Welcome to your guide to mushroom cultivation. Learn a balanced approach for consistent, substantial yields. Dive into practical steps, tips for avoiding contamination, and insights to ensure a successful grow.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know at hello@tripsitters.org. Please be aware of laws regarding psilocybin mushrooms in your area before starting on this journey.
Looking for an easy way to stay organised and better track all the moving parts of growing. We’ve partnered with MycoFile, a new growth tracker app designed for and by Mycologists.
Download it for free:
Many forums, websites, and books promise the simplest, cheapest, fastest, and most consistent way to grow mushrooms, but it can be overwhelming to navigate.
This guide's primary objective is to present — as clearly and concisely as possible — a process that provides a balance of simplicity, consistency and yield.
This guide showcases the “monotub” method, which means you grow your mushrooms in a big plastic storage bin. If all goes well, you can expect 2+ ounces of dry mushrooms (56+ grams or 10-20 large doses).
Public enemy #1 of a successful mushroom grow is contamination, which happens when bacteria or some other fungi (e.g. mold) infiltrates your operation. Even just one speck floating around in the air can ruin a whole batch. So take your time and be deliberate with each step.
These are the basic concepts that you should be familiar with before starting your grow.
There are two options for the start of the process (where the spores are germinated to establish mycelium).
The first is the liquid culture method, which involves creating a liquid culture and is slightly more forgiving (but harder to identify contaminants).
The second is the agar method, which involves creating a culture on agar plates and is slightly more complex (but easier to identify contaminants and isolate strong mycelial growth). Agar plates are also valuable for more advanced techniques like cloning.
Most experienced growers recommend starting with the liquid culture method, but if you’re feeling ambitious it’s certainly possible to get going with agar right away.
The initial equipment cost should be around $250 (less if you already have some of these lying around), but once you’re up and running the cost for each subsequent grow is less than $10.
We find it helps to understand upfront how each step of the grow process corresponds with the circle of fungal life.
1 - Liquid Culture/Agar Inoculation
You’ll have spores (suspended in water in a syringe) that you’ll inject into honey water.
2 - Liquid Culture/Agar Colonization
The spores will germinate in the honey water and start to form a cloudy white network of mycelium. As they grow they’ll consume the sugars and the water will become clearer.
3a - Grain Spawn
Again using a syringe, you’ll transfer a small amount of the mycelium suspension from the honey water to a jar of oats. The mycelium will consume the sugars in the oats and expand until the entire jar is filled with their white web. This is your “spawn.”
3b - Substrate Colonization
Same process but this time you’ll “plant” the colonized oats in a substrate of coconut fiber (the “soil”), and the mycelium will slowly colonize the entire substrate.
4 - Pinning
After a couple weeks, tiny little primordial mushroom pins will start to pop up, signaling the fruiting phase.
5 - Fruiting
The final step where the pins turn into fully-fledged mushrooms. You’ll mostly just be watching at this point until they’re fully grown and ready to harvest.
Healthy mycelium is white, dense and dry in appearance. It is either thread-like or densely cottony. Over time, you’ll develop a sense for identifying healthy cultures, but to get started, here are some warning signs that you may have contamination.
This often happens when the substrate has too much moisture or the temperature has been consistently above 80°F. Below are the most common kinds of bacterial contamination.
If you see a wet and slimy substance in your jar substrate, you are likely dealing with bacterial contamination called “wet spot” or “sour rot.” You’ll need to bring the contaminated culture outside to dispose of it. Do not open a contaminated culture in your grow space. This type of contamination will smell yeasty or sour in early stages and outright foul as it develops. Soaking your substrate overnight at room temperature before putting it in jars to sterilize will decrease your chances of getting sour rot.
This bacterial contamination manifests as yellow or brown lesions at or near the cap edges during the fruiting stage. Bacterial blotch is spread by airborne soil particles and happens if the mushrooms are over-watered. Lower the humidity and look up ways to use a chlorine solution to help combat this kind of bacteria.
