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OfflineBeefSupremeJr
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Registered: 11/02/11
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Trusted Cultivator
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Shroomery * 119
    #28501530 - 10/12/23 11:19 AM (7 months, 2 days ago)

FOREWORD

I've been working on this write-up in my journal since January 5 2019 and I've decided that it is polished up enough to go public with it. It has been an endeavor of mine to somehow streamline the flow of information of my favorite website for new enthusiasts. Initially I started this as a way to introduce my in person friends to mushroom cultivation and my beloved extended community, but as it became more and more refined I realized its potential usefulness to the cultivation community in general.

Acknowledgements: First of all, I'd like to thank Ythan. The impact that this site has had on me and my well-being cannot be understated. Thank you for all that you do for us. I want to thank Bod.(Bodhisatta) Wherever you are now I hope that you are doing well. I consider Bod to be my first and most instrumental cultivation mentor. Though you were somewhat of a Vogon and perhaps uncomfortably complex as a person, you were a good teacher to me and I am grateful for the time you spent looking over my projects. However harsh your criticisms may have been, I want you to know that I acknowledge and appreciate all your brilliant efforts. I want to thank the cast of beloved trusted cultivators: Pasty, Stipe, Crack, Derray, Sir P, Baba Yaga, Comebackkid, Mycolorado, Fahtster, FrankHorrigan, Psilicon, Mudafuka (rip), Nichrome, Cocaine Buffet, LotKid, Saralove, Tormato, Hamloaf, Inocuole, A.K.A and many other Trusted Cultivators for all the help over the years. I hope that you all recognize the good you have done for this troubled little planet. I want to thank all the supporter members for helping make this my favorite website of all time. I want to thank all the other members and friends I have made along the way for all the help over the years. I dedicate this to Shrimps Milkboy and SmellyHobbit, three of the best humans I have ever encountered in my travels.  You are my Ford, Arthur, and Marvin.
-Beef (Zaphod)

Grab your towel.

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THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE SHROOMERY
(by BeefSupremeJr)


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Shroomery
CHAPTER 1: Choosing Your Path
CHAPTER 2: Knowing What You Are Getting Into
CHAPTER 3: Our Convention
CHAPTER 4: The Nitty Gritty


CHAPTER 5: Cloning and Genetics
CHAPTER 6: The Rich Mans Guide to Cultivation
CHAPTER 7: The Final Product
ADDENDUM: More On The Shroomery

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PROLOGUE: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Shroomery

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomery is effectively an open letter to anyone who is trying to get into cultivating mushrooms and have somehow made your way to this website. The Shroomery is massive and old. New threads and information are added so rapidly that you will likely never in your lifetime be able to process all of it. There is so much information out there on the internet and here at the shroomery that without a frame of reference, cultivating mushrooms can seem daunting. So to you, new cultivator, I write this letter.

To whom it may concern,
I take this craft very seriously as a hobby and my intention is to help people achieve a high level of success because I personally believe in these mushrooms as a powerful medicine that many people find tremendous relief with from anxiety, depression, chronic pain, addiction, and symptoms associated with PTSD. That said, I believe this is the premier site to get information for this craft and hone your skills despite the aforementioned complications that are inherent with this site.

The techniques (teks) I have amassed herein have been developed over decades of painstaking trial and error and scientific rigor. I have attempted to galvanize a guide of some of these techniques to give you an idea of what the standard convention of mushroom cultivation is at this time.  I  write this fully understanding that the convention may change, and so too will this guide. Consider this guide a living document. I vow to do my best to keep it up-to-date and modify it to the will of convention even if I am reluctant to change my own methods.

My intention with this write-up has always been the same, and two-pronged.
Primarily, to help New members get up to speed with our conventional processes. 
Secondly, to help our veteran members address the multitude of questions we receive as efficiently as possible. It does get tiresome answering the same questions to ad nauseam, so I've done a lot of work to streamline the process.

Efficiency in helping the cultivation community is what I strive for. I hope that veteran members will find this useful to link new cultivators to, and maybe even paste this link into their signatures to help new cultivators get up to speed as quickly and efficiently as possible so that they may join the conversations of our community with a strong foundation of knowledge.

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CHAPTER 1: Choosing Your Path

Some bullet points before you dive in:

  • First and foremost: Please do not inject spores into grain or substrate and especially instant rice. We here at The Shroomery do not endorse the Uncle Ben tek and will not offer a lot of support for it. Our goal here is to help people successfully cultivate mushrooms and we do grow weary of seeing the failures of this technique so you may find that many of our members will meet your concerns using this tek with adversity.
  • -It is important to understand that spores inherently contain contamination. Mold spores and bacterial endospores are almost always present in spore prints and spore syringes so we always assume them to be contaminated.
  • You can find our collective opinion on the Uncle Ben tek here
  • -We also don't recommend 'all-in-one' grow bags or kits. These also tend to be problematic in and of themselves, particularly when inoculating them with a multispore syringe. (MSS)
  • If this is your first time attempting cultivation, we recommend the PF Tek as it is fairly straightforward and fool-proof in terms of contamination resistance while not requiring a ton of equipment or a pressure cooker (PC).  You won't get massive yields but if you can read and follow instructions, you'll produce something.  This is one of the only good uses for a MSS.
  • Don't reinvent the wheel. Experimenting might be tempting but if you use the search function you will likely find that almost every conceivable idea has been attempted and subsequently failed. If you want to experiment do so at your own peril or joy but please do not assume that you are going to discover a new ground-breaking way of doing things. We've seen multitudes of new growers trying to break the wheel of convention. Invariably they become discouraged, then defensive, then *poof* they're gone forever.



