Mycelium Cakes

Drill 4 small holes about 1/2" from the edge of the jar in each lid with the 1/16" inch drill bit. There shouldn't be any trimmings from the holes that need to be removed but if there is, needle nose pliers are the best tool for that.

In a large bowl, mix 4(5) cups vermiculite, 2(2.5) cups brown rice flour and 2(2.5) cups filtered water. A clean hand is fine to mix the ingredients or you can use a utensil.
**  Still testing with 1 teaspoon of peptone added to substrate - will update later. Peptone is great for mycelium growth and works well in liquid culture. Still gathering data on adding to substrate.

Scoop about a cup of the mixture into a half pint wide mouth mason jar so that it fills the jar to the line marking the bottom of the lid threads. See image.

Take a moment to make sure there is no substrate on the side of the jar from the lid line up, then make the substrate flat with your finger but do not compact. The mycelium will grow in the substrate. If it isn't flat, you will have a difficult time stacking the cakes two high.

Fill the rest of the jar with dry vermiculite. You want to have a very slight mound of the dry vermiculite so when you put on the lid, it compresses the cake ever so slightly.

Put on the lid, then put on a piece of tin foil that is large enough to cover the lid.

Sterilize all 8 mycelium cake jars in the pressure cooker on high for 60 minutes, let cool for a few hours then move to sterilization box with clean hands.

With bleach water, spray outside of packages of16 gauge needle and 20 mL syringe and move to sterilization box. Spray outside of liquid culture jar and move into box. Glove up, spray gloves with alcohol, soak a paper towel with alcohol spray and pass into box.

Open syringe and needle, attach needle to syringe and wipe needle with alcohol paper towel. Wipe down top of liquid culture jar with alcohol paper towel. Insert needle into silicone port on liquid culture jar, turn jar with syringe attached upside down and draw up 20 mL of liquid culture. Remove syringe and needle and double check to make sure there is mycelium in the syringe.

Insert needle and syringe completely into first hole in cake mason jar and insert 5 mL of liquid culture while turning needle in a circle. Repeat for the other 3 holes in cake jar. Repeat entire process for the rest of the cake jars.

Store mycelium cakes in a dark tote or closet stacked on top of a heater pad set to mild heat. If the environment is too hot, cakes will start to turn blue, showing damage. Cakes should be stored at 80° F. You should see mycelium growth in a 3-5 days. Full mycelium growth takes between 3-5 weeks, depending on strain. Cakes are ready for fruiting when mycelium has grown through all of the substrate (not including dry vermiculite).