Inoculating the rye

The mushroom spores came today. I opted for a mushroom syringe, which is a 10cc syringe full of mushroom spores suspended in sterile water, rather than a mushroom print, which is a foil (or paper) which has mushroom spores dropped on its surface. The syringe seemed to be simpler for a beginner.

To begin, I arranged my syringe, gloves, isopropyl alcohol (70%), cotton balls, and jar of rye seeds on my sterile surface.

Rye seeds (sterilized), syringe, gloves, bottle of alcohol.

Then I opened up the syringe, injected about 3 cc of suspended spores into the jar, and shook the whole thing lightly until it was mixed.

It was difficult. The jar lid had four holes in it, so theoretically I should have been able to inject 1cc into each hole evenly, but there was a white covering which hides the holes in the metal lid. It is not a good idea to remove the covering since it blocks unfriendly bacteria and fungi from the culture. There was a lot of random stabbing before I hit a hole in the lid.

I think I got enough into the jar to get a decent culture. If not, I have enough left over to try again.

I put the inoculated rye jar in a warm, draft-free, unlit environment. We shall see what happens within the week.