If you’re new to mushroom cultivation, you’ve probably heard about spore syringes and liquid culture (LC). They might look similar at first (both often come in syringes), but they’re very different beasts. In this blog post, we’ll break down the differences in a casual, beginner-friendly way. By the end, you’ll know why spores are considered the starting point for growing mushrooms, and why liquid culture is the fast lane, plus how you can go from one to the other.
Spores: The Starting Point of Mushroom Cultivation
Mushroom spores are like the seeds of the fungi world – tiny reproductive cells that can germinate into mycelium (the fungal network that eventually fruits into mushrooms). In nature, mushrooms drop millions of microscopic spores. For cultivation purposes, we collect those spores on something called a spore print (a deposit of spores on paper/foil) or suspend them in water to make a spore syringe. Spore syringes are usually 10 ml syringes filled with sterilised water and billions of microscopic spores. Often, you’ll see little dark specks floating in the syringe – those are clumps of spores!
Mycotown is a trusted UK source for high-quality mushroom spores – they pride themselves on top-notch, clean spore syringes and prints for enthusiasts. If you go with a reputable seller like Mycotown, you’re more likely to get viable spores with minimal contamination (more on contamination in a second).
Spore syringe from Mycotown
Genetic Diversity: One cool (and sometimes frustrating) thing about spores is that they’re genetically diverse. Each spore carries unique DNA. When you germinate spores, you end up with tons of different fungal strains mingling together. In practice, that means if you start a grow from a multispore syringe, your substrate will likely have several genetic variants of the mushroom growing in it. Some might grow big, some small; some might yield well, others not so much. It’s a bit of a lottery. This genetic grab-bag is natural – it’s how mushrooms propagate in the wild – and it can be fun because you might discover a particularly awesome variety by chance. On the flip side, if you’re hoping for consistent results, the randomness can be a downside. Commercial growers avoid multispore grows for this reason, preferring to work with a single known strain (that’s where liquid cultures shine, as we’ll see later).
Contamination and Success Rates: Spores might be nature’s starting point, but they do come with a higher chance of contamination and often lower success rates for beginners. Why? Two main reasons: how spore syringes are made and the germination process.
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Preparation: When making a spore syringe, you typically scrape spores from a spore print into sterile water. Even in lab conditions (flow hood, sterile tools, etc.), you cannot truly sterilise the spores themselves without killing them – they’re biological material. That means there’s always a small chance that, along with your mushroom spores, a few mould spores or bacteria hitchhiked from the mushroom or the environment. Good vendors do everything they can to minimise this, but it’s never 100% clean. So, the spore syringe you buy is usually mostly mushroom spores… with a tiny potential of some contaminant present.
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Germination Lag: Now, when you inoculate (i.e. inject) a spore syringe into your sterile grain or substrate, those spores need time to germinate and fuse together to start growing mycelium. It’s like planting seeds – there’s a waiting period before you see growth. During that waiting period, your substrate is vulnerable. If any competitor mould or bacteria made it in (from the syringe or any other exposure), it has a chance to establish itself. Slower colonisation from spores gives contaminants more time to take hold. This is why beginners often see contamination when using spore syringes directly on grain: the spores are taking their sweet time to wake up, and meanwhile, some lurking mould says “aha, free real estate!” and moves in.
In short, spores are the natural, starting-from-scratch method. They’re easy to obtain and store (spore syringes can last 6-12 months in the fridge) and are usually cheaper up front than liquid cultures. But they require patience and have a lower success rate due to that initial germination phase and the impossibility of completely sterile prep. Think of spores as an adventurous route – you’re going back to square one, like in nature, which is rewarding but a bit unpredictable.
(Pro tip: Many growers mitigate the contamination risk by germinating spores on agar plates first, to isolate clean mycelium, rather than straight to grain. But that’s a topic for another day.)
Liquid Culture: Mycelium in a Jar (Fast-Track Growth)
If spores are seeds, liquid culture is like a cutting or a seedling – a head start on the growing process. A liquid culture is a living suspension of mushroom mycelium in a nutrient broth. In other words, someone (maybe you!) took a small piece of mushroom mycelium, put it in sugary, sterilised water, and let it grow into an army of mycelial strands floating in that liquid. This mycelium-rich solution can then be sucked into a syringe and used to inoculate substrate without the need for spore germination. The mycelium is already alive and raring to colonise.