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CHAPTER 2: Knowing What You Are Getting Into

So you want to go bigger? You should be prepared to read a bit and invest in some equipment. Namely, a pressure cooker (PC) which is used to sterilize substrates and grains. I highly recommend the "Presto 23 Qt" pressure cooker.  Find the best deal and get one. The reason we like this model is that it is relatively inexpensive and has good capacity. It holds 10 quart jars.


If you need a little help running your first PC cycles, I'll refer you to my old cultivation mentor Bodhisatta's write-up on using your Presto PC.

You'll also need a 'Still Air Box' (SAB) to do sterile work.  I suggest you look over our community's beautiful array of hand made still air boxes to familiarize yourself with this machine. Its A big plastic tote with two holes cut in it.  Its design causes airborne particles and contaminants to fall harmlessly to the bottom of the box where they won't contaminate your work.  All our sterile processes are done in the SAB. 


A quick word about laminar flow hoods/ fan filter units. (FFU's) These are considered prized among the cultivation community and are a direct replacement for the SAB. They work by producing a laminar sterilized stream of air flow over your work area. Simply put, it blows all the contamination away. They're great but they are expensive and they are not necessary so I won't recommend you invest in such a unit right away unless you have a lot of extra money. Spend some time with this hobby and decide if you enjoy it enough to make such an investment. I have never used one in all my years of doing this. I do want one, but at this time neither have the extra funds nor space.  A stainless table and an SAB has gotten me to near 100% success rate.


Various other inexpensive pieces of laboratory equipment will also be needed and will become obviously necessary as you begin to study the teks ahead. 

My lab inventory invariably contains:

Nitrile or latex gloves
Medical masks (covid masks)
Inoculation loop
Scalpel or Hobby knife (x-acto)
Small butane torch (i use an induction coil instead)
Roll of micropore tape
Isopropyl Alcohol 70% and a spray bottle for it
I have two scales. one ranges from .001g - 50g. 
The other from 1g - 1KG.
500 ml borosilicate media bottles
A funnel

Other items may become necessary later as you begin to work and experiment with these techniques. 

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CHAPTER 3: Our Convention

Invariably, most of us in this community follow a similar convention. This can be broken down into three major phases: Agar. Grain. Coir.

1) Our journey begins by "streaking" spores onto sterile agar (petri dishes filled with a sterilized agar medium. we often refer to these as just "plates") From there we transfer samples of the initial "germination plate" (or just "germ plate") into series of of other plates until we have a clean culture.





2) "Inoculating" colonized agar into jars of sterilized grain to create "spawn". (Jars of grain colonized with mycelium)  Most commonly, rye, oats, millet, wheat, or wild bird seed. (WBS) Check your local tractor supply or feed co-op to find the best option.  The cheapest option and and easiest to source for you is the best option.

 
3) "Spawning" (colonized grain jars) into coconut coir (in a plastic tub or tote.  We refer to these as 'Monotubs' or simply 'monos' or 'tubs')


The project climaxes when the tub reaches full colonization an we are carefully monitoring "surface conditions" (tiny water droplets that naturally form on the surface of the mycelium (myc)) when the coconut coir substrate becomes fully colonized. We balance correct surface conditions with 'fresh air exchange' (FAE) to achieve 'pinning' (mycelium forming fruiting bodies aka mushrooms)




And there you have it. This is more or less the way most of us cultivate mushrooms here at The Shroomery. You'll find that more experienced members do deviate from convention with success, but we feel that it is important to master these fundamental phases beforehand.

Sometimes having bad habits from the early days of cultivation is worse than having no habits at all. All these steps are done in a '12 on 12 off' light schedule.  There is no light blocking. There is no sealing a tub to cut off airflow at any point, ever. There is no distinguishable difference between growing and fruiting conditions.  Its considered standard practice to allow fae from the moment we spawn the tub. We do not use lysol. If you're one of these members who is returning to the scene after a decade or more hiatus, I suggest reading the obsolete tek page to make sure you're not doing something that has been debunked. 

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CHAPTER 4: The Nitty Gritty

I've listed ahead, all my favorite teks I have gleaned from this site clicking around and reading over the years. (Since 2004) I put them in order so other beginners can use this as a growing plan or at least to help get an idea of what the standard convention is and what their path will be moving forward in this hobby. You don't have to use exactly the teks I use, but make sure you're choosing a reputable tek that makes sense to you and stick with it.  Do not deviate from a tek. You can certainly learn to bend the rules but you must know the rules first.

