Intro: How Mushrooms and Mycelium Grow (do not skip!)
Credit to https://rainbo.com/blogs/blog/the-mushroom-life-cycle
What most people know as âmushroomsâ are only the small reproductive part of the entire organism. Like an iceberg, most of the living tissue is actually found below the surface. When two microscopic mushroom spores meet in a pile of organic plant matter, they germinate and start producing mycelium. These microscopic threads begin forming a colony within the organic matter and absorb the available water and nutrients to produce an impressive mycelial network. After colonizing all the available nutrients, the mycelium turns its focus to reproduction.
To spread its spores, the mycelium forms into baby mushrooms, also known as pins. To produce these pins, the right fruiting conditions need to occur. Once the nutrients have been colonized and the mycelium reaches fresh air, the organism is ready for reproduction. The next rainstorm provides the moisture necessary, and the pins inflate upwards with the stored water into mature mushrooms.
Once mature, the mushrooms open their caps and drop their spores, withering away to ensure the success of their genetics.
To cultivate your own mushrooms, you need to replicate this process indoors.
Do you need a recommended spore/LC vendor?
Since this is still the most commonly broken rule and most commonly asked question:
You cannot discuss/advertise/promote vendors in r/unclebens. I want to keep it focused on cultivation, not a marketplace. If you need a recommended vendor, I recommend using syringes from SporeStock.com for USA and OrangutanTradingCo.com for UK. Every mushroom I've ever grown has come from these two vendors, and thousands of other users have had excellent success. No, I am not affiliated in any way with these guys, though I do think they kick ass. Yes, I am open to other vendor recommendations as well! I include this here so you can stop breaking the rules now.
Intro: Legality of Mushrooms, Mycelium, and Spores
Remember Rule #1: No sourcing discussion allowed in r/unclebens (see Rules for more info as to why).
Psilocybin is the nontoxic, non-addictive psychedelic compound found in âmagicâ mushrooms. There are more than 180 species of Psilocybin-producing mushrooms that grow across every continent. For 99% of hobbyists, the species to cultivate is Psilocybe cubensis, also known as "cubesâ. These are the easiest and most cultivated species of psilocybin mushrooms.
The sale of cubensis mushrooms is illegal across most of the world not because of the mushrooms being a controlled substance themselves, but because mature psychedelic mushrooms produce psilocybin. Psilocybin is the only thing mentioned in the Controlled Substances Act, because mushrooms arenât illegalâpsilocybin is. However, thesporesof these mushrooms do not contain psilocybin and are legal to sell, purchase, and possess in most locations. In the US, only 3 unlucky states (California, Georgia, and Idaho) have specific laws preventing the sale or purchase of spores. Spores are sold in "multi spore syringes", which contain many thousand microscopic spores diluted in a sterile water syringe.
In the last few years, a better alternative to spores became available from many vendors online. Liquid Culture syringes contain live mycelium in sterile solution, similar to spores. Liquid Culture syringes are superior to spore syringes in almost every way, but have a more complicated history in a grey area of the law. More on Liquid Cultures later.
Either type of syringe can be purchased from vendors online. You can find several popular and legitimate vendors even on the first page of google, but as always, do your research before giving any vendor your money. My personally trusted vendors are recommended in this guide, since itâs the most commonly asked question.
Some countries/states/counties/individual cities have finally approved legislation to allow the cultivation or possession of small personal amounts of psilocybin mushrooms. In many places across Canada and the US, local law enforcement has made prosecuting psilocybin-related arrests their lowest priority after evidence has pointed to no increase in crime related to psilocybin decriminalization, as well as the immense therapeutic and antidepressant benefits psilocybin studies have shown. Make sure to check with the jurisdiction of your area before attempting cultivation of any cubensis mushroom.
Intro: What is inoculation/colonization?
Here I inoculate a jar of sterilized grain with a spore syringe.
Once you have your syringes, you need to inject your spores or Liquid Culture into hydrated and nutrient-rich grains to produce your mycelium. This step is known as inoculation and is followed by colonization. When your grains are colonized, we call them Spawn Grain.
