Help! How to grow mushrooms

[silentftw]

Hey all. Last year an old friend of mine had some "Chinese gold caps" and I was lucky enough to have an amazing spiritual experience through these. I recently want to experience that again , although I know little to nothing about shrooms in depth.

I have been really depressed lately. I remember weeks / months after this spiritual experience I was happy for the first time in many , many years .

I recently have started seeing spore kits for sale and would VERY much appreciate some wisdom and knowledge from some of you fine folks below is what I am curious about.

1. Are psilocybin mushrooms are somewhat the same or are there varied strains etc that have different effects? If so, what are the different strains and their corresponding effects and what strain usually accompanies "Chinese gold caps"
2. How would I go about getting spores / a guide to grow this strain "theoretically of course "
3. Thank you so much , I appreciate your knowledge more than you know .
4. What the total cost and investment time and money wise would be for this endeavor . What the chances of success are.

 

[sekio]

1. Are psilocybin mushrooms are somewhat the same or are there varied strains etc that have different effects?

Some would claim that different "strains" produce different effects, but chemically speaking they all produce psilocin/psilocybin, just in differing amounts.

2. How would I go about getting spores / a guide to grow this strain "theoretically of course "

Growing one strain is very much like another. Two common strains of fairly easily grown P. cubensis called "Penis Envy" and "Golden Teacher" are widely grown and should work just as well.
There are guides online but of course supplying exact sources is illegal. You should be able to collect spores from a bag of other psilocybin mushrooms too...

The key thing is sterility, sterility, sterility. Boiling water, isopropanol, hydrogen peroxide, bleach water, etc. are mandatory, as are face masks/gloves/clean working areas. Psilocybe spp. can resist some moulds, fungi, etc but only once it is well established. If mould appears while the mycelium is still growing it's a wasted jar.

4. What the total cost and investment time and money wise would be for this endeavor . What the chances of success are.

Depending on how thrifty you can do it, (dollar stores for plastic boxes, bleach spray, etc, buying substrate i.e. brown rice grain or something in bulk, etc) - you will need a few hours up front and under $100 of materials, and then several weeks to allow the mushroom mycelium to grow, then finally "fruiting" the mycelium to grow the actual mushrooms.
Chances of success depend on how well you follow the instructions and how scrupulously clean you are while doing it. It's not too hard to do overall, perhaps slightly more difficult than growing a pot plant. But takes a lot less space, no light, and no odour to deal with.

Good luck.

 

[silentftw]

Some would claim that different "strains" produce different effects, but chemically speaking they all produce psilocin/psilocybin, just in differing amounts.


Growing one strain is very much like another. Two common strains of fairly easily grown P. cubensis called "Penis Envy" and "Golden Teacher" are widely grown and should work just as well.
There are guides online but of course supplying exact sources is illegal. You should be able to collect spores from a bag of other psilocybin mushrooms too...

The key thing is sterility, sterility, sterility. Boiling water, isopropanol, hydrogen peroxide, bleach water, etc. are mandatory, as are face masks/gloves/clean working areas. Psilocybe spp. can resist some moulds, fungi, etc but only once it is well established. If mould appears while the mycelium is still growing it's a wasted jar.


Depending on how thrifty you can do it, (dollar stores for plastic boxes, bleach spray, etc, buying substrate i.e. brown rice grain or something in bulk, etc) - you will need a few hours up front and under $100 of materials, and then several weeks to allow the mushroom mycelium to grow, then finally "fruiting" the mycelium to grow the actual mushrooms.
Chances of success depend on how well you follow the instructions and how scrupulously clean you are while doing it. It's not too hard to do overall, perhaps slightly more difficult than growing a pot plant. But takes a lot less space, no light, and no odour to deal with.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info man. Already ordered everything I need. By the way out of curiosity how difficult is it to find mushrooms in the outdoors with any degree of potency? I have a buddy who goes and hunts for them and routinely eats like 5 grams and feels nothing . Is it next to impossible?

 

[sekio]

It depends where you live, the time of the year, etc. and how confident you are as a mycologist.
If you have access to ideal growing areas (often e.g. cow pasture) and know exactly what you're looking for, it's totally possible to end up with large amounts of mushrooms.
You just don't want to go and pick a bunch of Amanita phalloides or some other nasty...
Also in general the ratio is 10g fresh mushrooms = 1g dried mushrooms (they hold a lot of water naturally). 5g of fresh mushrooms isn't much, and different species of Psilocybe will have varying amounts of psilocybin, i.e. not all mushrooms will be super potent.

If you want a reliable source of mushrooms of known pedigree and potency, growing your own is much preferred.

 

[silentftw]

Bumping this thread. What is the best way to maintain a humidity of 85% ? Is there a device or container that can regulate this ?