Please note again that this site is a database of information, not a guide to growing mushrooms. Much of the information found here is considered to be obsolete and otherwise debunked and outdated. It is therefore important to look at the dates of any thread you are reading and verify that it is a conventional tek before trying it. Its also important to read the ongoing discussions of each tek to understand how other members and Trusted Cultivators have experienced it.  This hobby evolves. Youtube videos or books are often full of obsolete or outright bad information and they are never updated. Reddit is also not recommended as a reliable source of information. 

Again, here we have made a concerted effort to condense as much outdated or bad information into one thread as we can into one thread. If you have previously grown mushrooms in the past, you may want to make sure you're not holding onto some old bad habits that will cause issues down the road. Things have changed for the better, remarkably.  Your propensity to accept change and adapt will have a massive impact on your success as a cultivator.

If any of the terms I use are unfamiliar to you, search for them individually. The search function can be the most powerful tool you have to find information so therefore, the most important tek I think I can provide to you is Bods Search Engine TEK. 

Again, our convention is invariably three major phases and we recommend you master each phase before moving on to the next:
1. Agar (colonizing media in petri dishes)
2. Spawn (colonizing grain jars)
3. Bulk (colonizing coconut coir in tubs)

If this sounds like too much for you I recommend going back to PF TEK. 

Not deterred? Okay, lets get into it then. Don't Panic.

AGAR

Agar makes the entire process a lot more forgiving and fun.  I use sterile Petri dishes. They can purchased many places but my favorite sources is here You can use other types of plates and teks to achieve the same result. Just make sure you follow a good tek.

Here’s psilicons write up on agar. This should get you fully familiar with what agar is and how we use it. This is agar 101.  Very basic and straightforward. 

I pretty much still use BODS Agar Tek to prepare my plates.  Its always worked well enough for me. I don't use a microwave anymore and for sure I inoculate my jars differently than this tek describes but this is how I learned to prepare and use agar to inoculate.

Everyone interested in Agar work should read this thread by Stro. It’s fascinating and will give you a great idea of how we are using agar to develop clean cultures of mycelium to be used to colonize sterilized grain in jars.

Don't be afraid to post pictures of your culture in the Cultivation section here to ask for help to determine if your cultures are clean or not before moving on to the next section.  We love looking at plates.  Please feel free to upload your pictures on this site and please do not use an external image host to show us your work.

Quick little plug here: As the founder and leader of πŸ…ƒ πŸ„΄ πŸ„° πŸ„Ό  πŸ„² πŸ„» πŸ„Έ πŸ„½ πŸ„Ά πŸ…† πŸ… πŸ„° πŸ„Ώ I do recommend using clingwrap to wrap your plates as Bod originally taught me. Its far cheaper than any other option and works great.  Only Vogons use parafilm and worse yet, electrical tape is only used by Reddit Mods. Grafting tape is an acceptable substitute (if you're lazy) 

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SPAWN

So now that you know how to make clean cultures on plates, you need to be able to make clean spawn jars.  this will involve crafting a special lid that can "breathe" as the culture grows but will not allow contaminates in.  Lots of ways to do this. 

I like these lids the best. 
 
I use wheat. I bought a 50lb bag of it at a horse feed supply for 12$.  It’s very easy.  Rinse it. Soak it.  Simmer it, dry it, load it in jars, pressure cook it.

Heres my wheat prep tek. You can prep rye or oats the same way but not millet or wbs or popcorn.  if you want to use those grains, seek a specific up-to-date tek.

Transferring colonized agar into sterilized grain jars (inoculation) is easy if you understand good sterile SAB technique. Bods Comprehensive Agar TEK --which does include inoculation-- is a good place to start. You'll find many alternative methods for doing this, but the principals are consistent among teks. Don't 'hover' your hands over open plates and jars and be smooth and deliberate. Don't bump the SAB and get the wedges of agar into your jars. 

Clean spawn is easily the most critical component of the entire cultivation process. If you have read carefully up to this point, you should have a good understanding of the processes involved in creating clean spawn. 
Be sure to verify that your spawn is clean. This guide can help you determine on your own if the spawn you have is clean or contaminated, but feel free to show us your work. 

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BULK

You should have clean spawn at this point and have verified via other members that your spawn is in fact clean. Again, upload your pics and don't be afraid to ask. 

My favorite thing to do with it is mixing it into prepared coconut coir and putting this mixture into my favorite tub design, Pastywhyte's Ez Dialed Monotub.

Coconot Coir prep is a funny topic. Linking a tek is comical because by the time you've explained how simple it is, you've already told them how to do it. However, too wet or too dry, and you will invariably create problems.

My favorite and simplified tek for coir prep hands down is "The Pan Pacific Cocoir Blaster" by my beloved comrade SmellyHobbit.

This is a no-frills stripped down method of making the only mushroom substrate you should ever need (for cubensis) Learn what "field capacity" means and get a feel for it.  We don't recommend any additives. Gypsum is obsolete.  Vermiculite can be used to soak up extra water if you mess up and add too much water, but also isn't necessary. Smelly and myself and several of my inner circle use 'coco-bliss' brand coir but if you have a source of other brands, by all means. As with all things in cultivation, your mileage may vary using different brands, so keep that in mind. Find what works and write it down or commit it to memory. 

