Spores Lab offers carefully selected, high-quality mushroom cultures known for consistency, vigour, and reliable performance.
Our catalog includes cubensis varieties, mutation lineages, advanced and gourmet species available in liquid cultures, agar plates, and colonized grain spawn.
Liquid Culture Syringe
Isolated cultures prepared for consistent inoculation and rapid colonization.
Our liquid cultures vary in colour because of a few factors:
We use Dried Light Malt Extract in our nutrient broth, and sometimes if the liquid culture is sterilized a little bit longer than usual, the sugar converts to a darker amber colour.
Additionally, if we add more agar plates than usual to our liquid culture (we blend them in an eberbach of sterilized water and then add that slurry to the sterilized liquid culture broth), we often see a different colour in the liquid culture syringes.
Agar Plate
Clean cultures maintained and transferred on nutrient agar.
We continually refine the nutrients used in our agar formulations. Additives such as biochar, frass, and glacial minerals can influence the appearance and growth characteristics of cultures depending on the concentrations incorporated into the agar.
Successful mushroom cultivation starts with two things: the right starting material and a basic understanding of the process. Whether you're completely new or refining an existing setup, understanding the full growth cycle before you begin will save you time and prevent the most common mistakes.
Mushroom cultivation moves through distinct stages — inoculation, colonization, and fruiting — each with its own environmental requirements and failure points. Getting familiar with what happens at each stage, and why sterile technique matters throughout, is what separates consistent results from repeated contamination.
For a deeper look at contamination prevention and sterile workflow, see our guide to avoiding contamination when growing mushrooms.
Ready to get started? Browse our full culture collection.
We maintain a diverse collection of mushroom cultures available in several formats. Over years of careful work, we have developed one of the most refined banks of mushroom genetics in Canada.
Through deliberate genetic isolation and selection, our cultures are chosen for strong mycelial vigour, reliable colonization, and consistent cultivation performance.
Our focus is on maintaining stable, healthy, cultures that demonstrate strong growth characteristics and resilience during cultivation.
We continue to expand our library and periodically introduce additional species, including rare and sought-after varieties such as Psilocybe azurescens, Panaeolus cyanescens, Psilocybe semilanceata and Psilocybe natalensis.
For a closer look at how we approach genetic selection and what separates a refined culture from raw spore germination, see our guide to Psilocybe cubensis varieties and isolation.
The genus Psilocybe contains over 200 recognized species of mushrooms, each varying in appearance, habitat, and biological characteristics.
Among them, Psilocybe cubensis is one of the most widely studied and commonly cultivated species. Its adaptability and relatively forgiving growth characteristics have made it a central species within. modern mushroom cultivation.
Within cubensis, many named varieties exist. These are often referred to as "strains" in cultivation communities, though from a scientific perspective they are more accurately understood as distinct genetic lines or cultivated selections within the same species.
Even within a single species, these genetic lines can display meaningful differences in:
-
Physical appearance
-
Growth structure
-
Colonization speed
-
Contamination resistance
-
Overall cultivation performance
Through careful isolation and selection, cultivators are able to refine these traits over time
Cultivated varieties represent distinct genetic selections within Psilocybe cubensis. While belonging to the same species, different varieties may display subtle differences in morphology, growth characteristics, and cultivation performance.
Commonly recognized Psilocybe cubensis varieties include Golden Teacher, B+, Mazatepec, Ecuador, and Penis Envy.
Browse our current cubensis varieties below, each available as isolated liquid culture, agar plate, or colonized grain spawn:
WHAT SETS SPORES LAB ABOVE THE REST?
Spores Lab was built around one principle: genetics matter more than anything else in cultivation. A clean, well-isolated culture colonizes faster, resists contamination better, and produces more consistent results than raw spore germination — full stop.
Every culture in our catalog has been isolated and refined over multiple generations, selected specifically for strong mycelial vigour, even pin-set, and resilience under real cultivation conditions. We don't sell mass-produced syringes pulled from bulk spore prints. We maintain a living genetic library and prepare each order fresh.
We're also proudly Canadian — which means no customs delays, no border inspection risk, and no weeks-long wait on time-sensitive liquid cultures. For Canadian cultivators, local sourcing isn't just convenient, it's the smarter choice.
