- Have large plastic baggies, or a sterilized plastic container with lid and some filtered water ready.
- Put on clean gloves or wash your hands ? thoroughly.
- Loosen the lids of your jars. Discard the band, you?ll use the flat tops later on.
- Bang a jar against your hand to release the cake. (It may take a bit of banging and shaking to get the cake out of the jar. That?s ok. Just touch the cake as little as possible).
- Place the cake into the baggie or container and do the same with the remaining cakes. (Your cakes are pretty durable once they?re fully colonized with mycelium, so they?re not going to fall apart or break.)
- Fill the baggies or container as full as possible with filtered water and seal them up. The cakes are going to float, so if you?re using baggies you?ll need to remove as much air as possible.
- Put your cakes in your refrigerator and leave them for 12 to 24 hours. I soak for 12 hours, some growers soak for 24.
After your mycelium cakes have had their long, cold bath, it?s finally time for them to go in the chamber.
Step Two? Prepare the chamber
Sterilize your container with a solution of bleach and boiling water. The rinse it thoroughly with plain boiling water.
Fill your spray bottle with 10 parts boiled water to one part hydrogen peroxide or H202.
Sterilize your vermiculite or Pearlite by soaking another solution of 10 to 1 boiling water and hydrogen peroxide. The spread a layer on the bottom of your growing chamber.
The vermiculite is there to help your growing chamber maintain humidity, and you will need to mist it periodically.
Place your mason jar lids into the bed of vermiculite, then place a cake on each lid. Sprtiz each cake with your h20/h202 mixture, but not so much that puddles form. Make sure you leave enough room between each cake, so there?s plenty of room for mushrooms to sprout without crowding each other.
You may see little mushroom sprouts already forming, these are called pins. And that?s a good thing.
To check the health of your mycelium, give each cake a little sniff. They should smell faintly like the fresh mushrooms you buy from the store. If you smell foul odors, that a sign your mycelium may have harmful bacteria.
Step Three
Put the lid on your growing chamber and place it where it will receive indirect sunlight. The room should be well ventilated.
Maintenance
For the next month or so, mist your mushroom twice a day with the water and hydrogen peroxide mixture. Keep an eye on your humidity/temperature gauge. Ideally, you want to maintain a temperature in the mid to low 70?s and humidity of 85-percent. If your humidity level is low, you may have to spritz them more frequently.
Harvesting
When your mushrooms are ready for harvest, snap them off the birthing cake at the base of their stems and place them in an airtight container in your refrigerator.
A harvest of mushrooms is called a flush. You can reuse the cakes for multiple flushes. Since this is an article for beginners, I?m going to save those instructions for part two.
Yield, Storage, and Dosage
Your Yield
The primary image in this article is one of a fully ripe birthing cake that?s ready for harvest. As you can see, one cake can yield plenty of mushrooms. I recommend ten jars because that?s how many jars most syringes will innoculate.
Ten jars yield ten birthing cakes, which will produce more than a lifetimes supply for most people. You can start with fewer jars, which means you?ll have leftover spores. Spores stay viable for eight months to one year, but dried mushrooms last far longer.
Storage
Mushrooms stay fresh for 3?15 days. Keep them in the fridge as you would any mushroom. After that, dry them and place them in an airtight container. Then place the container in a cool, dark place.
Dose
There is no set dosage for psilocybin mushrooms, so your dose depends on your size, sensitivity level, and the effect you desire. And it depends on the strength of the mushrooms. One mushroom can pack a punch, so start slow. You can?t un-eat them if you take too much, but you can take more during your psychedelic journey. Just remember it can take up to an hour before you feel the effects.
Your set and setting are just as crucial as the dose you take, and there are steps you can take to ensure a positive experience.
A Final Word
Just like everything else in life, there are a gazillion methods for growing mushrooms. After you?ve grown a batch or two, you can debate all the daunting details of the perfect fungus growing process with experienced, enthusiastic experts who will, no doubt, make comments on this article. But if you?re a beginner, this is a simple method you can wrap your brain around.
Do the number of steps feel a bit daunting? If so, re-read the steps until you can picture the entire process. Once you?re familiar with the steps, they?ll seem simple.
Lastly, don?t focus on the result; enjoy the entire process. To grow anything is a privilege. But to cultivate a substance that can heal your mind and soul and transform your consciousness without adverse side effects is the mystery and magic of nature, and it deserves your appreciation.
For part two of this article, sign up here: https://janetashforth.com/newsletter-opt-in-2/
Sign up for my newsletter if you?d like free tips, tricks, and hacks, and early access to my articles about psychedelics and other health related topics. I won?t share your information or bombard your inbox.
https://janetashforth.com/newsletter-opt-in-2/