You can grow your mycelium in a glass jar, with a liquid nutrient mix.
This method of culture is like a 3 dimensional version of a petri dish culture.

The advantages include faster propagation, faster growth times, easy storage,

The disadvantage is you can't clean up an infected culture, and it's harder to identify contaminants. Sterile technique is essential.

I use jam jars, tahini jars etc.

I punch 3 or 4 holes in them with a nail.

I cover the holes with silicone, the type that can withstand Pressure Cooker temperatures. It has acetic acid (vinegar) as the curing agent. Make sure to completely cover any exposed metal, to prevent rust.

Allow to cure for 1 or 2 days.

Clean your jars and lids.

Fill a pot with 1 Litre of water. I use filtered water, you can use bottled water.

I add 1/4 of a teaspoon of brewers yeast, a 1/4 of a teaspoon of gypsum, and a pinch of the final substrates (wood shavings, straw etc).

Bring to the boil, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Allow to cool for 20 minutes.

Add 4 teaspoons or less of sugars. I use a mix of maltose, dextrose and maltodextrin-it's a home brew flavour enhancer for beer. You could use honey.

Stir well using a clean spoon.

Now pour some of the mixture in to your jars, so they are 1/3-1/2 full, no more. Use a strainer if necessary-you don't want any chunks of straw or wood in the jars.

Now I get a syringe like this

put some polfill, which is used in pillows and aquarium filters, in side the syringe, to act as a filter

and insert through the silicone like this (if you don't have a big enough Pressure Cooker, you can insert the syringe later)

Now I put the lids on loosely-don't tighten them.

Load them into the Pressure Cooker, and cook at 15psi for 30 mins.

I allow my Pressure Cooker to cool down in a room with filtered air.

When cool enough, I open the Pressure Cooker, and tighten the jar lids.

To start a Liquid Culture, I open one of the pre-made LC jars inside a glove box, and add a chunk of mycelium scraped off a petri dish culture. I seal the rim of the lid/jar with gaffa tape, and shake the jar vigorously.

Now set the jar aside, somewhere not too hot (over 30 degrees) or too cold (under 5 degrees), and wait. Every day, give the jar a gentle swirl.

In a few days, you'll notice some growth. In a week or so, you'll have enough LC to play with. The options are-use to inoculate grains, or use to make more LC.

To make more LC, insert a clean syringe with an 18-20 gauge needle through the silicone covered hole on the lid. Now, making sure the syringes don't fly off, shake with vigor. Now you can suck up some Liquid Culture. The polfill stuffed syringe allows the air pressure to equalize as you withdraw liquid. A few mLs of this Liquid Culture can be injected into a pre-made jar, avoiding the need to open the jar and add petri cultures.


To inoculate grains with LC, we have several options. We can inject roughly 10mL per litre of sterilized grains, or just open the jar and pour the contents onto your sterilized grains. Mix well, and remove excess fluid. I use bags, so I cut a small hole in the base of the bag to allow excess fluid to drain off. If using jars, you could use a syringe to suck up the excess liquid.