My coir math works like this and I highly encourage you to use a similar method:
Brick weight (in grams) x 4.44 = water (in ML)

So now that you have learned how to prepare a coconut coir substrate, you mix your clean spawn with it and put it all together into the tub of your choosing.  Again, I cant recommend Pasty's EZ Dialed monotubs enough which is why I have now posted the link twice three times.

You might be wondering what the ideal spawn to coir ratio might be, and that's one of the more discussed topics on this forum.  We typically measure these ratios in terms of quarts. One quart of spawn to one quart of coir would thereby be 1:1 and so on.  Ratios like this might be tempting because the colonization time is faster, but I would advise a more patient approach and a Beefier Tub. Heres how I do it.

Once the coir substrate has been fully colonized by the grain spawn, it should develop tiny droplets of water. This is a critical climactic phase of this process and balancing these droplets with FAE is referred to as "surface conditions"

Here is the thread I always refer people to regarding surface conditions and pinning. One of the most important threads ever written. When you are at the fruiting phase, monitoring surface conditions is critical but if you follow instructions and use a good tub design, its becomes fairly automatic. This is one of the more intuitive phases of the entire process. You'll get a good feel for what good surface conditions are the more you practice. Although comebackkid's thread is old, we still consider these surface condition guidelines to be essential to getting a good pinset.

Assuming you grew yourself a "canopy" of mushrooms, (a tub so densely packed with mushrooms you can't see the substrate) You could skip ahead to 'The final Product' section of this guide to decide what you will do with them. But don't throw your substrate out in the garden just yet, it might flush again, or even multiple more times depending on how much available water is left. You'll notice the substrate has shrunken considerably and will feel lighter upon picking it up.  Typically we try to re-hydrate the substrate as much as possible and then set it aside and patiently wait for another flush. I'll do this by wiping the substrate clean of 'aborts' then running water over the substrate surface under the sink. You'll notice it will float and really won't absorb much water. Sometimes I will use another tub to weigh down the substrate and let it soak for 15 or 20 minutes. I'll drain the water off and put the tub away and just wait for another flush. Usually in about 10-14 days the sub will fuzz back up and produce another flush. Typically you'll get less material overall, but the mushrooms themselves are often bigger the second and third flush. Its really contingent on how much available water and energy the substrate has after the first flush. There are some cultures that produce so heavily on the first flush that they leave nothing for future generations.  This is one of the more intuitive aspects of this craft and you'll get a feel for it after your first handful of tubs.

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CHAPTER 5: Cloning and Genetics

I still use Franks Proper Cloning TEK. I try to clone the densest clusters with non-hollow stipes, but you can clone anything your heart desires. See something strange? Something interesting? Go ahead and try to clone it. It doesn't mean that you will be able to reproduce the trait immediately, but cloning will increase your chances of seeing that trait again.

"Stabilization" is the process of cloning then isolating and fruiting the cloned culture, then taking spore samples either by print or swab, then fruiting and cloning the desired trait again. This process is repeated ad nauseam until the phenotype is most always present even from spore. This is how new strains are developed. Its a tremendous amount of work but its always exciting to see new strains that our members develop.


FP+ (PE x AA+ β€œFaht’s PEA+”)

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CHAPTER 6: The Rich Mans Guide to Cultivation

I debated adding this section because I feel like its cheating. I went through nearly two decades of pain and suffering to achieve the level of success I have now and I don't have a non-toxic way of saying this, but I want other people to suffer a little too. I know that's immature but its a labor of love and I do love the process and I want people to experience their first flush only after they have painstakingly gone through the entire process from streaking their own germ plate.

Nonetheless, it would be a betrayal of mine own code of ethics not to include this. It is my duty--as someone who has been helped along--to help the cultivation community to the best of my ability. I also realize that some people have more money than time. I have several friends--medical professionals--who use this method because with a 50 hour a week job and a family, they simply do not have time to do every process of cultivation on their own. Probably god hates them and I do too but they have clean spawn and boomers to show for it. I will also say that I don't think this route would be exorbitantly more expensive than buying an all-in-one kit or even Uncle Ben Tek, particularly when you factor in the failure rate of those methods. 

That said you can phone it in and just buy literally everything you need and have a successful grow and still follow our standard convention.  We might boo you and throw tomatoes but alas, you will have what you seek despite the criticism. I won't give you exact sources. If you insist on being this lazy you'll need to do your own legwork and find sources. Be advised. This stuff isn't cheap.

1) It is now legal in (most) states to simply order liquid culture (LC) syringes. LC is living mycelium suspended in a liquid nutrient medium. Several of our trusted vendors and sponsors *hint* are carrying a decent inventory and we assume that it has been tested clean and is ready for work. 

2) Several of our sponsors sell also, fully prepared grain jars. I've used them and I won't say they are as nice as my jars, but they are clean and they do work. Most of them come with 'self healing inoculation ports' (SHIPS) installed in the lid.  Its a silicon gromet installed on the lids of the jars that allows you to inject LC (NOT MSS) through into the sterilized grain. As the name suggests, they "self heal" after you remove the needle.

