Monday Mushroom Open Lab
Hands-on community mycology at Counter Culture Labs in Oakland, CA. Learn tissue isolation, liquid culture propagation, grain master transfers, and fruiting techniques in a collaborative bio-maker space.
Mycology Workflow Stages
Click any stage below to inspect the primary goals, key equipment, and skills practiced during our Open Lab sessions.
Cloning mushrooms and cleaning cultures on sterile agar plates.
Expanding clean mycelium into nutrient liquid broth.
Inoculating autoclaved grain jars to create robust master spawn.
Mixing spawn with bulk substrate to induce rich mushroom flushes.
Step-by-Step Cultivation Breakdown
A step-by-step breakdown of practical fungal bio-skills.
Sterilization & Shared Autoclave Operation
Learn how to safely load and operate pressure cookers and medical-grade autoclaves. Master cycle timing, PSI regulation, and venting procedures required for agar media, liquid broth, and grain preparation.
Laminar Airflow Hood Work & Liquid Culture Expansion
Master laminar flow hood protocols and aseptic transfer techniques. Inoculate sterile liquid nutrient solutions (3-4% light malt broth) using clean agar wedges or syringe isolates to rapidly build up mycelial mass.
Grains & Substrate Selection
Understand the nutritional requirements of different fungal species. Learn how to wash, soak, and properly hydrate rye berries, oats, millet, or hardwood sawdust/coco coir mixes prior to sterilization.
Sterilization & Inoculation
Perform precise liquid culture or grain-to-grain inoculations inside a clean field environment. Flame-sterilize needles, scalpel blades, and transfer utensils between every sample to guarantee uncontaminated cultures.
Spawn Colonization
Monitor grain jar colonization in the incubator space. Practice identifying healthy white rhizomorphic mycelium versus early contamination indicators, and perform grain break-and-shake techniques for rapid recovery.
Substrate & Fruiting
Mix fully colonized grain master spawn into pasteurized bulk substrate inside filter bags or monotubs. Maintain humidity, fresh air exchange (FAE), and lighting conditions to trigger mushroom pinheads and harvest flushes.
Open Community & DIY Biotech
Counter Culture Labs is a member-run bio-hackerspace. Our Monday Open Lab gives community members shared access to laboratory equipment, peer learning, and collaborative research without high academic barriers.
Open-Source Protocols
All formulas, media recipes, and operational guides used during Open Lab are completely open-source. Learn how to build low-cost clean benches, prepare agar media at home, and share spore cultures with fellow mycologists.