This is a fungus that grows in green, blue, gray, or black patches. Below are some common molds you might encounter:
Cobweb mold looks similar to mycelium, but is grayer, more wispy, and smells of mildew. This mold causes soft root rot and spreads very quickly. You can combat cobweb mold by spraying your tub with hydrogen peroxide. Additionally you can then lay a hydrogen peroxide soaked paper towel over the mold patches, and lower the humidity / increase air circulation.
This is a type of green mold characterized by an aggressive white mycelium (thicker and fluffier than the mycelium we want) that produces emerald green spores. Trich will cover your whole casing and mushrooms and cause soft root rot. It’s almost impossible to combat once it takes hold, so getting it away from your grow space, disposing this grow outside, and sanitizing anything that was near it is recommended. If caught in the early stages you can try to combat it by spreading salt on the affected area.
Red bread mold, blue green molds, black mold, and dry bubble are other molds you might encounter, though they’re less common. If you develop a mold not described above, look online for identification and treatment suggestions.
Gnats and mites can infest and feed on your mycelium. If you encounter these you should look for resources online to help. Our recommendation is to abandon this grow, sanitize everything related to the grow, and deep clean the room / house you’re growing in.
Before doing any work inside your still air box, you’ll need to prep it to minimize the risk of contamination.
Note: whenever you’re using alcohol to sterilize a surface or implement, give it a minute to evaporate before proceeding. A good amount of sterilization happens during the evaporation phase.
Materials:
Put on your Personal Protective Equipment (including wearing a clean shirt!).
Spray all inner surfaces of the bin with alcohol (including the lid), and wipe down with a paper towel.
Wet a paper towel with the soapy water and rub down all inner surfaces with a thin layer of soapy water (except for the lid, which can drip down). This will encourage particulates to stick to the bottom and sides rather than float into unwanted places.
When re-using needles or scalpel blades, you’ll want to sterilize them with a flame beforehand.
Materials:
Hold the lighter in the middle of the still air box (so as to not burn the lid).
Run the needle or length of scalpel blade back and forth in the blue part of the flame until it’s red hot.
Wait about one minute for the needle/blade to cool down before continuing.
In brief: You’ll inject the spore syringe into a mason jar with a honey water mixture and stir it daily until the spores germinate and form a floating cloud of mycelium.
Materials:
Put the magnetic stir bar, water and honey into the jar and mix until it dissolves.
Seal the lid on and put the jar in the instant pot for 20 minutes on high pressure. Double check that the stir bar is in the jar.
Put on your latex gloves and face mask and a freshly laundered shirt (seriously). Spray your hands and forearms with alcohol and rub them down.
Once the jar cools down to room temp, spray a paper towel with alcohol and thoroughly wipe down the jar (especially on and around the injection port) and syringe. Place it in the still air box immediately.
Do the same for the syringe. If the spores have concentrated (you’ll see big black clumps floating around), shake the syringe vigorously to break them up.
As soon as the alcohol has evaporated, carefully push the needle through the injection port, inject 2-3ml of spore solution, and then pull the needle back through the port. Place the jar in your mini greenhouse (or pantry/closet if you don’t have one).
After a few days, you should start to see little cloudy spots of mycelium floating around. Once this happens, use the stir plate to stir the culture at medium-high speed for a couple minutes every day. The culture should be ready to use in a week or two (the water will become more clear as the mycelium consumes the sugars).
In brief: You’ll inject the spore solution into a few petri dishes and wait for the spores to germinate and form mycelium on the surface of the agar.
Materials:
Put on your latex gloves and face mask and a freshly laundered shirt (seriously). Spray your hands and forearms with alcohol and rub them down.
If the spores are concentrated in clumps—which they will be for most newly ordered spore syringes—shake the syringe vigorously until the clumps are broken apart and more evenly distributed.
Spray a paper towel with alcohol and thoroughly wipe down the outside of the plates and syringe. Place them in the still air box immediatley.
Remove any parafilm and lift the lid of the first plate. Inject a dime sized amount of spore solution into the middle of the plate, and immediately replace the lid. Repeat this for the remaining plates.
Quickly but carefully remove the plates, seal with parafilm and place in your mini greenhouse (or pantry/closet if you don’t have one).
