Growing mushrooms sounds complicated, but it’s really not! This is a simple guide to grow legal gourmet mushrooms. Growing magic mushrooms is the same but we only study magic mushroom spores under the microscope! It would be best for you to follow these steps in a still air box (SAB) or under a flow hood to minimise your chances of contamination (contam).
You will need a magic mushroom grow tub similar to the one we sell, a coco coir brick or substrate bag similar to the one we sell, 1KG Rye Spawn Bag and hand sanitiser.
Skip to the bottom to see video demonstrations.
- Put gloves on
- Sanitise hands with 70% ISO alcohol spray
- Put the needle onto your syringe
- Wipe needle down with alcohol wipe (optional)
- Inject your grow bag or mason jar with 1-2ml
- Wait 8-10 days for your jar to colonise. Sometimes this can take up to a month and you can shake it all up when it’s about 20-30% colonised although this is totally optional
- Once it’s fully colonised pasteurise your coco coir block preferably overnight (skip this step if you purchased a substrate bag.
- Mix your colonised grain in a 1:2 ratio of 1 part spawn to 2 parts substrate in the substrate in your tub of choice
- Add a small layer of substrate over the top (optional)
- Once the surface looks quite white (look at the colonisation video below) you need to open the lid twice a day and gently waft the substrate (soil) gently for 30 seconds. This gets rid of CO2 and introduces fresh oxygen
- Wait 7-14 days for pins
- Watch your babies grow!
The above is not foolproof, there are many things that can go wrong and contamination is a serious risk at all stages of mushroom growing. It would be more ideal to use your spore syringe to add a tiny droplet onto an Agar plate like the ones we sell to see if it grows clean or with contamination. Using this method, if it is contaminated, you can transfer clean parts of the growth onto a new plate to ensure that your spawn will grow clean. It is also advisable to work in front of a laminar flow hold or a still air box.