Green Grass Grove
Connecting specimen records, habitat data, and the living archive.
Cordyceps / Scarlet Caterpillarclub
Cordyceps militarisCultivated for orange fruiting bodies and research on cordycepin and related metabolites.
Botanical Overview
Cultivated for orange fruiting bodies and research on cordycepin and related metabolites.
Ethnobotanical, Bioactive & Cultural Documentation
Document culinary, medicinal, cultural, craft, ecological, or entheogenic history with named sources and regional context.
Record verified compounds and analytical sources here. Do not infer clinical efficacy from compound presence alone.
Relationships are ranked A–X in fungal_relationship_evidence; unsupported strain claims require confirmation.
Confirm local regulations before cultivation, sale, transport, release, or wild collection.
Mycology Overview & Ecology
Category: Functional / Research
Trophic Mode: entomopathogenic parasite in nature; facultative saprotrophic growth on sterile formulated media in cultivation
Natural Host / Substrate: Naturally develops from insect hosts; production strains fruit on validated sterile grain or agricultural-waste formulations rather than ordinary bulk mushroom substrate.
Cultivation Environment: Closed jars or shallow trays with aseptic inoculation, controlled light cycle, moderate gas exchange, and stable cool room temperature.
Cordyceps militaris performance is strongly strain- and formulation-dependent. Do not generalize protocols or clinical claims from other Cordyceps/Ophiocordyceps products.
Inoculation Methods & Sterile Technique
Agar Transfer
Clean tissue or culture is transferred between sterile agar plates to isolate healthy growth and verify contamination before expansion.
Liquid Culture
A verified clean culture is expanded in sterile nutrient solution for measured syringe or pipette inoculation.
Grain Spawn
Sterile grain is colonized as an expansion medium, then used to inoculate a species-appropriate fruiting substrate. Grain is not a universal fruiting substrate.
Sawdust Spawn
Hardwood sawdust spawn is useful for wood-loving fungi, production blocks, logs, stumps, and outdoor beds.
Plug Spawn
Colonized wooden dowels are inserted into drilled hardwood logs or stumps for long-term outdoor fruiting.
Outdoor Bed
Spawn is layered through moistened hardwood chips, straw, or species-appropriate organic material in a shaded bed.
Sterile Block
Supplemented sawdust or another validated substrate is hydrated, bagged, sterilized, inoculated, colonized, then fruited under controlled conditions.
Low-Tech Purchased Spawn
A beginner-friendly route using commercially prepared clean spawn with pasteurized straw, logs, or outdoor beds when the species supports it.
Species-Specific Inoculation: Test liquid culture on agar, then inoculate sterile formulated grain; tissue cloning or single-spore work is reserved for controlled strain development.
Sterile Workflow / Flow Hood: Use a flow hood or validated still-air box, sterilized vessels and medium, flame-sterilized tools, and separate master, working, and production cultures.
Low-Tech / Still-Air-Box Workflow: Small jar production is possible with a pressure canner and still-air box, but purchased verified culture and strict contamination logs are strongly preferred.
Spawn, Grain & Fruiting Substrates
Spawn / Inoculum: Clean liquid culture or agar culture distributed through sterile brown rice, wheat, or another strain-validated grain carrier.
Fruiting Substrate: A sterile formulated grain substrate; validated research alternatives include supplemented corn-cob particles and cottonseed-shell material.
Natural Host: Naturally develops from insect hosts; production strains fruit on validated sterile grain or agricultural-waste formulations rather than ordinary bulk mushroom substrate.
Colonization, Fruiting & Environment
Colonization: Incubate the verified strain near 18–22 C until the nutrient surface is evenly colonized; avoid prolonged overheating and hidden bacterial growth.
Fruiting: Expose the colonized surface to scheduled light, approximately 18–22 C, gentle fresh air, and sufficient surface moisture without free water.
Humidity / Fresh-Air Exchange: Maintain humid vessel headspace and gentle gas exchange. Excess drying aborts primordia; sealed, CO2-rich vessels produce weak or sparse stromata.
Fruiting Triggers: Complete surface colonization, light exposure, controlled cooling or stable cool temperature, oxygen exchange, and strain-appropriate nutrient balance.
Outdoor, Log & Bed Cultivation
Not a routine outdoor-bed organism. Outdoor insect-host experimentation is excluded from normal GroveOS production workflows.
Harvest, Contamination & Culture Storage
Harvest Cues: Harvest firm orange stromata at the documented strain endpoint before tissue bleaching, collapse, contamination, or excessive sporulation.
Contamination Risks: Bacteria, yeasts, molds, mites, uneven inoculum distribution, strain degeneration, mixed mating types, and overheating of nutrient-rich media.
Culture / Spawn Storage: Maintain a low-passage master culture under refrigerated or cryogenic storage, with separate tested production cultures and documented strain provenance.
Mycology Batch Planner
Mycology Batch Calculator
Estimate hydrated spawn and bulk substrate for legal culinary, functional, educational, and ecological fungi. Select a working vessel, choose the fill target and spawn ratio, then enter the number of units.
Pests, Diseases, Safety & Toxicology
Cultivated fruiting bodies and supplements can differ in composition, contaminants, and dosage. Allergy, drug interaction, and unsupported medical-use risks are outside cultivation compatibility.
Use only a traceable culture and sterile formulation. Do not expose insect colonies or release cultures outdoors; separate food production from experimental metabolite research.