Can dried mycelium be re-grown?
Mycelium, the intricate network of hyphae that forms the vegetative part of a fungus, is known for its remarkable resilience and adaptability.
I have wondered whether mycelium can be dried and then revived under the right conditions. There are claims out there suggesting it is possible, and I’ve come across anecdotal reports of dried mushrooms being “reanimated.” As a MushroomNerd deeply interested in mushrooms, I’ve been planning to put these claims to the test. The potential implications are significant; it could offer a means to recover lost samples, simple shipping of live material, long term storage, or simply just to explore the limits of fungal resilience.
Lets start with a simple experiment using pure lions mane mycelium.
To explore this resilience, I started with an actively dividing liquid culture of lions mane mycelium recovered onto sterilized filter paper and allowed to dry under controlled airflow for a week; it was crispy dry. After drying, the mycelium was scraped into a sterile petri dish with no medium, simply for storage, and left untouched for an entire month before attempting to regrow. To regrow, a small piece of mycelium was placed onto YPD agar for observation (see below).
After a few days, there was visibile fuzzy growth on the edge of the dried mycelium! I was certainly not expecting growth so quickly, but was it lions mane, or just a bit of mold?
Microscopically, it looked like lions mane, but I was surprised at how quickly it came back to life. This mycelium had been sitting for almost a month with no moisture or nutrients.
I allowed the mycelium to grow out, and it certainly looked like lions mane. But would it produce normal lions mane mushrooms?
After some reculturing in liquid medium, and innoculation into sawdust, we can safely say this experiment shows that lions mane mycelium can be dried, and regrown. I was sceptical that it would work, but the proof is undeniable!
Good luck! And let us know what you think. Maybe I’ll try some dried mushrooms next, and some dried mushrooms from the grocery store after that.
