Just retired and playing around with some long neglected hobbies.
Getting an 8 gram per liter yield of dried mycelium after 8 days growth in a 100 liter reactor with a popular recreational species.
When I get this dialed in I want to get an analysis of the actives because there is some debate on the amount of the compounds of interest in mycelium.
Anecdotal evidence is that it is active
Is anyone else experimenting with SLF?
I will post some pictures of my setup after a couple of more successful runs. Cost is low!
I also have access to two giant 8 ft autoclaves that will do bag runs for me for $50.
I have grown oyster, shitake, lions main, reishi etc in the past but found my fellow Americans to be rather fungiphobic and not interested. I imported Maitake from Japan in the nineties and sold it to supplement manufacturers. Just easing back into the hobby and I think there is more interest today in all kinds of mushrooms.
I am using a salvaged airlift 100L reactor with sterile air. On the 8th day the mycelial mat is filtered out of the nutrient broth and then dried. I am going to experiment with different drying techniques to try and produce a uniform powder or mycelial pellets. I also plan to expose the mycelium to different wavelengths of blue light and try some different precursors in the broth.
The best outcome will be to get good growth and recovery with a P. azurescens strain. Have a lot of ideas but havent had the time. I worked in bio and petrochemical facilities and labs for 34 years. Grew my first cubensis jars in 79 but didnt find enlightenment so I laid them down for a long time haha
The Chinese produce mycelial extracts on an industrial scale using large commercial SLF systems. So many mushroom health products in the USA are mycelium grown on grain so that 90% of the product is residual grain.
Anyone know what the moisture content of mycelium is. I’d love to know what the wet weight of the mycelium. The amount of dry inputs, and the amount of wet inputs.
This seems like a very efficient process if my math is correct however my calculations are based on fruiting body.
Another interesting idea is to measure the content of the actives inline somehow if the system is in a liquid state. Just before I graduated one of the grad students was working on bioreactors for recombinant E coli
for protein production
That’s about the same as the fruiting body.
Here’s a really great resource which talks about yields and biological efficacy.
What I like about this idea is it streamlines the process, I think it can also cut down on waste if bags can be eliminated. If you take this even further you can play around with different strains, nutrients etc. With protein production finding ways to get them to be released outside of the cell is critical to post processing efficacy. I believe this similar thing can be done with some RnD.
My buddy let’s me use a workspace where he has sterile compressed air using a Parker Ballston 3 stage sterile air filter system.
I run a sterilized line from that to my bottom sparge air inlet.
It is a food processing facility so he has the 2 large autoclaves too. Nice friend😄
You can buy a PALL Emflon PFR Kleen pack capsule filter that can provide sterile air for about $250 for a smaller one. They are autoclavable and have hose barb connections or 1 1/2 inch sanitary connections.
I am working on some ideas for production of mycelial mass for extraction that hopefully will only require craft beer tech and not full biolab tech.
They mention a thin film that eventually clogs or otherwise reduces effectiveness. Are there airlift 100-200 liter reactors that are more cleaning friendly?
There has definitely been a recent increase in the amount of people interested in mushrooms and their nutritional effects on the body and mind alike. I think it is awesome that you have so much experience with mushrooms and as a relatively new Fungi fan I look forward to seeing how your current and future experiments pan out. I look forward to seeing updates! One last thing, what is the most difficult part of setting up in home? I have wanted to start for a while now but have been hesitant because I am relying mainly on articles posted on the internet. If you have any good book recommendations that would also be awesome. Thanks again for the solid post, I hope this message finds you well!