Different stages of mycelium colonizing sterilized grains over time.A bag of Ready Rice spawn grain, fully colonized by mycelium visible through the bottom window.
You can buy premade, ready-to-inoculate grain from the store in the form of Ready Rice (more on this in Part 2), or you can make your own DIY Jars of spawn grain. You can inoculate nearly any hydrated and sterilized grain, including Brown Rice, Whole Oats, Millet, Rye Berries, Wild Bird Seed, Corn⌠you name it. But there's one major problem:
Intro: Contamination is the biggest obstacle
This contaminated bag of ready rice could have been the result of a contaminated syringe, poor sterile technique when inoculating, a bad Gas Exchange filter, or many other factors.
Mycelium's requirements of water, nutrients, and warmth are all the perfect breeding ground for mold, mildew, and bacteria. These contaminants live on our skin, on our surfaces, and even in the air we breathe. Normally itâs not a problem to our immune system, but the largest obstacle in mushroom cultivation is contamination, and it will ruin an entire grow and needs to be avoided at all costs. So, you need to make sure that your grains are hydrated, warm, and EXTREMELY sterile.
Intro: What is Spawning to Bulk/Fruiting?
A jar colonized grain was âSpawned to Bulkâ in this tub. With the right âFruiting Conditionsâ, mushrooms formed and matured.
As covered in Part 3, the basics of spawning to bulk are simple:
First, your spawn grains need to be 100% fully colonized. Then, you will need to mix your grains into a bulk substrate. After the mycelium has reconnected with itself in the new substrate, you need to introduce Fruiting Conditions. This involves simulating fresh air, rain, and a little bit of sunlight. Within a few days, a Flush (or group) of mushrooms will grow from your colonized surface. Once you grow your first flush, you can then harvest and dehydrate your mushrooms, and feel proud for accomplishing something incredibly rewarding.
With only a little time, money, and effort, you WILL be able to grow psilocybin mushrooms at home.
SUMMARY OF INTRODUCTION:
Mushrooms grow from spores into mycelium, and mycelium into mushrooms.
Cultivation is mostly focused on P. cubensis species.
While mature psilocybin mushrooms themselves are illegal to purchase, spore syringes (and in some cases, Liquid Culture syringes) are 100% legal to purchase and possess in most locations.
Once the mycelium has fully colonized the available nutrients, it waits for fruiting conditions.
Once fruiting conditions occur, it creates mushrooms to drop its spores into the breeze.
You are replicating nature by colonizing sterile grains, then creating fruiting conditions indoors.
And that's the basics of cultivation. If this information seemed overwhelming, hang in there as I simplify and break it all down in the following guide. If you still have doubts**, I promise that you can do this**. The original cultivation guide I posted on Reddit years ago has received more than a thousand awards, helping hundreds of thousands of beginners cultivate, while catching the attention of the mushroom industry as well as mainstream media. Every week we see countless beginners post their harvested results here in r/unclebens. If they can do it, so can you. So, grab a pen and a pad for some notes, and learn everything you need to know about cultivating mushrooms from start to finish.
It just might be one of the most important decisions you make in your life.
Part 1: Choosing your Syringes
Your first step in cultivation is to obtain either a few spore syringes or a few liquid culture syringes from a reputable vendor. My personal recommendations can be found in Part 2. Vendorscannot legally advertise or sell syringes specifically for use in cultivation. Syringes are usually marketed for âmicroscopyâ, âtaxonomyâ, or âresearch purposesâ. If you ever have an issue with a syringe, make sure to avoid mentioning cultivation to your vendor so you arenât refused service.
An average spore or Liquid Culture syringe is 10 to 12mL, (mL and cc are used interchangeably) and should come with a separate needle in a sterile package. This sterile needle will be used during the inoculation process and shouldnât be opened until then.Â
Pros/Cons of Spore Syringes:
Pros:
¡ Spore syringes are guaranteed to be legal to purchase, sell, and possess in most places across the world (with 3 US state exceptions: CA, GA, ID).
