Growing Your Own Spores: Spore Vials Vs Liquid Culture Vs Spore Syringe

Most of us are familiar with magic mushroom grow kits as there is plenty of information to be found on how it works online. However, information on spores and how to grow your own mushrooms from spores is something that is scarcer.

Spores are small one-celled units that contain all the required resources to grow into what we know as magic mushrooms. They do not contain any psilocybin until they begin producing mycelium, which is the underground fungal threads that allow the fruiting bodies to surface from the ground.

In this article, we will introduce you to Mondo’s three methods for growing your own spores at home. The three methods to growing your own spores are: Spore Vials, Liquid Cultures and Spore Syringes.

Spore Vials

Spore vials come in small glass containers, which contain a fluid with millions of spores of a particular strain. The spore vials are useful, if stored correctly, because you can preserve them for at least 2 years and use them various times. The liquid from the spore vials can be used to either inoculate the substrate you have produced yourself, or to inoculate a grow kit without mycelium. Once you have injected the small amount of liquid into your substrate or grow kit, the spores will start to generate mycelium and it will start to colonise the substrate.

The advantages of spore vials are:

• Legal status as it doesn’t contain psilocybin the illegal substance
• Easy storage and longer shelf life
• Help maximise your yield

Liquid Cultures

Liquid cultures are a nutritious sterilised solution consisting of water and specific sugars, such as organic honey or corn syrup. Usually the spores are injected into a substrate in order to develop mycelium and colonise the substrate, but with liquid cultures, the growth of mycelium happens inside the container/jar/vial. The spores are injected into the liquid culture and the mycelium starts to develop inside the jar. Once the mycelium has developed in the jar, it is inoculated onto the substrate.

The advantages of Liquid Cultures are:

• Lower contamination risk
• Reduction of incubation period
• Infinite mycelium growth

Spore Syringes

Spore Syringes are syringes that contain a mixture of sterilised water and millions of mushroom spores. They are very similar to spore vials, but instead of being stored in a glass vial, it is stored in the syringe directly. These spore syringes are very easy to use and contain 20ml of spore solution per syringe. The liquid from the spore syringe is injected into a substrate and within a few days you will see the growth of the white, branch-like, mycelium. The mycelium will continue to grow and colonise the whole substrate. Once this has happened, you can start with the fruiting process.

The advantages of Spore Syringes are:

• Easy to use method for novices

Figure 1: Overview of potential advantages and disadvantages for each spore growing method