After a few days, you should start to see little spots of mycelium developing on the surface of the agar. The culture should be ready to use in a week or two. Keep an eye out for contamination on the plate itself. One of the benefits of this process is being able to clearly spot contamination before moving on to grain spawn.
In brief: You’ll heat your oats in water to hydrate them prior to filling your mason jars and sterilizing them in the pressure cooker.
Materials:
Some people like to soak their oats in water for 12 hours before heating them. This can help germinate any bacterial endospores, which increases the likelihood that they will be destroyed during the pressure cooking step.
Weigh out your oats and put them in a large pot with water until the height of the water is about three times higher than the oats.
Put on the stove on high heat and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium and let boil—you want a full on boil, not a simmer—for 30-45 minutes (only 15-20 minutes if you pre-soaked them). Once a few of the oats have burst you’re ready for the next step.
One Grower's Feedback: "Never let it reach a boil. Simmer only, to avoid any burst grains. Burst grains are contamination attractors. I actually go out of my way to pick out burst grains. A few might be okay though."
Drain the oats into the colander and let cool for an hour or two. The grains should be dry to the touch (they’re ready when you can put them on a paper towel and they don’t leave behind much moisture).
Fill each jar with half of the grains. The jars should be about ¾ full. If you’re prepping receiving jars for grain to grain transfer, only fill them about ⅔.
Seal the lids on—make sure to use injection lids if you’re creating a grain mother using liquid culture—and put the jars in the instant pot for 90 minutes on high pressure. If you’re reusing a syringe, wrap it tightly in foil and add it to the instant pot with the jars.
In brief: You’ll inject a bit of the liquid culture into jars of oats and wait for the mycelium to colonize the grain. You really only need one of these “mother” jars for the grow, but inoculating an extra one makes it more likely at least one will be contaminant-free.
Materials:
Put on your latex gloves and face mask and a freshly laundered shirt (again, seriously). Spray your hands and forearms with alcohol and rub them down.
Use the stir plate to ensure the culture isn’t all settled on the bottom of the jar.
Spray a paper towel with alcohol and thoroughly wipe down the jars (especially on and around the injection port) and syringe. Place them in the still air box immediately.
In brief: You’ll add a slice of the agar culture into jars of oats and wait for the mycelium to colonize the grain. You really only need one of these “mother” jars for the grow, but inoculating an extra one makes it more likely at least one will be contaminant-free.
Materials:
Put on your latex gloves and face mask and a freshly laundered shirt (again, seriously). Spray your hands and forearms with alcohol and rub them down.
Spray a paper towel with alcohol and thoroughly wipe down the jars, plates and scalpel. Place them in the still air box immediately.
As soon as the alcohol has evaporated, open the agar plate and cut out a slice of the strongest-looking mycelium (the thread-like, rhizomorphic growth). Open the lid of the first grain jar and use the scalpel to deposit the agar slice onto the surface of the grain. Repeat the process for the second jar.
Reseal the agar plate with parafilm. You can store in the fridge and reuse for several months as long as the transfer is done cleanly.
After the mycelium has spread to about ⅓ of the jar, vigorously shake up the jar (you can hit it against a bike tire, a large book, your hand, etc) to more evenly distribute the mycelium. This will speed up colonization. You should have fully colonized jars of “grain spawn” in about two weeks.
In brief: You’ll multiply your total amount of grain spawn by transferring a little bit from your mother into a bunch of child jars. One of your child jars can be set aside to start another grow from this step, rather than starting over with the liquid culture.
Materials:
Prep 5 jars of grains, filled ⅔ of the way.
Put on your latex gloves and face mask and a freshly laundered shirt. Spray your hands and forearms with alcohol and rub them down.
Break up the colonized grain by banging the mother jar against a large book, bike tire, etc so that you can easily pour it into the box. You may have to use a lot of force to do this! It also helps to loosen all of the lids about ¼ turn before putting them in, since it can be hard to do that in the box if they’re especially tightly sealed.
Spray a paper towel with alcohol and thoroughly wipe down the jars (especially around the lids and threads of the jars). Place them in the still air box immediately.
Carefully remove the lid of the mother and set it down to the side. Hold the mother in your dominant hand (think: pouring a bottle of wine). Remove the lid of the first child jar, set it on top of one of the other jars, pour in about ⅕ of the colonized grain, and then replace the lid. Repeat this for the remaining jars.