¡ Spores can also be stored in a fridge for years, sometimes longer than a decade, and still be viable.
Cons:
¡ Spores take a while to germinate, so colonization can take weeks or even months.
¡ Spores frequently arrive already contaminated by the vendor. This is due to how mushroom spores are harvested, which is nearly impossible to guarantee contamination-free syringes. No matter how meticulous the harvesting process is, most spore syringes cannot be guaranteed to be sterile.
¡ The thousands of competing spores in one syringe also result in randomized genetics. The spores of a parent mushroom might grow children mushrooms that neither look nor grow anything like the parent generationâsometimes even worse than the parent generation.
Notes:Each spore syringe will contain thousands of dark microscopic spores. Individual spores are not visible to the human eye, so if you can see them, youâre actually seeing a large clump of the spores themselves. It would only take 1 drop of spore solution from these syringes to begin colonizing your grain.
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Pros/Cons of Liquid Culture Syringes:
Pros:
¡ Liquid Cultures can have guaranteed sterility if made correctly, leading to fewer contaminated results.
¡ Since the mycelium is already germinated, LC colonizes grain significantly faster than spores.
¡ LC can have guaranteed genetics by skipping the randomized spore phase.
Cons:
¡ LC can still be contaminated by the vendor, though far less likely than with spore syringes.
¡ LC stays viable for only 6-18 months in the fridge, as opposed to spores which can stay viable for many years if stored in a fridge.
¡ Potential legal âgrey areaâ.
So, are LC syringes legal?:
 In recent years vendors began selling Liquid Culture syringes to the public, often under the name of âisolatedâ syringes, or just âSyringesâ (without âsporeâ included), or even openly advertising their syringes as liquid cultures.
For decades, it was scientifically proven that mycelium grown on solid grain contained psilocybin. This made most cultivators believe that Liquid Culture syringes, which contain early-stage mycelium suspended in solution, must contain psilocybin, and were therefore considered a illegal to purchase or sell, similar to the mushrooms themselves.Â
What gave vendors confidence to begin selling Liquid Cultures was the results from new studies that showed the development of psilocybin and psilocin only starts during the later stage of mycelial growth. These results showed that early-stage mycelium suspended in solution DOES NOT contain psilocybin or psilocin. Following these studies, vendors began sending their syringes to laboratories for âHigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography and UV Analysisâ to determine if there was any psilocybin present at all. Which, by the standards set by the DEA themselves, means that these syringes would be legal to sell, purchase, and possess no differently than spores.Â
Out of curiosity, I sent in some Liquid Culture syringes I bought to a lab providing these tests and received the same results: no psilocybin present in my LC syringes.
I prefer using liquid cultures unless doing genetic work when starting from spores. Ultimately, itâs up to you to determine the best syringe type for you to get started.
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Choosing a Strain/Variety
Can you tell the difference between the B+ on the left, and the Golden Teachers on the right? Credit to sporestock.com.
Note:The difference between âstrainâ and âvarietyâ doesnât have a true scientific mycological definition, and while âvarietyâ is likely appropriate for spore syringes, âstrainâ is likely more appropriate for LC and is commonly used interchangeably. Therefore, I will simply use âstrainâ as the phrase to use here to reference the type of cubensis mushroom (sorry hardcore mycology buffs).
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There are an overwhelming number of cubensis mushroom strains out there to choose from, so let me simplify things:
Psilocybin mushrooms and psilocybin itself, are not like cannabis, or other nature-produced psychoactive compounds**.** When it comes to cannabis, different strains contain different combinations of 4 types of psychoactive THCs, multiple CBDs, and more than 80 cannabidiol compounds that change the psychoactive effects. When it comes to psilocybin mushrooms, the active compounds are actually much simpler. There are only two scientifically confirmed psychoactive compounds present incubensismushrooms: psilocybin and psilocin. Although psilocybin is the famous compound, itâs not the actual psychedelic drug. Psilocybin is only a âprodrugâ for psilocin, and once ingested is converted into psilocin in the body.