3) All you would really need to do this is an SAB.  Following standard sterile protocols, Simply inject the LC into the grain and shake it up. You actually don't even have to build your own SAB. In my opinion this is a cardinal sin and a debasement of my beloved community, but you can simply buy an SAB online and have it shipped to your doorstep.

4) So now that you've hacked and cheated your way into possessing clean spawn jars, you can skip all the way to the end of chapter 4 "BULK" and spawn it to a monotub of prepared coir. I shouldn't even tell you this, but yes, you can also just buy the substrate pre-made. Several of our sponsors do sell it. I do not recommend using substrates containing horse manure (hpoo) or guano or staw, or frankly anything but coir and vermiculite. Some will contain gypsum. Although we find gypsum to be useless, it won't hurt anything to use.  Coir+vermiculite+gypsum=CVG.  Its a standard substrate and will work just fine. Go ahead and order a bunch of it to your doorstep, and be cursed. 

5) So now that you have angered the gods of The Shroomery and skipped all the way to the last step having barely lifted a finger, all you'll need to do is wait for full colonization and monitor your surface conditions, fruit, and harvest. 

Go ahead and grab a mint julep and sit on the front porch you son of a bitch.  Enjoy your mushrooms you didn't work for. Release the hounds on anyone that trespasses onto your land. 

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CHAPTER 7: The Final Product

Assuming you've produced some mushrooms, You may be wondering what to do with them.  How to dry them, preserve them, or prepare them for consumption. This isn't rocket science.  We use conventional dehydrators to dry them to cracker dry status and we store them in ziplock or mylar bags with silica desiccant packets. You don't need a tek for this.

I run my dehydrator for 24 hours on the highest setting which I believe is 158F. Potency loss at the highest temperature is negligible so don't overthink it. Do not store them in the freezer or fridge. Never expose them to moisture or humidity. Because my intention is to offer fool-proof advice to new growers, I can't recommend drying mushrooms any other way than a dehydrator. A freeze dryer works and does an amazing job but you better be ready to shell out some money.

Storage is a a complex discussion because it is contingent on your climate with respect to average humidity levels. You will always have issues storing mushrooms in higher humidity climates even using desiccants or oxygen absorbers. Growers in dry climates enjoy the luxury of being able to store mushrooms for a long period of time. I've had capsules that were several years old that were still as potent as the day I pressed them. At this time, there is no official consensus from this community on how to store mushrooms for very long periods of times, (more than a few months) particularly in humid climates. Vacuum sealers, mylar bags and glass storage jars have all been shown to fail at some point in humid climates and your crispy potent fruit will become bendy and non-magical.

Therefor my official stance on long-term storage of mushrooms in non-arid climates is: Don't. Eat them.

My favorite thing to do with dry mushrooms is grinding them into powder and putting them into gelatin or agar capsules. Size #1 being my favorite for micro-dosing purposes. Here is my tek for getting this done relatively easily.


There are lots of ways to process and ingest mushrooms. You can eat raw but you'll need to be careful of dosing. As a rule, dry mushrooms weigh approximately 10x less than that of fresh mushrooms.  If this is your first time dosing mushrooms I recommend starting very slow at or below 200mg of dry mushrooms. These are extremely powerful psychoactive compounds you're dealing with, and they will command your respect if you are careless.


For reference, 100-200mg is considered a threshold or micro-dose. I consider up to 500mg a medium dose and anything above this range and below 2 grams a considerable experience. Anything above this dose is considered a full-bore macro-dose and the impairment cannot be understated. I consider anything above 3 grams a heavy dose and anything above 5 grams is considered heroic for the experienced and foolish for the inexperienced. Above 7 grams I consider an extreme experience and potentially dangerous in terms of mental health without considerable experience with altered states of consciousness and or supervision. Ask SmellyHobbit for his experiences with this range and you may change your mind about it.

That said, theres no wrong way to eat mushrooms. Melt them into chocolate. Adding them into 'gummy' (gelatin) recipes is quite popular. My precious friend and comrade Milkboy has mastered the art of the Gummy. I remember a member recently made a lovely pasta sauce with them and enjoyed them well.

Dry or raw mushrooms have been known to cause indigestion or nausea for some people. If you have concerns about this or have experienced this (I have not) then you may want to try making mushroom tea. It has been said to be easier for those with a sensitive digestive system. Nothing worse than being sick during a trip.

However you decide to ingest them, be careful. This isn't a toy and failure to pay proper respect will get you hurt. 

You've been warned.


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ADDENDUM: More On The Shroomery

This thread is probably the best place to ask questions and get answers quickly by trusted members.

You'll notice some members have a "trusted cultivator" tag below their avatar.  This means that they have demonstrated their competence over many years of practicing the craft.  Most of them have at least tried almost every bit of technique under the sun and have contributed their own teks and insight to the community. Please respect their experience and do feel safe taking their advice. 

