How to Remove Spores From Mushrooms to Grow

Grow your own mushrooms

Unlike many other edible plants, mushrooms only reproduce through spores. Mushroom spores are spread in the wild by the wind, but growing domestic mushrooms, for a personal mushroom patch or bed, will require a bit more work. Although some mushrooms have spore ejectors, most have to be treated properly for the spores to be removed and used to create a mushroom bed. The process of removing spores from mushrooms is relatively easy and should only take about a day or day and a half.

Things You'll Need

• Two glass slides or pieces of sterilized glass
• Isopropyl alcohol
• Paper towels
• Scalpel or sharp knife
• Lighter
• Beaker or sterilized glass jar
• Sterilized water
• Syringe

Instructions

1. 

   Mushroom gills are under the cap

   Remove the mushroom cap from the stem using a knife and place the cap on the glass slide with the gill side down. Place the other glass slide on top of the mushroom, and leave the mushroom like this for 18 to 24 hours. This will create the mushroom print.

2. Remove the mushroom cap from the glass slide. The spores should be visible on the glass.

3. Use the lighter to sterilize the scalpel or knife you will be using. Hold it over the flame until it is red hot. Allow the knife to cool as you complete Step 4.

4. Clean your workspace with isopropyl alcohol and paper towels. It is imperative that the entire workspace be clean in order to retrieve viable spores from mushrooms.

5. Fill the beaker with sterilized water and scrape the mushroom spores from the slide or paper into the water in the beaker. You should be able to see the spores in the water.

6. Gather the mushroom spore liquid by sucking it up into the syringe. The liquid from the syringe can be used immediately on a previously prepared mushroom bed or it can be capped and stored for several months in a refrigerator. The syringes must be capped and sealed to store the spores properly.

Tips & Warnings

• If the mushroom is large, you can slice the cap into several thin slices before placing them on the glass slide.

• Be sure to prepare your mushroom substrate before retrieving spores. Although there are easier ways to retrieve spores, they are much less reliable and can produce no mushrooms at all.

References

• Made Man: How to Harvest Mushroom Spores
• How to Grow Mushrooms: How to Grow Mushrooms from Scratch
• Anglefire: Fonz's Fantastically Fun Fungus
• Mushroom Appreciation: Different Ways of Growing Morel Mushrooms