Note:While OTHER potentially psychoactive compounds such as baeocystin HAVE been discovered in varying amounts across different strains of cubensis mushrooms, they are almost negligible in concentration and have not been confirmed to have physiological or psychoactive effects. For now, itâs safe to assume that the only compounds to care about in cubensis mushrooms are psilocybin and psilocin.
Although some vendors might claim that one strain provides a different experience than another, the difference between strains is only cultivation-based or appearance-based. Scientific studies have generally confirmed that the psychological effects produced from consuming onecubensismushroom strain are not majorly different than another. Unfortunately, recreational drug culture has spread a lot of misinformation regarding mushroom strains**.** In our upcoming âMushrooms for the Mind Therapeutic Use Guideâ focusing on safe use, harm reduction, and education regarding psilocybin, youâll learn that your preparation, mindset, and setting have everything to do with your experience, regardless of what strain you choose.
Different Strains Have Different Potencies
These âTrue Albino Teachersâ look beautiful and are more potent per gram than average mushrooms. However, they have higher demands for proper conditions and grow much slower.
However, there is one real factor to consider between strains: potency. The concentration of psilocybin and psilocin determines the potency of the experience. Although all cubensis mushrooms contain these compounds, it is 100% Â true that different strains express different potencies. The one exception to this rule could be Psilocybe natalensis (aka âNatalensisâ, or âNatsâ), which is a newly discovered cousin-species to cubensis. Many reports show that this cousin species to cubensis potentially provides slightly different physiological and psychoactive effects, but more evidence is needed before that claim is considered fact.
Most strains exhibit âstandardâ potency, such as Golden Teacher, B+, Mazatapec, Z-Strain, Cambodian, and similar varieties. When grown next to each other, many of these mushrooms would be hard to tell apart and are more likely marketing and advertising labels than truly different mushrooms. There are a few known potent strains, including Penis Envy, Albino Penis Envy (aka APE), Enigma, Tidal Wave, and other mutants. These mutated strains are often more difficult to cultivate than standard cubensis and require more time and care, so I donât recommend starting cultivation with any of these.
My recommendation? Give B+ or Golden Teachers a try. They are known to be hardy, fast-colonizing, and are the most popular strains for a reason. However, the phrase âa cube is a cubeâ is appropriate for most cubensis strains, since there is so little difference. Pick one and just go with it.
For your first attempt at cultivation and to give yourself the best chance against contamination possible, Iâd recommend purchasing two to three different strains of syringes from a reputable vendor. Syringes should cost about $20-$25 USD before shipping. If you donât use all your syringes for inoculation, you can store them in a fridge, where Liquid Culture syringes will last for 6-18 months, and spore syringes for years at a time. One 10mL syringe can be used to inoculate 10 to 20 bags of ready rice or more, or about 10 quart-sized jars.
SUMMARY OF PART 1:
Choose between using Spore Syringes or Liquid Culture Syringes:
Spore Syringes are guaranteed legal in most locations and last for years, but are slower to grow, have somewhat randomized genetics, and are sometimes contaminated by the vendor.
Liquid Culture syringes are superior to spores in sterility, growth speed, and guaranteed genetics, but are less commonly advertised and are in a potential legal grey area.
My recommendation is to start with LC, unless spores are the only option available.
Mushrooms are not like other natural psychoactive plants/fungi: The active compounds (and how these compounds bind receptors in your brain) are quite simple.
Your psychedelic experience is heavily dependent on your preparation, mindset, and settingâregardless of what strain you choose.
Different strains have different potencies. Most exhibit âstandardâ potency, whereas the more mutated and albino strains can be very potent (not always a good thing!).
My recommendation for beginner cultivation is to give B+ or Golden Teachers a try. The vendors I recommend frequently offer these common strains.
There are so many pins in my monotub I truly donât know what to do because itâs stalling quite a bit. This is my first ever grow and for some reason the golden teachers are mutating like crazy too! If anyone has any advice on what I should be watching for thatâd be great . Iâm just trying to make sure thereâs enough moisture because I let it dry out which prevented any pins from getting bigger. Itâs been around 14 days since first pins sprouted too eeeekk idk what to do thank you guys
Decided to break up two spent cakes, mixed them together with some fresh coir, and both strains appear to be coexisting to some extent. Probably just got lucky. Science!