Speed and Success: The biggest advantage of liquid culture is speed. When you inject an LC into your grain jar or substrate, you’re dumping in millions of live threads of mycelium that immediately get to work colonising the new home. There’s no delay; they don’t need to “find a mate” or germinate – they’re already growing. You often see signs of growth in a couple of days, versus a week or more with spores. Faster colonisation means the window for contamination is much smaller as well. A clean liquid culture can often out-run and out-compete any stray contaminant simply by being first to establish itself on the food.
Because a liquid culture typically starts from a known, clean piece of mycelium (often from agar), if done right, it has a very high success rate. In fact, commercial mushroom farms almost exclusively use liquid cultures or grain spawn derived from liquid cultures – it’s reliable and scalable. As long as your LC itself is clean, you can expect a very high success rate when you use it to inoculate substrates. No more crossing fingers for spores to germinate; it’s like starting a race with a turbo boost.
Consistency: Remember how spores give you many genetic varieties at once? With liquid culture, you usually have one genetic line (strain) of mushroom cloned or isolated. If you cloned your LC from a particularly big mushroom, you can expect that culture to produce similar genetics (so hopefully similarly big fruits). This is why folks talk about “isolating” a good culture – with LC, you can preserve those genetics and get repeatable results. Yield and growth traits tend to be consistent with a good liquid culture, whereas spores are a roll of the dice. For a hobbyist, this means if you find a mushroom you like, you can keep that going via LC. For a beginner, using a well-made LC can remove some of the variability that comes with multispore grows.
But (there’s always a but): Liquid culture must be absolutely sterile. If a contaminant gets in during the making of an LC, it will multiply unseen along with the mycelium. The tricky part is that contamination in an LC isn’t always obvious – the liquid can look perfectly fine even if some bacteria are swimming in there. Cloudiness or weird colours can indicate contamination, but a lot of times, a bacterial contamination in LC looks like just another strand of mycelium to the untrained eye. With a spore syringe, if bacteria multiply, you’ll see the liquid turn cloudy or chunky (easy to spot). In an LC, the nutrient broth is already cloudy and full of mycelial fluff, so the bacteria can hide. This means you have to trust your sterile technique (or your supplier) when it comes to LC. If you inoculate grain with a contaminated liquid culture, you’ll likely ruin that grow because you’re injecting a ton of competitors along with the mycelium.
Shelf Life: Another minor drawback is that liquid cultures typically have a shorter shelf life compared to spore syringes. A spore syringe can sit in the fridge for 8-12 months and still be usable. An LC syringe is best used within 2-3 months for peak vitality (and usually no more than ~6 months, as the mycelium can weaken or starve over time). So you don’t usually make or buy large volumes of LC unless you plan to use them relatively soon.
Accessibility: You can sometimes buy ready-to-use liquid culture syringes for legal edible or medicinal mushroom species (like oyster mushroom LC, lion’s mane LC, etc.). For gourmet mushrooms, many growers prefer this because it cuts out several steps. However, as mentioned, for psilocybe mushrooms, you won’t find legal LC syringes sold – you’ll be working with spores or making your LC from those spores. That said, liquid culture isn’t rocket science; many hobbyists make their own at home with basic equipment.
Spores vs. Liquid Culture – Key Differences at a Glance
To summarise the comparison, here are the major differences between starting with spores versus liquid culture:
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Colonisation Speed: Liquid culture is much faster. Because you’re starting with live mycelium, an LC syringe will colonise a substrate in a fraction of the time a spore syringe would. Spores need to germinate first (adding days or weeks), whereas an LC leaps into growth immediately. Faster colonisation also means less time for contaminants to get a foothold.
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Ease of Use: Spore syringes are straightforward – just shake and inject into your sterilised substrate or cake. They’re shelf-stable for longer and don’t require special care. Liquid cultures require a bit more care up front (someone has to create that LC in sterile conditions). Once you have a clean LC, using it is as easy as using a spore syringe, but you do have to keep it refrigerated and use it relatively soon for best results.
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Contamination Risk: Spore syringes have a higher initial contamination risk. Since spores themselves can’t be sterilised fully, there’s always a chance something unwanted is in the syringe. Plus, the slower germination gives contaminants a head start if present. Liquid culture, if made from a clean source, has a lower contamination rate and often outgrows contaminants. However, any contamination in an LC is hard to detect and can be catastrophic, but sneaky (you might not know until you’ve inoculated your grain). In a spore syringe, contamination (bacterial bloom, etc.) would usually be visible as cloudiness or sediment, which is an obvious red flag.
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Genetics & Diversity: Spores = diversity. A single spore syringe can contain thousands of genetic possibilities. This can be fun (unexpected traits, chance to find a great performer), but also means variability in growth and yields. Liquid culture = consistency. An LC is often an isolated strain or clone, so it has uniform genetics. You know what you’re getting (size, colonisation time, yield potential, etc.) because it’s essentially a copied-and-pasted mushroom strain. No surprises (which, for many growers, is a good thing).
