How to Use a Still Air Box: The Beginner's Guide to Sterile Inoculation No flow hood? No problem. Here's how a simple plastic tub can give you laboratory-grade sterile conditions — and why it changes everything for beginner mushroom growers. Category: Contamination & Sterile Technique Keywords: still air box, sterile inoculation, mushroom cultivation, sterile technique, grain spawn, mycelium growth, mushroom contamination, fungal cultures, agar culture, spore syringe, liqui

Green Mould on Mushrooms: Why Trichoderma Happens and How to Stop It The green invader that kills grows before they start — and the sterile technique secrets that keep it out for good. Category: Contamination & Sterile Technique Keywords: mushroom contamination, Trichoderma, sterile technique, mushroom growing, mycelium growth, grain spawn, agar culture, fungal cultures, still air box, mushroom cultivation Canada Read time: ~12 minutes Published by: Spores Lab | sporeslab.i

Mushroom Growing Basics: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Mushroom Cultivation Mushroom cultivation is one of the fastest-growing areas in modern agriculture, combining biology, sustainability, and home food production into one powerful skillset. Whether you’re interested in growing gourmet mushrooms like Lion’s Mane or learning the fundamentals of mycology, understanding the basics of mushroom growing is the foundation for success. This guide is designed to be your compl

Biological material does not become inert at harvest. Enzymes remain active, moisture continues to migrate, and oxygen steadily drives degradation. Losses rarely happen catastrophically — they occur quietly, over time, through small lapses in drying, handling, or storage design.

Build Your Complete Growing System Mastering sterile technique is essential, but it’s only one piece of a reliable growing system. Pair this knowledge with proper substrate preparation to ensure clean starting conditions, and fine-tune your environmental controls to avoid contamination during fruiting. For practical application, see how these principles come together in species-specific guides like Lion’s Mane cultivation, as well as our overview of mushroom genetics and stra

If you ask new mushroom growers what causes most failures, the answer is almost always the same: contamination.

A Still Air Box , often referred to as a “ SAB ” for short, is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to drastically lower contamination rates when trying to grow mushrooms . Essentially, a SAB is a piece of equipment which serves to create an area with no air movement that can be easily disinfected. This is important in regard to Mycology because every cubic meter of (unfiltered) air contains MILLIONS of Fungal and Bacterial spores , along with other potential contaminants t