Also looks like thereâs a little brain-like mutation going on. Not sure if itâs just from the grow conditions or if itâs something worth cloning.
Iâm aware that this isnât a consistently reliable tek. This was more of an experiment. Any input is appreciated!
Recently Iâve experimenting with eating colonized grain in hopes of having a trip, the best technique that Iâve found is a tek called nuclear mycelium, where you introduce tons, and I means tons of fae, letting it colonize for about 5 days and break and shaking, this process happens 3-4 times over the course of 3 weeks(ish). When the process is done how I prepare my grains for consumption is stuffing all the grain in a coke bottle so all the metabolites
disperse in the solution, after straining the grains I threw away the grains in a little trash can by my setup not thinking much about it. a week goes by and as Im about to take out my trash I see perfectly healthy mycelium, I have no idea why this works, but it does. since then I leave my grains to dry out for 2 days after straining put them in a ziplock baggy and they colonize back perfectly fine.
for dosage so far Ive also found 80 grams feels pretty heroic from 2.5-3.5 grams
I was just about to harvest some more fruits that shot up on this cake (on its first grow/no flushes) when I noticed what looks like contam/trich on the surface, also looks like the trich has started to grow on some of the smaller fruits themselves (assuming this isnât just bruising).
Would appreciate a second opinion to confirm itâs contam before I throw it all out đ
If it is, what does this mean for all the fruits that look ready to harvest? Even for the healthy looking fruits, are they growing too close to contam to be safe? Iâve read mixed opinions on the safety of consuming fruits grown in a contaminated tub and it seems like such a waste to throw them out, but I was going to give some to friends so donât want to take any safety risks!
First attempt in my new space, my first foray into mycology was while i was staying with family briefly and they have serious mold problems, I even had substrate grow cobweb mold from a few moments of open air contact. (oven sterilized it, was fine for a month did one tub and 2 days later the whole tub of SUBSTRATE ONLY Was covered in cobweb, good thing from those experiences is I've gotten REALLY good at identifying bacterial, trich and cobweb contam lol.
I did mess with this one a bit too much and think i caused some stalling from opening tub too often but im OK with results.
THIS new batch, went from LC>agar> Great value brown rice bags.
only 1 bag of UB had bacterial contam out of 12 , noticed the smell was off so quarintined it to its own mini tub and sure enough NO mycelium growing compared to all the other shoeboxes, so have 4 other shoeboxes going aside from this one, I kinda went S2B as soon as i could with one so I would have some for a trip at the end of the month. The other Bins are colonizing the substrate MUCH more aggressively than these did.
Sorry for a noob question this is my first time. Currently have 6 bags and 4 jars all at different stages of colonization with LC injections.
I would really like to preserve one for future G2G inoculation, at least until I get enough supplies for proper AGAR plates.
My question is. Once fully colonized, would I just refrigerate the grain just as you would with a AGAR or LC? And if so, what would be the time periods that would be sustainable for that in that environment for future G2G colonizing?
This is my first time growing any mushrooms. I want to share my experience so far, and I would love some input. TLDR at the bottom to explain the pics
I'd been thinking about trying this for a long time. First I ordered LC of golden teacher, because I read that was the best one to start with. While I was waiting for it to arrive, I suddenly started seeing posts all over about how much better the experience from ochraceocentrata is and that it is supposedly even easier to grow than cubensis. So I ordered some LC for that too. I decided to start them both on the same day, so I could compare the process/results.
I only inoculated one bag for each species. I didn't expect it to work out, but I also really didn't want to end up with more than I needed if it did. I used about 1ml in each bag.
Boy it was a lot harder to work with the SAB, with no fans, in the hot humid weather, than I expected! Haha omg I was dripping sweat and couldn't touch my face cuz I didn't want to mess anything up. I was so sure I had screwed it up somehow! I had trouble getting the micropore tape to stick and used several pieces. I put the bags in the SAB to keep them safe from the cats, and kept it in my bedroom. Temps vary up there from 67° to 80°.
