General Information Growing Mushrooms

Mushrooms, funghi, what was it again?

Mushrooms are part of the organism fungi. These are not plants or animals, but a whole category of their own. The life cycle of fungi starts with the spores. These are, as it were, the ''seeds'' of the mushroom. When the spores germinate, the fungus starts to grow. In the case of Psilocybe Cubensis, these are white threads, as can be seen in the image below. These white threads are called the mycelium and are actually the fungus itself.

The mycelium colonizes the substrate it lives on until it starts producing mushrooms under specific conditions. In nature, the mycelium often grows through the substrate underground, and you only see the mushrooms that come up. The mushrooms are therefore just the fruiting body of the fungus, a bit like an apple is just the fruit of the apple tree. The mushrooms then produce spores, which can start growing new mycelium in a new place.

 

The life cycle of mushrooms in practice

When growing magic mushrooms in practice, the complete life cycle of mushrooms is followed by the steps below:

  1. The spores from a spore print are mixed with sterile water and stored in a spore syringe.
  2. The spores are injected into sterilized grain (the substrate). This is called inoculation or grafting.
  3. The substrate continues to grow with mycelium under the right temperature, humidity and CO2 content. Once fully grown and without contamination this is called Grain Spawn, in Dutch this is also called mushroom spawn.
  4. One part Grain Spawn is mixed with 2 to 6 parts pasteurized bulk substrate. This can be a lot; straw, coco soil, coffee grounds etc.
  5. The bulk substrate is placed in ''fruiting conditions'' once it has fully grown through. These are the ideal conditions for the mycelium to start producing mushrooms.
  6. Time to harvest! The first wave of mushrooms is called the first flush. After the mushrooms are removed from the bulk substrate, several more flushes can follow. This is explained in more detail later in the manual.

With the products we offer, you can actually start growing your own crop at different times in this life cycle.

 

Mushroom Growing Products

Below are the best-selling Mushroom growing products explained in relation to the life cycle of the mushrooms. This way you know immediately with which product you start in which step.

 

Spore prints

With a Spore Print you start at step 1. Many people first make spore syringes from a spore print. The spores are then mixed with sterile water and stored in a sterile medical syringe. You can inject this into sterilized grain, or into a nutrient solution. By injecting the spores into sterilized grain you make Grain Spawn. By injecting the spores into a nutrient solution you can make your own Liquid Culture.

 

Spore syringes

If you are starting with a spore syringe, you will skip step 1. You can choose to sterilize grain yourself to make Grain Spawn, or turn a sterile nutrient solution into your own Liquid Culture.

 

Liquid Cultures

A Liquid Culture syringe differs from a spore syringe in that it already contains living mycelium, and therefore no spores. You start in step three. If you inject Liquid Culture into substrate, no spores need to germinate, but the inoculation can start immediately. This is therefore faster and reduces the chance of contamination. With Liquid Culture you can also make more Liquid Culture first. This means you only need to buy a syringe once, and then always have your own stock.

 

Grain Spawn

The easiest and fastest way to grow a lot of mushrooms yourself is with Grain Spawn. You start in step four. For every liter of Grain Spawn you can inoculate up to 10 liters of bulk substrate. If you had 10 liters of Grain Spawn, you could even inoculate 100 liters of bulk substrate at once. Grain Spawn is therefore perfect to start with if you want to choose how many mushrooms you grow yourself.

 

Ready-to-use Grow Kits

If you buy a ready-made grow kit from a smartshop, you are buying bulk substrate. You start in step 5. You have to do less, and in general the grow kits are clean and free of contamination. The disadvantage of the grow kits is that you are bound to the volume in which they are sold, and therefore do not choose how big your grow will be.