Please understand that many of the members here work tirelessly for free to help new growers achieve a high degree of success because we believe in the medicine. We are insulted as often as thanked and over time have developed a collective snarky and somewhat prickly sense of humor about the adverse reactions we receive when trying to help those who ask. Please understand that deviation from our convention is nothing novel. Of course you're free to explore any alternative you want, but don't be surprised when someone tells you its been done and what the disastrous results were. We do grow tired of arguing about the same topics with inexperienced growers day in and day out. We don't do things the way we do because we are too stupid to have considered the alternatives, we do things this way because we did consider and try almost every conceivable alternative to arrive at these simple conventions.
Noobs are often identifiable by their propensity to argue and resist convention. Experienced growers embrace convention and seldom argue.

That said, don't be afraid to ask questions.  Don't be afraid to post pictures. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and admit to them. We all started somewhere.  Here is the confessional thread and reading it should make you feel better about starting out.  Not a member here hasn't done something foolhardy, but please. Don't be insulting. If you're feeling very confident in your "new" way of doing things, you're probably re-inventing the wheel and haven't been humbled by this hobby yet. 

I remember a guy who was pulling duct tape off of a tub with a scalpel in his hand.  The tape gave away suddenly and he stuck the scalpel right into his sternum and spent the day in the ER.  Imagine explaining that to the doctor. 
It would be hard to fuck this up worse than that, so get in here and make some mistakes and have fun. 

This craft is an exercise in patience and cleanliness. If you're impatient or hate wiping and cleaning things, this hobby might not be for you. Always get opinions before doing things you aren't sure of. 

Theres more to the shroomery than just growing mushrooms. Don't be afraid to check out the pub. Have a strange conversation. Or do be afraid and cautious and check out the off topic discussion page but be advised, this isn't Facebook. The concept of community guidelines is very loose in the Pub and almost non-existent in off topic discussion. The moderators here will not coddle you. There is no Mark Zuckerberg here.

There are many other discussion forums here. Whatever you're into, there's probably some place to talk about it and if not, you can create your own thread. Take a look at the full catalog of discussion forums.

A word about ratings. You'll notice that above many member's avatar, there is two bars of mushrooms.  A blue and Green bar.  Five being good, and zero being bad. Very bad. Typically members are banned if their ratings are dismal.  Blue mushrooms indicate a member's general rating.  Being polite and helpful is a good way to get good ratings. Being rude and alienating is a great way to receive bad ratings.  Do be polite. Do be humble. Do be courteous. Do give other members good ratings when they have been kind or helpful to you.



The green mushrooms indicate trade ratings. You may trade spore prints or swabs with any member and punctual quality trades receive a good rating.  Bad trade ratings will likely deter other members from trading with you and could result in being banned.

When your account reaches 50 posts and 90 days old, you will be eligible to participate in the marketplace where you can ask other members to trade or be considered in the many giveaways that take place there. Just make good on your promises and give a good trade rating when someone has made good on theirs.

Heres some final links of my favorite threads as well as my personal image gallery of some of my past projects and other nonsense.

Cultivation Picture of the Day is great. Post anything cultivation related but try not to shit-post.  Taxes (pictures) are paid upfront and the tax man cometh. 

AGAR ENVY! All agar all the time.  I love this place. Agar is life. Agar is all.

Tools of the Trade. I love this thread. I've learned so much just looking at the innovative technology people implement.

Last  but not least, Cultivation General Discussion. One of the greatest instruments of wisdom in my ongoing endeavor to understand and be humbled by this craft

Back to Table of Contents
_______________________

Good luck. Be humbled by the mycelium and never stop learning.  Feel free to message me if anything is unclear to you and remember, Don't panic.

-Le Beef


Edited by BeefSupremeJr (05/07/24 11:16 AM)

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OfflineBeefSupremeJr
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Trusted Cultivator
Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: BeefSupremeJr] * 19
    #28501533 - 10/12/23 11:19 AM (7 months, 2 days ago)

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomery: Part 2
(By BeefSupremeJr)


FOREWORD

To my beloved Shroomery. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomery was well received beyond my wildest expectations. I feel so honored and flattered to see it held so high on this forum to which I've dedicated so much of myself. What started as simple became complex. I feel that the guide has been as well, a microcosm for the expansion of my own ambitions with this craft and this community from what started as simple into something much more complex over the years.  I'll be honest and tell you that I began my interest into psilocybin in general as a matter of recreation. I think I was essentially bored. I'd spent a large portion of my life in academic and capitalistic endeavor and I pined for excitement. My original intention was basic: Cultivate enough mushrooms for me and my friends to "get fucked up" on weekends. That was over a decade ago now. Since then so much has changed that its difficult to summarize, but its abundantly clear to me that mushrooms were instrumental in my development as a person in general.  Simple became complex. My dearest friends here know the tremendous hardships and challenges that came thereafter, and I am proud to say that this medicine and this community played a crucial role in my ability to move past and integrate these obstacles and become something--someone--I am proud to be and love. At some point I became aware that my intentions with cultivation changed. What started as a relatively self-centered pursuit of recreation evolved into something much more profound and satisfying. The vain novelty of manufacturing my own playthings faded as I realized I had a genuine interest in the craft in general. The agenda of supplying me and my friends with illicit substance was supplanted with an ardent desire to learn and hone my craft, and to share the magic which had helped me so much. To help.