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Use Case: Beginners often start with spore syringes because it’s the basic introduction and often part of “grow kits” sold online. As you get more into the hobby, you might move to working with agar and liquid cultures to improve success rates and efficiency. Liquid culture is favoured when you want to scale up or ensure a better success chance for each jar you inoculate. Spore syringes are great for collecting genetics and long-term storage (spores last longer than LC in storage), whereas LC is great for quick production and cloning.
From Spores to Liquid Culture: Best of Both Worlds
What if you want the genetic variety of spores and the fast growth of liquid culture? Good news: You can turn spores into liquid culture. In fact, this is a common technique – germinate your spores in a nutrient broth to create your own LC. The idea is simple: take a sterile jar of sugary solution, inject some spores, and let them germinate and grow in the liquid. After a couple of weeks (assuming everything stays sterile), you’ll have a liquid full of mushroom mycelium, which is essentially a homemade LC syringe ready to use. This approach gives you the benefits of multispore (lots of genetics to start with) and then the speed of LC for actually colonising your grow.
Doing this from scratch requires a sterile setup (you’d typically use a self-healing injection port jar or do it in a glove box). If that sounds daunting, don’t worry – there are kits that make it beginner-friendly. Here at Sporogenesis, we offer a Sterile Liquid Culture Jar Kit that’s basically an all-in-one solution for turning spores into LC. Our liquid culture kit comes with a pre-sterilised nutrient broth in a sealed jar (with an injection port on top), plus sterile syringes, needles, alcohol wipes, and even gloves – everything you need to get started. Just inject 1-2 cc of your spore syringe into the jar through the port, incubate it at room temperature, and within 10-14 days, you should see fluffy mycelium growing in the liquid. Voila – you’ve got liquid culture!
We created this kit to make life easier for beginners. It saves money in the long run, too. Instead of using up an entire spore syringe on one or two bags of grain, you can expand those spores into many syringes' worth of liquid culture. As we like to say: why pay fifteen quid to spore vendors every time when you can whip up loads of your own LC and stash it in the fridge? With one spore syringe, our kit lets you grow hundreds of millilitres of liquid culture (the jar holds 180 ml of broth). That could inoculate dozens of grain jars or spawn bags if you wanted. In other words, turning spores into LC multiplies your inoculant.
For the curious, here’s what our Liquid Culture Kit includes out of the box :
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Sterilised 250 ml culture jar (filled with 180 ml of special nutrient broth optimised for mushrooms) – the “LC jar” itself, ready to inoculate.
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Sterile syringes and needles (multiple 10 ml syringes with 16G needles) – used to inject spores and later to withdraw your finished liquid culture.
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Syringe caps – to keep your syringes sterile after drawing up LC (great for storage).
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Alcohol wipes and gloves – to ensure everything stays clean during inoculation.
Everything is pressure-sterilised and sealed, so you can get right to inoculating with your spore syringe as soon as you get it. (We also offer a jar-only option for those who already have spare sterile syringes and just need the ready-made LC jar.) This all-in-one approach is perfect for beginners because you don’t need a flow hood or any fancy lab gear – the kit provides a controlled environment. Just follow the instructions, and you’ll be growing your own liquid culture like a pro. And if you run into any questions, we’ve got your back (see our support info below!).
Wrapping Up: Which Should You Choose?
For most beginners, starting with a spore syringe is a gentle introduction to the hobby – it’s straightforward and teaches you the basics of inoculation and contamination awareness. If you succeed, great! If not, you’ve learned what contamination looks like and you can improve your technique. As you gain experience (or if you’re the impatient type), liquid cultures start to look very attractive for their speed and reliability. Many growers actually use both: they might start with spores to obtain new genetics, then transfer the strongest growth to liquid culture or agar for subsequent batches. There’s no one “right way” – it depends on your goals. If you love experimentation and don’t mind some trial and error, playing with spores is fun. If you want a higher chance of success and faster results, a well-made liquid culture is the way to go.
We’re Here to Help: Still have questions or need advice on getting started? Don’t hesitate to reach out! Here at Sporogenesis, we love helping newcomers on their mushroom journey. Feel free to contact us or even better, join our Telegram group where a whole community of mushroom growers (and our team) are hanging out and ready to share tips. Whether you’re examining spores under a microscope or fruiting your first batch of mushrooms, we’re excited to hear about your projects. Happy growing, and welcome to the myco-family!