What is fully colonized?

In short, its the easy way to grow mushrooms. These bags already have the mycelium inside them and it is developed to the point where it will fruit in just 4-14 days. Companies (like Wonderbags) started offering fully colonized kits that have everything you need to grow in a self contained system. Produced and colonized in a sterile environment by the time it gets to you it’s ready to start producing mushrooms in just a few days.

Whats the difference? Most kits out there are just sterilized substrate and/or grain and require spores, or liquid culture (which has to be purchased separately) to be injected into them. Then begins a long process of colonization. First the grain is colonized and then it’s mixed with a suitable substrate and then once that is all colonized then and only then will mushrooms begin to grow. This process typically takes 6-10 weeks and there are some pitfalls to the process that are eliminated with fully colonized bags.

1. Contamination can set in. Sterilized grain and substrate are perfect environments for other microbial lifeforms to take root. In the process of inoculation (injecting the spores), colonization, and mixing can all provide opportunities for microscopic contaminants to get into traditional kits and cause problems that typically result in wasted time, energy and money. Fully colonized bags have been produced in a clean room environment and have passed quality controls to ensure that they are free from contamination before they even get to you.

2. Optimized Genetics. Most of the time when you get spores online, you are purchasing whats known as a Multi-Spore Syringe (MSS). That means they contain many thousands of unique spores that each have unique qualities. Furthermore, because mushrooms adapt to their environment over generations, the spores in the syringe are going to have developed traits that allow them to thrive in the environment that their parent mushroom(s) were raised in. Without knowing what this environment was like you are kind of rolling the dice on whether it’s going to be similar to the environment that you are providing. The genetics inside fully colonized kits have been isolated and optimized for the substrate, grain, and environment (co2 levels, moisture, temperature, and light) that the grow system (and instructions) provide. This means more consistent results, and much higher rates of success (98+%)

3. They’re Faster. Several months of work has already been done for you, so you are going to get results much faster with a fully colonized kit than with a DIY or traditional grow kit.

4. Completely self-contained. No need to buy extra supplies, spray water, or constantly fan or exchange fresh air with fully colonized grow kits. They have been produced to have the optimal composition of air, moisture levels, nutrition and everything else that the mushroom colony needs to be successful. So less work and less opportunity for contaminants to infect the system. Plus once the bag is fully colonized with mycelium they have greater immunity to other microbes because the mycelium occupies all of the available space in the substrate. So if another microbe gets inside the bag when you harvest a flush, perform rehydration, or through the filtered air patch there isn’t space for it to take hold and grow.

5. Multiple flushes, although the number of flushes will be dependent on a lot of factors including the amount of nutrients in the substrate, the variety of mushroom inside the bag and the growing conditions, generally speaking fully colonized bags will produce more flushes than DIY or more traditional kits.

6. They are much much easier from start to finish, as simple as setting the kit on your countertop and waiting for your mushrooms to grow. No heavy lifting or technical skills required.

Hope this. is helpful in understanding what the term “fully colonized” means and the differences between using this type of system to grow mushrooms and traditional DIY kits.