I am doing research into setting up a mini farm for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms and am currently looking into long term mycelium storage.

On the surface, the answers seem simple: Once the mycelium runs out of nutrients, it dies. So mor food mor better? However…

Slants seem to be the #1 recommended long term storage method. However, the most economical types of slants I can get seem to hold about as much agar as your standard petri dish.

Questions that come to mind:

  • Is the goal of a slant to reduce the propagation of mycelium to save on its nutrient supply?
  • Is there a measurable difference in nutrient uptake between the different methods?
  • Does it all just boil down to which method is more space efficient for storage?
  • What questions do I really need to be asking myself in the context of this thread? ;)

Regardless, I think I will have to “update” or “refresh” my cultures every 12-18 months by transferring the mycelium to fresh media. Correct?

(Obviously, for substrate inoculation, the different methods have their own benefits which I am already aware of.)

  • SalamanderMA
    1·
    1 year ago

    Thanks for the info! I’ll look over that and let it stew for a bit in my brain and will probably want to chat more. You can see where my general curiosity is pointed now, so the cordyceps information is perfect.

    Always happy to chat! At this rate, by the next time we chat you will be the one explaining me things :D

    After my first batch of mushrooms a couple months ago with no failures/contam, it gave me a huge confidence boost.

    If failures do come, which is very very likely, don’t let that discourage you. Failures teach you important lessons.

    I dove right into some of the more complicated topics shortly after. FWIW, I am compiling a spreadsheet that I intend to share that is a combination of LC recipes, substrate blends and various quantity calculators. Every YouTuber and website author has their own preferences, so I am basically going to average their data out and combine it with information I find in various research papers. (Testing is going to be the fun part though.)

    Sounds super cool! When you do publish your results, please post about it or at least send me a message!

    FFTFF is somewhat local to me in the Denver area and have been following that channel. It absolutely get my thumbs up.

    Ohh. I’d absolutely go visit his stand at the farmer’s market if I was in the Denver area! But, yeah, I really like his methods, and he has lots of very interesting projects.