So I humble myself still to this thing that has shaped me into what I am, and to this community that got me acquainted with it. Much has changed since I wrote the first portion of the guide.  I've been honored with the responsibility of being accepted as a 'Trusted Cultivator' and as such, I vow to serve the community for as long as it exists and commit myself to expanding my knowledge of this humbling craft. So here I go once again into the fray. To help ever and hurt never. To colonize the world whole to fruit for the betterment of all sentient beings. My friends old and new, I thank you for everything. Bless you all.

CHAPTER 1: In Defense of Mushroom Cultivation: Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, and Who is this God Person Anyway? 


Bear with me. I have a long-winded point to make that I think is valuable to anyone becoming fascinated with growing mushrooms. If you want to cut to the chase, I'm going to try to dispel the stigma that surrounds the topic of therapeutic usage of psilocybin. I've felt a spectrum of emotions pertaining to my practice ranging from embarrassment and shame to paranoia and defensiveness where it concerns curious or otherwise judgemental family members or peers. My intention here is to arm you with enough information that you may supplant these negative feelings surrounding your hobby as a mushroom cultivator with a sense of pride and dignity. We are helpers not hurters. My interest in history intersects my ambitions with psilocybin in a way that I think is relevant and profound. I've accepted more than my fair share of criticism and persecution for my beliefs and I can invariably attribute most of it to blatant ignorance.

Hallucinogenic mushrooms have been used in religious and spiritual practices for centuries, with their influence extending across various cultures and civilizations. The connection between hallucinogenic mushrooms and religions is multifaceted, encompassing historical, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. The use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in religious rituals dates back to ancient times. In Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Mayans, the consumption of psilocybin-containing mushrooms was an integral part of religious ceremonies. These mushrooms were often associated with divinity and were believed to facilitate communication with the spirit world. Similarly, indigenous tribes in Central and South America, such as the Mazatec people of Mexico, incorporated psilocybin mushrooms into their religious practices as a means of connecting with the divine and gaining spiritual insights.



Archaeological findings suggest that mushrooms were utilized in religious and shamanic practices in the middle east. Ancient rock art depicts mushroom-like symbols, indicating their significance in ancient belief systems. Additionally, ancient texts and scriptures from civilizations in the Middle East often reference psychoactive substances, hinting at their presence in the cultural and spiritual landscape of the region including ancient Egypt.



Psilocybin has been shown to have profound effects on cognition and perception. Research has demonstrated that psilocybin can lead to altered states of consciousness, including mystical experiences characterized by a sense of unity, transcendence, and interconnectedness. These experiences may have influenced early human cognition and creativity, potentially contributing to the development of art, music, storytelling, and other forms of cultural expression. Studies have suggested that psilocybin therapy may be effective in treating conditions such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. One of my favorite contemporary nutrition and self-help authors, Michael Pollan, has gone to tremendous effort to catalog and explore this research in his book "How to Change Your Mind" and I highly recommend this book. Considering my own personal successful experiences using psilocybin to treat my own myriad of mental health issues including PTSD, it doesn't seem like a much of a stretch to wonder if the potential for psilocybin to alleviate psychological suffering and promote mental well-being could have had significant implications for the development of human societies, fostering resilience and emotional health among early communities. What was once simple, became complex.

If you hadn't noticed yet, psilocybin has been classified as a Schedule I drug by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and is considered illegal in many countries. The primary reasons for its illegality stem from concerns about its potential for abuse, lack of accepted medical use, and limited knowledge about its long-term effects. In other words ignorance. In my experience--which is vast--its not a drug that is easily abused. It commands respect and I've discussed the risks in my previous Hitchhiker's guide about the risks associated with the failure to pay the correct level of respect. I've found that many people are understandably apprehensive due largely to its legal status punctuated with a bit of old nixon/reagan war-on-drugs era brainwashing and ignorance.

The bottom line here is that this isn't a malicious drug causing harm. I'ts been a helping hand for tens of thousands of years and you should feel a sense of pride about what you are doing. Feel proud to learn about the medicine and all the good that it can do. Feel proud to learn and refine the practice of cultivating mushrooms. Feel proud to be a part of the Shroomery and take pride in the friends that you make here. If you have a family member or peer, or a partner that is apprehensive, try to be understanding. It can seem scary for someone who is concerned for your well-being. Try to understand that their feelings are likely stemming from a place of ignorance, (be it willful or not). If you can, ask them to read the resources which are widely available from very authoritative sources:

John Hopkins University article on psilocybin treatment for major depression.

New York University article on the use of psilocybin to treat anxiety and depression in cancer patients.

New York Times article on psilocybin as addiction treatment.

