Mushroom grain spawn- Colonisation and re colonisation

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]This is a video that every spawn producer would like to send his customers. It's called the case of the disappearing mcelium. At our workshop, we decided to record a video because every so often a customer writes to us in confusion and frustration. Usually with something along the lines of, "My bag looks empty and there's no mycelium here." Some even get genuinely upset when we try to explain exactly what's happening, thinking that we're scamming them. So, with that in mind, let me tell you a little story. Chapter one. The bag looked alive until it didn't. Imagine you're holding a bag of grain spawn.

[00:00:36]It's fully colonized, teameming with healthy white mcelium from species X. It looks thick, vibrant, and unmistakably alive, like this one. And now, look what happens when I pick the bag up and break it apart with my hands. And just like that, the mycelium disappears almost instantly. The grain now looks as if nothing grew on them. This is where customers often panic. It's empty. It's uncolonized. It's faulty. But nothing is wrong. The mcelium hasn't died. It hasn't vanished. It's simply been disturbed. Now, let's move on to chapter 2, recolonization. The mcelium strikes back. If you leave that same broken bag alone for days, and sometimes more, you'll slowly see it turn white again.

[00:01:21]This process is called recolonization.

[00:01:24]But one thing to note, recolonization depends heavily on one thing, water. A sterile grain bag usually begins at 50 to 60% moisture. By the time the mycelium has fully colonized the grain, that moisture can drop to as low as 5 to 10%. So when the bag gets broken during shipping, in handling, or simply during inspection, the mcelium pauses. If water drops below roughly 10%, the mcelium goes into survival mode. It saves its remaining water just to stay alive, not to grow, not to spread, or not to look pretty and white. And this is why a once fully colonized bag can suddenly look completely uncolonized. Now, let's move on to chapter 3, the secret power of potency. Here's a beautiful thing about fungi. Every tiny piece of mycelium, every single grain contains the full potential to regenerate the entire organism. This ability is called totipotency. This is the same reason why you can take a cutting from a plant, put it in water, and grow a fully new plant identical to the original. So even when your spawn looks bare, that potential is still there. We also sometimes pack these bare looking grains into smaller sample bags for customers. Whether they recolonize inside the bag depends on the mushroom species, how fast or vigorous the strain is, how thick the mcelium naturally grows, how much moisture is left, and whether it has enough time.

[00:02:53]Chapter four. Why species look different and why this causes panic. Not all mushrooms grow the same kind of mycelium. Some have thick, strong, snow white looking mycelium mats, and others have thin, wispy, almost invisible growth. So imagine that a customer has ordered two bags, one reishi and one lion's mane. The rishi arrives looking beautiful and thick while the lion's mane looks empty. Then we get messages like, "One is clearly colonized and the other is not. Can I please have a refund?" But you can't compare different species this way. It's like comparing siblings. Totally different individuals with different personalities and different abilities. Species like this are especially deceptive. They grow a light, delicate mcelium that never looks as thick as others. And some species have low bindability, meaning even fully colonized grain don't clump together tightly. This doesn't mean they're weak.

[00:03:49]It's just their natural structure. Now, let's try to break the reishi bag versus the lion's mane.

[00:03:57]This is why some mycelium types are better for making packaging and furniture and others aren't. Chapter 5.

[00:04:04]Why not white doesn't mean not ready.

[00:04:07]Here's the part that customers rarely realize. Even if the bag has just been broken up, even if it hasn't recolonized at all, the mcelium is still fully grown throughout every grain. It's already consumed nutrients, already established its network, and is simply waiting for a new food source. So, the moment that you introduce it to a fresh, hydrated substrate, it wakes up and gets straight to work. In fact, the bag doesn't really need to recolonize at all for you to be able to use it. Recolonizing only affects appearance, not readiness.

[00:04:40]Chapter six, shipping. The big troublemaker. During shipping, bags are tossed around, pressed, shaken, and squeezed. Even the most beautifully colonized bag can show up looking like broken plain grain. And when customers don't know this, they assume something's gone wrong. But the mcelium is still there, quietly waiting. Final chapter.

[00:05:03]Don't throw it away. A bag that looks uncolonized can still be perfectly healthy. It may recolonize or it may not. The thickness may look different depending on the species, moisture, or the strain's natural behavior, but almost every time the mcelium is still alive, functional, and ready to fruit once you introduce it to its next food source. So don't throw out your bags based on appearance. Use them and enjoy the mushrooms that they'll grow for you.