How to Use a Spore Print

​HOW TO USE YOUR SPORE PRINT

Your containers are sterile. Do not open your containers until you are ready to inoculate.

Many steps require disinfectant, I recommend using Lysol.
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​WARNING: Disinfectant can be highly flammable.

1. Pressure cook your transfer tools wrapped in foil before use (recommended) or soak your transfer tools in alcohol or other appropriate disinfectant.
2. Wash your hands and arms thoroughly. Wash your hands and arms with disinfectant immediately before doing any spore or culture transfers to your containers.
3. Clean your work area and the surrounding air with disinfectant.
4. Have a torch, torch lighter or alcohol lamp to flame sterilize tool between spore or culture transfers for each dish.
5. Spray disinfectant up into the air around the room and your work area and wipe it down. The liquid molecules absorb contamination.                                                                                                        WARNING: Disinfectant can be flammable
6. Wipe your agar dishes with disinfectant.
7. move your spores you are using to make your agar culture from, into your work area. If it is in a package wipe that with disinfectant.
8. Carefully open your spores.
9. Open one of your agar dishes.
10. Flame sterilize your transfer tool and then touch your agar to cool the tool.
11. After cooling tool on agar rub your cooled tool on your spore print a little and wipe it on the agar in an "S" pattern.
12. Close that dish and repeat from step 9 until all desired dishes are inoculated.
13. After all your dishes are inoculated, wrap with parafilm or plastic wrap. 

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Tip: the more agar containers you inoculate the more of a chance you will have a successful, uncontaminated mushroom culture to work from.

Make Your Own Agar