Tightly seal the lids of the child jars and set them in a place to start colonizing.
After the mycelium has spread to about ⅓ of the jar, vigorously shake up the jar to more evenly distribute the mycelium. This will speed up colonization. You should have fully colonized jars of “grain spawn” in about one week to ten days.
In brief: You’ll mix a bunch of grain spawn and soil in a storage bin and wait for explosive mushroom growth. At this stage the risk of contamination is much lower, so no need for gloves or alcohol here. Just don’t be actively filthy.
Materials:
Bring about 3kg of water to a boil (you want a 5:1 ratio of water to coir, so it’s good to weigh your brick of coir and calculate exactly how much water you’ll need).
Put the stove on high heat and bring to a boil. Put the coir brick in the cooler and pour in the boiling water. The coir will expand in volume significantly once hydrated.
After about an hour, open the cooler and mix up the coir so that it’s evenly hydrated. Let it sit overnight.
Put on your latex gloves and face mask and a freshly laundered shirt. Spray your hands and forearms with alcohol and rub them down.
Wipe down the monotub with alcohol (make sure it’s evaporated before proceeding). Sterilization isn’t as critical at this stage once the spawn is fully colonized, but still good practice to be clean.
Test the coir for field capacity (i.e. how much water it’s holding). It should drip a few drops or a very small stream when you squeeze it tightly in your hand.
Dump all of the coir and then all five jars of grain spawn into the tub. You can do this by the handful or just dump it all in.
Break up any clumps of coir and spawn and thoroughly mix the two together so the grain is evenly distributed in the coir. You want a level, uniform substrate, fully distributed from edge to edge. Tamp down the whole surface firmly but gently.
Put the lid on the tub and set it in a place to start colonizing. Anywhere with a temp between 65°F and 80°F is fine. Light is not important at this stage.
Once the substrate is fully colonized (after about two weeks), unlatch the lid and place the lid on upside down. At this point the tub should be in a place that gets some natural light, or lit by a T8 6500k fluorescent bulb if you don’t have natural light/want to get fancy.
If little mushroom pins haven’t started popping up yet, they should after a few days. Once that happens, it’ll be about a week to ten days until the first “flush” of mushrooms is ready to harvest.
If the tub still isn’t pinning after a week or more, you can soak the substrate in cool water to encourage them along.
If the pins still won’t come, you can add a very thin “casing” layer or coir on top, to encourage more moist conditions at the surface of the substrate.
In brief: You’ll harvest and dehydrate your “fruits”. Depending on how evenly the mushrooms grow, you may harvest different sections or clusters at different times. A mushroom knife is ideal, but a scalpel or any thin, sharp knife will get the job done. You should aim to harvest as or just before the veil of the mushroom tears.
Materials:
Lay out a paper towel or plate to catch the bits of substrate you’ll trim and brush off, and a basket or bowl for the harvested fruit.
Start with the most easily reached fruit, cutting along the base with your knife as horizontal as possible. You want to cut out as much of the fruit as possible without leaving much of a “stump”.
Pull gently with your free hand and twist slightly to help separate the fruit from the substrate. If big chunks of substrate are coming up with the fruit, you’re pulling too hard!
Brush off any bits of substrate on the fruit and cut off any that won’t brush off easily. You’re aiming for a totally clean mushroom.
Set your mushrooms on their drying mats (or in the dehydrator if you have one. If dehydrating, keep the air temp between 100°F and 110°F so as not to break down the psilocybin while drying. They should be close together but not touching. You should expect about a 90% reduction in weight once dry (i.e. 200g fresh mushrooms becomes 20g dried).
When the mushrooms are cracker-dry (they aren’t bendable at all, but instead snap like a cracker when flexed) they’re ready for processing (to make chocolates or tinctures) or storage. The best way to keep them is vacuum-sealed, in the freezer, which gives them a shelf-life of a year or more.
