A mushroom liquid culture is living mycelium of one species suspended in a nutrient solution and sold in a syringe. You add it to a sterilized substrate, such as a grow bag, and the mycelium grows through it before the mushrooms fruit. The six culinary cultures on our listings are all gourmet and functional species, in 10 ml syringes.
The six culinary cultures
| Culture | Scientific name, as listed | Price | Colonize, in the dark | Fruit | To harvest | | --- | --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- | | Blue oyster | Pleurotus ostreatus var. columbinus | $24.99 | 65 to 75°F | 60 to 70°F | A few weeks | | Pink oyster | Pleurotus djamor | $24.99 | 70 to 85°F | 65 to 75°F | A few weeks | | Golden oyster | Pleurotus citrinopileatus | $19.99 | 65 to 75°F | 60 to 75°F | A few weeks | | King oyster | Pleurotus eryngii | $19.99 | 65 to 75°F | 60 to 70°F | A few weeks | | Lion's mane | Hericium erinaceus | $19.99 | 65 to 75°F | 60 to 75°F | A few weeks | | Antler reishi | Ganoderma multipileum | $24.99 | 75 to 85°F | 65 to 75°F | A few months |
Each culture links to its page, with its buy button. Every figure is from the seller's culture listing for that species. All six listings fruit at 85 to 95% humidity with indirect light. Pink oyster and antler reishi want the warmest start.
What the culture listings say about using one
The seller's culture listings say the mycelium is already in an active growth phase, so it colonizes a substrate faster than spores, and they suggest 1 to 2 ml for each batch of prepared substrate. The seller's own grow bag takes 2 to 3 ml through its resealing port, and its listing says it works with the oyster, reishi and lion's mane cultures. One 10 ml syringe therefore covers several bags.
A culture or a grow kit
A grow kit puts a sterile bag and a 10 ml syringe of one species in one box: five of the six kit listings name a spore syringe, and the blue oyster kit's listing names a culture syringe in its parts list and a spore syringe in its description. A first grow from a kit is one purchase and costs less than a bag and a culture bought separately. A culture on its own is for a sterilized grow bag or prepared substrate you already have, and it lets you choose the species. Our mushroom grow kits page compares the two routes for every species, and our guide to a mushroom grow kit for beginners sets the six kits side by side.
The spores and cultures page
Our spores and cultures page carries these six culinary cultures beside spore syringes, prints, swabs and liquid cultures named by strain. The seller lists those other items for microscopy and research use only, and its grow bag listing says the bag will not work with microscopy cultures. The six culinary cultures above are the ones the seller lists for growing.
