plastic. We like to use jars. This is mainly because of the sustainability aspect. Aluminum and glass require more energy to make at first, but unlike bags, they can be used, cleaned, and reused again, multiple times over. We believe that when you work with nature, every reasonable measure should be taken to ensure you don’t cause harm to it.

Each of our jars is formulated with specific ratios of wood/soy pellets or grain. Before a jar is filled, it is first soaked in enough water to achieve an ideal moisture content of approximately 60%, and left to soak for 12 hours. Then, the jar is sterilized in an autoclave until all bacteria is left bereft and broken.

By the time you get the pre sterilized jar, its ready to introduce spores! If each step is done correctly, the end product should look something like this:

If you ordered a pre-sterilized jar and spores, the only added step is inoculation. Easy enough, each jar comes with instructions that take most of the guesswork out.

Check out the link for instructions on how to inoculate jars: https://www.moonlitmycology.com/post/inoculating-jars

Alternatively, you can order a pre-inoculated jar, and by the time it arrives, it should look like the picture above, or close.

Once your jar is fully colonized, use the following link to fruit them.

https://www.moonlitmycology.com/post/instructions-for-jars-fruiting