This is one of those products that you need to see to believe! I was on the fence but after using 3 of them for the last week, I am amazed! My mycelium grows literally 5X faster and completely changes the shape into little jelly pearls! You just need to suck up one pearl to inoculate a whole bag of grain. I wish these were cheaper but after looking up all the parts to make my own, it would cost be nearly $215.00 in parts if I ordered them from Amazon or other places. Granted I could make 10 lids but I only need a few. I'm getting off topic, just want to say great idea and also I want to comment on how cool and crazy different varieties of mushrooms have such different appearances in this jar! This is something that most people probably won't absolutely need, but if you have a little extra cash and want make a Liquid Culture jar, it might be worth the upgrade, especially if they ever put this on sale.. cheers!