How indispensable are pressure cookers for sterilizing wheat?

Hi, i've been spreading mycelium on wheat to new wheat, and for sterilizing the wheat, I use a regular pot and first boil the wheat and then partially disinfect it by putting it in a glass container and using a water bath in a normal pot. I've read in tutorials that it's best to use a pressure cooker because it reaches the necessary temperature for sterilization and that it can be done with a regular pot but with a higher risk of it not working. I've been using a regular pot and so far everything has been working out for me. I've managed to spread the mycelium to new wheat. That's why I'm wondering, how indispensable is using a pressure cooker? Is it worth buying one? Or can I keep doing it with a regular pot?

Interesting question. Info that might help an educated responder:

1. If you get a failure and have to toss a moldy mess into the compost, will it break your heart?

2. What are you inoculating the wheat with? If it's one of our more unique mushrooms that don't tend to have toxic copycats, then it should hopefully be quite obvious whether or not you got what you expected. A friend gave me a Lion's Mane kit and it is very different from what I usually see locally, as an example.

There are places that have thrift shops with pressure cookers. However, often with second hand, there may be gaskets that need replacing (that's a regular thing with my large cooker, but less an issue with my new small one). Most of the gaskets are available online if local shops don't carry them.

Right now i'm inoculating My wheat with pleuratus ostreatus and pleuratus djamor but i'm thinking of starting  with other varieties.

Jay Angler wrote:Interesting question. Info that might help an educated responder:

1. If you get a failure and have to toss a moldy mess into the compost, will it break your heart?

2. What are you inoculating the wheat with? If it's one of our more unique mushrooms that don't tend to have toxic copycats, then it should hopefully be quite obvious whether or not you got what you expected. A friend gave me a Lion's Mane kit and it is very different from what I usually see locally, as an example.

There are places that have thrift shops with pressure cookers. However, often with second hand, there may be gaskets that need replacing (that's a regular thing with my large cooker, but less an issue with my new small one). Most of the gaskets are available online if local shops don't carry them.

For actual sterilization a pressure cooker is irreplaceable. What you are doing with the hot water bath would be more like pasteurization. I think mere pasteurization of grain substrates is fairly common among a certain type of hobbyist mushroom growers, but you are guaranteed to have higher contamination rates than you would with a pressure cooker. Oyster mushrooms are quite aggressive and fast to colonize grain, so are more likely to work with your methods. I predict you would have a much harder time growing other, slower colonizing, species with mere pasteurization though.