Cultivation of Psilocybe weilii

Psilocybe weilii is a recenttly discovered hallucinogenic mushroom, first reported from southeastern Cherokee County, in northern Georgia, USA in 1995. A paper was published by Guzman, Tapia, and Stamets in 1996 in which no cultivation information was given. We hope this information is of some use.

Two glass slide samples of spores of Psilocybe weilii were provided for cultivation experiments. One slide was labeled as produced from a mushroom growing in August (Strain.2#.)and the other was designated as September (Strain.D#). A sample from each slide was placed a petri plate of standard malt extract media agar with gentamycin sulfate antibiotic. All plates showed visible germination in 6 days at 78F with no signs of competing organisms. At 14 days the most vigorous mycelium was selected and transferred to individual petri plates, with a standard potato dextrose yeast agar, in 7 days all had grown out.It was determine that no more transfers were needed, and 3 copes was made of each petri plate of dog food agar for the cultivation experiments. Six experiments were tried and failed but, something was learned from each one! Successful experiments as follows:

EXPERIMENTS

CASING MIX

Directions:
Put the casing in an open container cover with foil then sterilize for 1 hours at 15 p.s.i., then let it set for at at least 7 days before you use it.

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FRUITING SUBSTRATE

Directions:
Place the medium into a pillowcase and put it in a 5 gal. bucket, add enough water (mix.) to cover medium and soak for 12 hours, then drain and put it in the jars and let the jars set for 12 hours then sterilize for 1 hour at 15 p.s.i.

NOTES
You can use a Composted Hardwoods instead of Hardwood Sawdust.

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TEST
Day 1. Agar transferred to fruiting substrate 7#.
Day 7. Jars were shaken.
Day 14. Fully colonized.
Day 14. Cased and put in the light.
Day . Bad overlay.
Day 35. Overlay was scratched off.
Day 50. Pinning (1 out of 15) (Strain.2#).
Day 56. Growth Stopped. (Strain.2#).
Day 57. Pinning (2 out of 15) (Strain.D#).
Day 71. (Strain.2#) Has made 2 more pinheads.
Day 71. (Strain.D#) Has made 8 pinheads.
Day 72. (Strain.D#) Has made 10 pinheads.
Day 76. (Strain.D#) Has made 12 pinheads.
Day 81. Growth Stopped. (Strain.2#).
Day 81. (Strain.D#) Fruitbody are 2 to 2.5 in. tall.
Day 82. Veil's broke.
Day 88. Fruitbody were harvested, 3.5 to 4 in tall.

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NOTES
1. No overlay occurred on (Strain.D#).
2. The one strain from the August print (Strain.2#.)did make pins on day 50 and day 71 both times they aborted.
3. Diffuse sunlight and 13 hours/day of fluorescent light.
4. Temp. 68. to 75.F.

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COMMENTS
Psilocybe weilii Strain.D# produced four flushes of robust fruitbody and the experiments was ended at that time. Psilocybe weilii seems to be resistant to contamination when compared to other Psilocybe species.

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PINHEADS

1ST FLUSH

2ND FLUSH

3RD FLUSH

Photo: Jochen Gartz

The First Photo of the in vitro Cultivation of Psilocybe weilii