 

[The Shadow Self]

You can make a fruiting chamber out of items from Home Depot or Lowes that you can easily control the humidity and temperature of. Even using a deep layer of Perlite in the bottom and keeping it well hydrated can meet your humidity needs, and perhaps using a large heating pad (or pads) underneath, similar to those used in enclosures used to house large snakes, for example, can be used. So of course getting it all in order in terms of monitoring temperature and humidity long before you introduce your colonized mycelia so you have it under good control is a great place to start. One of the keys is to allow for a reasonable amount of air circulation while maintaining humidity and temperature consistently. This should all be ready to go before you inoculate anything, and so you know your numbers before risking losing your colonized mycelia. Getting this mass colonization of mycelial growth is often the biggest obstacle to beginners, and you may fail some early on, so you want your fruiting chamber to be a known, controlled commodity before you inoculate anything. It's really the key to producing fruits in any kind of numbers, aside from the know how, of course. If your mycelia is vigorously colonized, say, even in a grow bag, you can just transfer the the block from the bag into the FC and set and control the conditions for pinning. Once you see what it takes to get them to pin, maintaining the proper humidity and temperature controls, you'll see how quickly those blocks start to fruit. It's quite amazing to see and do, of course. Even if all you want to do is knock up sterilized bags, get the mycelia to grow and colonize, and ultimately putting them into a fruiting chamber, getting the colonized mycelia to pin is not hard at all with a little trial and error. Also, with the advent of very high quality bags and spore syringes, it's a great place to start a small grow situation. Your mileage will vary, but buy a good book or two, and be prepared for trial and error with some failures, and again, start small. You'd be shocked at how much cubensis you can yield from 3 or 4 well-inoculated and colonized bags from a good source if you treat them well. And of course you can get some good flushes out of them once you have your first harvest.

But again...start small. That way, the mistakes are smaller, less costly, and you can move on if things go south and start again. Even if you knock up 4 or 5 bags and only 2 or 3 colonize properly, you can see what the process looks like and scale up later if you want. Once you figure it out, you'll be shocked at how easy it is to grow a good amount of cubensis for personal use and beyond, if you want. It's the same with growing weed; once you figure it out, and it is not hard, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner. Once you realize that having the proper equipment and knowledge gets you half way there, and have some success, you may never have to worry about buying any of the above ever again. It's almost laughable once you have some success.

Of course a secure place to do all this is obviously necessary, but I've known people that have grown lots of mushrooms in a closet sized space, which is all most people need, and have for years.

 

[silentftw]

You can make a fruiting chamber out of items from Home Depot or Lowes that you can easily control the humidity and temperature of. Even using a deep layer of Perlite in the bottom and keeping it well hydrated can meet your humidity needs, and perhaps using a large heating pad (or pads) underneath, similar to those used in enclosures used to house large snakes, for example, can be used. So of course getting it all in order in terms of monitoring temperature and humidity long before you introduce your colonized mycelia so you have it under good control is a great place to start. One of the keys is to allow for a reasonable amount of air circulation while maintaining humidity and temperature consistently. This should all be ready to go before you inoculate anything, and so you know your numbers before risking losing your colonized mycelia. Getting this mass colonization of mycelial growth is often the biggest obstacle to beginners, and you may fail some early on, so you want your fruiting chamber to be a known, controlled commodity before you inoculate anything. It's really the key to producing fruits in any kind of numbers, aside from the know how, of course. If your mycelia is vigorously colonized, say, even in a grow bag, you can just transfer the the block from the bag into the FC and set and control the conditions for pinning. Once you see what it takes to get them to pin, maintaining the proper humidity and temperature controls, you'll see how quickly those blocks start to fruit. It's quite amazing to see and do, of course. Even if all you want to do is knock up sterilized bags, get the mycelia to grow and colonize, and ultimately putting them into a fruiting chamber, getting the colonized mycelia to pin is not hard at all with a little trial and error. Also, with the advent of very high quality bags and spore syringes, it's a great place to start a small grow situation. Your mileage will vary, but buy a good book or two, and be prepared for trial and error with some failures, and again, start small. You'd be shocked at how much cubensis you can yield from 3 or 4 well-inoculated and colonized bags from a good source if you treat them well. And of course you can get some good flushes out of them once you have your first harvest.

But again...start small. That way, the mistakes are smaller, less costly, and you can move on if things go south and start again. Even if you knock up 4 or 5 bags and only 2 or 3 colonize properly, you can see what the process looks like and scale up later if you want. Once you figure it out, you'll be shocked at how easy it is to grow a good amount of cubensis for personal use and beyond, if you want. It's the same with growing weed; once you figure it out, and it is not hard, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner. Once you realize that having the proper equipment and knowledge gets you half way there, and have some success, you may never have to worry about buying any of the above ever again. It's almost laughable once you have some success.

Of course a secure place to do all this is obviously necessary, but I've known people that have grown lots of mushrooms in a closet sized space, which is all most people need, and have for years.

I got a Sterlite clear storage bin for my fruiting chamber. I'm going to drill a few holes in it and lay perlite under the fruiting cakes. Is that sufficient ?