In brief: You’ll drop a small slice of the inner-part of a freshly harvested mushroom onto a sterilized plate of agar. Mycelium (with the exact same genetics as the mushroom) will colonize the plate and you can use it to inoculate additional grain spawn. Note: Cloning the same mushroom genotype over and over will eventually result in “senescence”, or tired genes. So after a few grows it’s a good idea to restart the process with a new spore print or culture sample.
Materials:
Put on your latex gloves and face mask and a freshly laundered shirt. Spray your hands and forearms with alcohol and rub them down.
Spray a paper towel with alcohol and thoroughly wipe down all of the gear (mushroom included!). Place them in the still air box immediately.
Remove the film from the sterile agar plates.
Carefully cut off the mushroom cap and set aside.
Slice open the stem lengthwise, and scrape or cut a small (rice-sized) piece of the inner mushroom flesh, and lift it out with the tip of the scalpel blade.
Lift the lid of the first agar plate, deposit the mushroom piece in the center of the plate, and re-cover the plate. Repeat this for the 2nd plate.
Quickly but carefully remove the plates, seal with parafilm. Repeat this for the 2nd plate.
You should see mycelium growth within a few days, and the plate should be fully colonized within two weeks. Keep an eye out for contamination on the plate itself.
Looking for an easy way to stay organised and better track all the moving parts of growing. We’ve partnered with MycoFile, a new growth tracker app designed for and by ecologists.
Download it for free:
Here are a few additional resources for your growing adventure.
Please note there is significant overlap between the sections (for example, something listed under the videos section may also offer courses and grow kits). So take your time to explore and feel into which sites resonate best with you.
If you have something to add here, please let us know at hello@tripsitters.org.
Shroomery’s Mushroom Cultivation Forum
r/shrooms – A place to discuss the growing, hunting, and the experience of magical fungi. Primarily concerned with psilocybin containing mushrooms, but all psychoactive species are welcome.
r/shroomers – For the hunting, growing, and consuming of mushrooms.
r/unclebens – A beginner-friendly community created by Shroomscout to share the "Ready Rice" technique, a simple and beginner-friendly method for cultivating mushrooms without a pressure cooker. This community is also for any other questions you might have!
r/sporetraders – A place to buy, sell or trade mycological supplies and gourmet/medicinal mushroom species.
psilocybin-containing
r/MagicMushrooms – subreddit dedicated to psilocybin mushrooms, the experience and the culture surrounding them.
The 5 Best Mushroom Grow Kits for Growing at Home – Double Blind Magazine
Magic Mushrooms Shop
Zamnesia
Wholecelium
The Best Mushroom Grow Kits for Psychedelic Therapy — Psychedelic Passage
Magic Bag
Magic Mushroom Kit (Canada)
Zoom Bag
Magic Shroom Planet
Where to Buy Magic Mushroom Spores (Canada, USA, Europe)
Ralphsters Spores
Mushroom Prints
Magic Mushrooms Shop
Micro Supply
The Best Mushroom Spore Vendors for Psychedelic Therapy — Psychedelic Passage
Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms – Paul StametsThe Psilocybin Mushroom Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing and Using Magic Mushrooms – K. MandrakePsilocybin Mushrooms: A Step by Step Guide to Growing, Microdosing and Using Magic Mushrooms – Ronald O'NeilPsilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide: A Handbook for Psilocybin Enthusiasts –O. N. Oeric, O. T. Oss, Terence McKennaPsilocybin Mushrooms: A Practical Beginners Guide to Growing and Using Magic Mushrooms Indoors – Philop J. AdrianPsilocybin Mushrooms: A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Grow and Safely Use Psychedelic Magic Mushrooms for Beginners – Marc PetersonPsilocybin Mushrooms: The Guide to Cultivation, Safe Use and Magic Effects of Psychedelic Mushrooms – Michelle StametsThe Magic Mushroom Bible: The Definitive Step-By-Step Guide to Cultivation and Safe Use of Psilocybin Mushrooms – Robert MurrayHow to Grow Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide – Ethan JaydenPsilocybin Mushrooms: The Complete Beginners Guide to Indoor Cultivation – Carl E. Miller
Now that you have grown your magic mushrooms, it's time to prepare for your journey. Follow the link below to get the most out of your psilocybin experiences.
.svg)
