Help - first time cultivating mushrooms, is my spore ok?

Hello everyone, new user to permies and I'm hoping to learn a number of things! Thanks in advance for kindness and knowledge.
I've been into plants for awhile now but I'm just getting into mushroom cultivation. I got this spore from a user on etsy and strangely enough, today his shop isn't found in the search and the product page for my spore is completely gone as well as every other trace of this person so thats already a huge red flag. I also sent a friendly message when I made my order just making sure that it was safe to store in the fridge, and he never responded. So that being the backstory, I got the package today and I've included pictures of the syringe as well as some shots from my microscope through the plastic, forgive me its a cheap one but its better than nothing for me haha, I thought that spores were always foggy unless I'm mixing that up with a live culture, which is what I wanted to make with this. I've never ordered a spore or culture or anything before so I'm just a bit paranoid that, with this guys shop dissapearing and all, it was just 15$ for a tube of water and specs of dirt. included was the syringe for inoculation (pictured) and a needle still sealed for when its time to get to business (not pictured) in a small envelope.

Should I attempt to inoculate a medium and see if I start to get the white fuzzies? Attempt to make a live culture with some honey and distilled water? Or was I ripped off and need to find a better spore supplier lol

Thanks so much for your time!

Lambo, welcome to Permies!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t have much confidence this is going to be productive in the way you want it to be.  That being said I would go ahead and try to inoculate some media with it.

Going forward I would order again from a reputable supplier.  Adding in fungi can do wonders for your garden.

Btw, what fungi were you trying to grow?  Are you trying to grow this for mushrooms or were you hoping for compost or other microbial interactions?  The more information you can give the better information we can offer.

Sorry about your apparent rip-off,

Eric

I agree with Eric, on all points, and even though we can't know for certain, it is worth a try.

Your microscope photo isn't of a high enough magnification to actually be able to tell anything about the spore.

Usually the types of fungi that are provided in spore form are known, hard to grow species.
The syringe allows you to start the culture in agar-agar then transfer it to the growing medium once the spores have sprouted and are growing well.

Redhawk

Lambo, I can recommend the mycelium emporium as a good source.  Everything I have bought from this place has been very vigorous. Lenny also has an extensive collection and his facebook page is a good source of help.

https://www.themyceliumemporium.com/shop

That could be mycelium liquid spawn or spores (one of the two). That is usually used for growing fungus in Petri plates but not straight to grow mushrooms. I'm curious what did you do with it and what it came out

I’ve had good luck buying Liquid culture syringes from Lenny Rockwell SR on EBay. He’s cheaper than most places and willing to give advice. I’ve bought several morel  syringes from him. They colonized sterilized grain fast. I bought it on EBay too.

I still haven’t grown any morels, but they say it can take from 1-10 years from planting outside.Morels are probably the most difficult mushroom to grow, but I like the challenge.

In China they are grown commercially. I don’t think any is here.

Lenny Rockwell now runs Mycelium Emporium.  His Liquid Cultures are very well done.  

Dennis, that is good to know.

Morels come from an arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi, so, to get them to come up as early on as possible, make sure to inoculate soil that has tree roots in it and I've found that most of the hard woods are what the fungi is really wanting.

Oaks, Hickories and Poplar seem to be the best, the nut trees all do well too.

Another mushroom that comes from a mycorrhizae fungi is Truffel, both black and white are the underground fruits of an arbuscular mycorrhizae.

Redhawk

Morels are quite hard to grow, there are some patents on it but the Chinese grow them successfully outdoors these days. Their methods are not well settled yet but they did a great job so far. In the wild the fungus needs temp shifts, lots of moisture, sandy soil and burnt wood or alkaline soil. Thinking to try to grow them..