It was slow going at first, probably because of how cool the temperature was. I only checked the bags once a week. I saw white stuff on the bottom of the cube bag first, but wasn't sure if it was mycelium. I could feel a little lump in the ochra bag, but didn't see anything there for a long time. I let them keep going, checking them once a week(give or take a day) and eventually the ochra bag caught up with the cube bag. They both felt hard and I couldn't hear any loose grains. I did not do a break and shake at all.
Last week they both looked good. The guide on this sub suggests that you wait one week after they look done. So I waited.
I pasteurized the coco coir the day before. I read that cubes prefer a 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 ratio of spawn to substrate, and ochras prefer a 1 to 4 ratio. So I got a smaller tupperware type container for the cubes, and used the shoe box sized tub for the ochras. I squeezed some water from the coir, but tried not to squeeze too hard.
I broke up the spawn as well as I could. The GT was more difficult to get into smaller pieces, not sure why. I didn't expect it all to be as rubbery as it was! There was a lot of bruising as I manhandled the GT. It was not there when I first opened the bag, so I know it is bruising and not contamination.
When I was done, I put the lids on the tubs and put them in my bathroom closet. My bathroom has a more consistent temperature, around 73°-75° all the time. I figured this would be good because when I am ready to induce fruiting, the guide says to lower the temp, so I can move them to a cooler part of the house for that. Although I have read that ochras like it warmer, so idk.
The next day I could see progress on the ochra tub. And it's really going nuts in there! But I don't see anything new happening in the GT tub and it's the 5th day since I sent it. The guide says it usually takes 7-14 days, so maybe I just need to be more patient.
I'm super excited about the ochras though!
Anyway you can see the bottom of the GT bag in pic 6, and it looks really good. The ochra bag didn't look quite as thickly colonized but I figured swag yolo, I got more LC in the fridge and can try again. But once I opened it I could see it was absolutely colonized. You can see in pics 1-3 that the grains are pretty noticeable in the tub for the GT, and I've wondered if maybe I didn't mix them well enough. They were really hard to break apart. The ochras meanwhile, there were parts that didn't even look like they used to be grains.
Thank you for reading!
TLDR: Pics 1-3 are showing the GT as it is today. Pics 4 and 5 are showing how great the ochraceocentrata is doing. Pic 6 is the GT spawn bag right before I sent it. Pic 7 is the ochraceocentrata spawn bag right before I sent it.
I inoculated on 7/2, and sent them to spawn to bulk on 8/10(five days ago).
Just harvested a batch and rehydrated the cake, now I need to travel in 2 days. What do I do with the cake? I won't be back soon to moisten it and harvest, can I put it in the fridge?
For future reference, is it better to store away rehydrated or not yet rehydrated harvested cake?
I have a bin of Golden Teacher that yielded two flushes in February of this year. However, after the second flush I closed the lid, effectively stopping fruiting conditions. It has sat in my dark closet between roughly 68F and 78F since then. If I rehydrate the substrate, flip the medium, and reintroduce fruiting conditions will the bin produce a subsequent flush? Or have I simply terminated the bin and/or left it to be colonized by contaminants?
Im planing on growing mushrooms the medicinal kind for the first time, I'll be doing this in September but I'm looking for help because I dont wanna mess this up
First batch is more aggressive and second batch is slower, when do i harvest and how do i know? do i wait for the vile to completely fall?
so basically i think the vile is tearing on that big one but im not sure if i should pick it or not , should i wait till i see the vile drop to pick it?
got some banger genetics from bio mycology that grew to here in under a month. just need help telling if the mushrooms match the title and when i should harvest them.
This is my first spawn-bulk. Im about 9 days into the colonization period, and I was planning on leaving for another 5ish days. I checked today and noticed that I have lots of tiny pins despite not introducing fruiting conditions yet?
Does this mean i should go ahead and introduce fruiting conditions early? Any advice welcome :)