 

[The Shadow Self]

It can be, for sure. And make sure you get a decent hydrometer to keep in the fruiting chamber to keep close track of the humidity. Controlling the humidity is obviously critical but once you have say 4 inches or so of Perlite in the bottom of the fruiting chamber, you can literally add as much water into it as you'd like. This abundance of Perlite and water will keep the humidity super high, with ease, and the Perlite absorbs lots of water so even if you pour a quart of water into it to begin with and mix it around, you'll only have to monitor the humidity and add water to the Perlite base as needed. This also allows for adequate ventilation to be employed while having an abundance of humidity due to the consistent amount of water in the Perlite.

 

[thurston]

Google Rez Effect it's super easy. No need to worry about measuring humidity. Get you some B+ strain spores.

 

[joesmyname]

Bumping this thread. What is the best way to maintain a humidity of 85% ? Is there a device or container that can regulate this ?

Surface conditions is all that matters. Relative humidity means almost nothing.
A cube is a cube, B+, GT, all the same (ape maybe but not ime). It’s the difference in species that matter. I suggest learning with cubes and preparing for the next craze which will be exotics (Ex. Pans). But rest assured the Internet will fuck that up as well so get ahead before you get inundated with a bunch of b.s like 85% humidity. And 85% where? A tent, tub, shoebox, your bedroom, the tuna can thrown out last night? (all viable places to grow btw, just dial in surface conditions and pray you have good genetics). Agar next if this is a serious thing for you.

 

[Ismene2]

Growing mushrooms is easy - the hard bit is getting viable spores anywhere in the UK. Bunk spore syringes cost me fortunes.

 

[joesmyname]

I got a Sterlite clear storage bin for my fruiting chamber. I'm going to drill a few holes in it and lay perlite under the fruiting cakes. Is that sufficient ?

Sufficient but go straight water tub and skip the perlite. Don’t be afraid of the sitting water. 5 years of tap water with no contaminations in one SINGLE cake here… works perfectly fine.
3 months you’ll be laughing at how easy it is. And always have fun. You will be successful.
Most important: find a tek that works and follow it step by step. Don’t dismiss 25+ years of work that lead to the Teks of today.

 

[joesmyname]

Growing mushrooms is easy - the hard bit is you cant get viable spores anywhere in the UK. Bunk spore syringes

Ohh damn, that’s right. Is it the trouble getting them in or nothing available domestic? Both are easy to solve.

 

[Ismene2]

Never tried importing spores but the UK syringes are piss poor

 

[silentftw]

So I just inoculated my jars but realize I made a huge mistake . There was a gray rubber cap and a flat white circle opposite of each other . I put the needle through the white circle . Which I now realize is for airflow and is a micron filter. So now there is a small needle hole in all of them at this location. Can I do anything or are they most likely going to get taken over by bacteria now?

 

[Phobos]

Never tried importing spores but the UK syringes are piss poor

Hi, what do you mean piss poor?
Contaminated? Not enough spores?

 

[Snafu in the Void]

So I just inoculated my jars but realize I made a huge mistake . There was a gray rubber cap and a flat white circle opposite of each other . I put the needle through the white circle . Which I now realize is for airflow and is a micron filter. So now there is a small needle hole in all of them at this location. Can I do anything or are they most likely going to get taken over by bacteria now?

They may still be good, just have to wait and see. Don't handle them, keep them away from any airflow.

I've had cheap jars without the micron filters, made a hole with the syringe, then covered it with cheap gauze/medical tape and it worked fine.

 

[silentftw]

They may still be good, just have to wait and see. Don't handle them, keep them away from any airflow.

I've had cheap jars without the micron filters, made a hole with the syringe, then covered it with cheap gauze/medical tape and it worked fine.

I put a bandaid after I cleaned it in isopropyl alcohol over the holes in 3 out of 5 jars. I I put it so it covered the hole but about half the micron filter is uncovered so hopefully it still gets enough oxygen . I have 5 jars in total . I was thinking though if someone else thinks it's just better to get some more jars and spores and start a 2nd batch just in case. I would hate to wait a month to discover they all went bad. I also find it hard to think they would ALL go bad. But obviously the micron patch and sterilization procedures are there for a reason . Any one else have any input? Thanks again

 

[silentftw]

Also if the fruiting cakes smelled bad once I take them out of the jar just toss them ? What happens if you try to fruit them in that state? Would the shrooms still grow and have a weird fungus on them ? What would happen if you ate them? Would there be reduced potency or would they just make you sick ?

 

[Snafu in the Void]

Yeah usually just one or two go bad. If one does, quarantine it or it can infect the others.

Also if the fruiting cakes smelled bad once I take them out of the jar just toss them ? What happens if you try to fruit them in that state? Would the shrooms still grow and have a weird fungus on them ? What would happen if you ate them? Would there be reduced potency or would they just make you sick ?

Mold will kill the mushrooms and destroy the mycelium network. Don't even bother trying to fruit it, it won't work.

I've seen mold pop up AFTER I already saw some fruits, I chopped off that section with a hot knife and the rest were able to finish fruiting before the whole thing was consumed by mold.

But noticeable mold BEFORE fruiting needs to be tossed.


Idk what would happen if you ate moldy shrooms... maybe nothing, maybe hospital trip or worse.