How do you make a shiitake spore print?

Shiitake spore print is collected by placing a mushroom cap (grown indoors) on a piece of paper and allowing the discharged spores to collect on paper or aluminum foil and form a print. Prints can be used to grow mycelium on a sterile petri dish.

What paper is best for spore print?

To make a spore print you will need a mushroom with a cap, one piece of white paper, one piece of dark colored paper (black works best), a cup or something similar to cover the mushroom cap, and a safe dry place to set it.

How do you make a spore print into a syringe?

A quick summary of the process:

1. Clean down all the surfaces or Still Air Box.
2. Sterilize the water.
3. Start with a clean (ideally) sterile print.
4. Remove the spore print from the foil envelope.
5. Place the print careful in a self-seal bag and seal.
6. Inject sterile water.
7. Using thumb and forefinger wash spores in water.

How do you seal a mushroom spore print?

Take the stems off the mushrooms using your hands or scissors. Place the mushrooms with the gills or pores facing down onto the paper. Then place the container over the mushroom to create an airtight seal. Leave the mushrooms covered anywhere from a couple hours to overnight based on how fresh the mushrooms are.

How do you preserve mushroom spore prints?

Fold over some of the tinfoil or paper and store the spore prints in a zip lock bag. You can keep the spore prints anywhere at room temperature. Your spore prints can last decades. You do not need to refrigerate them.

What does a white spore print mean?

If you remove the stem from a mushroom and leave it on a sheet of white paper overnight, the mushroom may leave a thick enough spore deposit on the paper that you can get an idea of the color. This is called making a spore print.

How do you put a needle on a spore syringe?

Take spore syringe with the cap still on it. Hold the syringe with the cap pointing up. Unscrew the the cap from the spore syringe by turning it counter clockwise. Remove the needle from it’s sterile package (leave the protection cap on the needle) and attach it to the spore syringe.

How do you dry out a spore print?

Once a spore print has been obtained, it should be air-dried for a few hours. To keep the spores from rubbing off over the many years (or decades, or centuries) in the herbarium or museum it is best to protect them in some kind of container. Prints on paper can be gently folded over and placed in small envelopes.

What do you do with spore prints?

Assuming that you have a spore print (after following the above instructions) you can use it to cultivate and grow your mushrooms. This can be done by creating a spore syringe, where the spores are re-hydrated using sterile water and then used to inoculate the growing medium.

What is the difference between spore print and Hypholoma subviride?

The spore print is purple-brown, and with older specimens you can frequently check this out in the field, due to the clustered growth pattern, by simply lifting a few caps that have covered others. Hypholoma subviride is virtually identical, but has smaller caps (measuring 1–3 cm across).

What does a Hypholoma fasciculare stem look like?

Stems of Hypholoma fasciculare are more or less concolorous with the cap, but rather browner towards the base; 5 to 10 mm in diameter, usually curved with length 5 to 12cm. Ellipsoidal, smooth, 6-7.8 x 4-4.5μm; with a small germ pore. Purplish-brown. Hypholoma fasciculare has a mushroomy but undistinctive odour and a very bitter taste.

Is Hypholoma fasciculare toxic?

Very variable in cap size, the Sulphur Tuft fungus, Hypholoma fasciculare, is inedible with a very bitter taste. In Britain and Europe Hypholoma fasciculare has been linked to severe cases of poisoning and most probably at least one death; however, there seems to be little published information about the ‘Fasciculol’ toxins involved.

Where does Hypholoma fasciculare grow?

Very common in Britain and Ireland, Hypholoma fasciculare occurs also across most of mainland Europe, where it is most prevalent in northern and central countries. This wood-rotting species is common also in North America.