Dentist syringe

[ZooL]

Was at the dentist the other day and noticed the syringes they use, they seem like they would be useful for mushroom growing, as in just buying/trading spore cartridges for them and just sterilizing the metal syringe before use.

Is that a thing?

I know you can just buy spore syringes, but something about just cartridges seems more convenient.

[saguaro]

I've only ever heard of LC and spore syringes as standard 10 or 25cc disposable medical syringes, never cartridges. I'm fairly confident they don't exist in that form.

 

The only advantage the metal dentist ones have is maybe waste reduction, but it comes at the expense of a convenience, costs upfront and to sterilise, and efficient workflow. Imagine the nightmare of having to sterilise the metal syringe between inoculations of different strains or species. 

[ZooL]

My thinking was just more about the inconvenience of transport and disposal of "sharps".

as in your kit, just the syringe, you sterilize and re use this, dump the cartridge after use.

no sharps spoilage or transport issues.

I am not seeing any real issue of sterilizing a full metal syringe.

[saguaro]

true, you might use less sharps. i've even heard of people autoclaving and reusing single-use needles  if you're inoculating substrates via SHIPs, you don't wanna use too blunt of a needle that may create a big enough pore in the SHIP to allow contams in. 

 

you can definitely sterilise the metal syringe. Most ppl would rather just use ones that come gamma sterile. They only cost about 20 cents

 

i'm not saying think it can't be done,  but imo it's not better than the alternative