So listen, theres a plethora of accredited information out there. You don't need to get into a fight at Thanksgiving dinner with your belligerent uncle about this. Just drop the links and move on. Buy him a copy of Pollan's book. Be confident in what you're doing. Know that you are helping not hurting. Know that humans have been doing this for tens of thousands of years. Know that you are doing something important. What we are doing isn't childish or silly or even recreational. What we are involved in here is absolutely essential, so be proud.  Your uncle can go fuck himself. Fuck everything. Our entire civilization is complicit in a collective fever dream that only makes sense if you're unconscious, and its logically and environmentally unsustainable. Anxiety, depression, and trauma are a homogenized byproduct of dysphoria, manufactured wholesale by the collective human nightmare. We literally rinse food off our plates with heated drinking water and destroy it with a "garbage disposal" while other people die of starvation, and your uncle thinks you're crazy because you use psilocybin? Liberate yourself from judgement. Eat mushrooms and go to Thanksgiving dinner and be present for the people that you love. Laugh in your uncles face but secretly have compassion for him, for he will never enjoy in his lifetime the joy that you know every time you summit the mountain of human emotion, and descend again. Buy some Shroomery sweatpants and a coffee mug and proudly strut about your domicile. Likely you have to participate in the nightmare of human agricultural revolution against the planet, but you don't have to believe in it.

All that being said, Psilocybin ins't for everyone. Experts in the field of psychiatry and psychopharmacology have expressed differing viewpoints regarding the potential link between psilocybin use and schizophrenia. Some experts caution that individuals with a family history of psychotic disorders or those predisposed to mental health conditions should approach psychedelics with caution due to their potential to trigger latent psychiatric issues. In my own personal experience, I've seen it. I had one friend who after some cavalier use of psilocybin, began speaking frantically in public about "dragons in the bushes" and other concerning subject matter. He later threw himself in front of a bus in Austin. He thankfully survived but has been diagnosed and treated for schizophrenia. Another talented friend of mine growing up was using various psychs and similarly started talking about how the government was pirating his ideas though implanted microchips in his eyes and teeth. He later attempted to cut himself a vagina using a box-knife--seriously injuring himself-- claiming that he was supposed to give birth to some kind of demon that would bring about an age of world peace. He was later incarcerated for drug posession and was also diagnosed as schizophrenic. Romanticizing psychedelics is dangerous and reckless. Never pressure someone who isn't sure they want to try it. You should ask your friends if there is a history of schizophrenia in their family before offering them any substances.  Yes, this medicine can really help for certain things, but it can also cause unspeakable damage.

CHAPTER 2: A Tek for thickening thine skin.

You will find that our members here--particularly in the cultivation forums-- do not tend to varnish their opinions. Let me be honest with you friends, as an emissary of the Shroomery, I've found myself annoyed, insulted, or perturbed on numerous occasions. Some people just have a propensity to get under your skin. It really is okay. We have all been blessed with a spectrum of emotions to help us maneuver through any situation and its okay to feel negative emotions sometimes. It happens. Its always been peculiar to me that here at The Shroomery, of all places, egos of magnificent proportion clash in a spectacular fashion on a regular basis. Here. A website designated to a mushroom that dissolves the ego, we regularly witness shit-fits of epic scale and magnitude. I think to myself: Why do egos clash? Egos clash due to various psychological, social, and emotional factors. The clash of egos often arises from individuals’ need for validation, recognition, and power. When two or more individuals have strong egos, conflicts can emerge as they compete for dominance, control, or attention. Additionally, differences in perspectives, values, and beliefs can lead to clashes of egos as individuals seek to assert their own ideas and opinions.

Discussions about cultivation methods, psychedelic experiences, and the legality of mushrooms can lead to heated debates and disagreements. People may feel strongly about their own perspectives and become defensive when challenged by others. Individuals may feel personally attacked when their ideas are criticized or when they perceive a challenge to their expertise in mushroom cultivation or psychedelic experiences. This can lead to defensive behavior and conflict escalation. Conflicts can arise from a combination of differing opinions, miscommunication, ego-related issues, group dynamics, and external factors. The truth of the matter is that some people are just prickly. Some are just deliberately abrasive (Screwup, for example), and some just aren't going to agree with you. Thats just life. Everywhere I have ever traveled, there seems to be the same cross-section and similar ratios of people. If you venture to the Off Topic Discussion forum for example, be prepared to have your feathers ruffled.

So here are some things you can do if you find yourself at odds with a person who seems to rub you the wrong way or is challenging your perspective:

β˜… Ask yourself: Am I assuming malice in this person's tone when none was intended? Don't do that. If you seem to be having problems with a lot of people, the problem is probably with you. Examine that. Mitigate it. Is this person called Screwup? He's just like that. Don't take it personal. Hes really a great guy once you get to know him.

β˜… Grow the fuck up. Actually, while you're at it, you can examine yourself closely to find the source of why you're feeling insulted. Get rid of that thing, and the problem should clear up on its own. Having trouble finding the source of your bruised ego? You should do mushrooms about it. Yes, what we are doing here is important and nothing to be ashamed of, but you should keep in mind that its still federally illegal in the United States as well as most countries around the world. This isn't a hobby for people with easily bruised egos. I often smile remembering something one of our beloved Trusted Cultivators, Stipe-n Cap said in one of our more popular discussion threads:

"I hope all you thin skinned felons find the appropriate skin thickening tek well before the feds knock on your door."

β˜… Stop spreading bad information. Its annoying. We're in the habit here of disseminating reliable information and it seems like an almost-daily occurrence that someone wanders in here demanding audience for their sketchy cultivation techniques. Invariably, they take their position that what they are presenting is novel, and assume that we've never heard nor tried whatever cockamamie nonsense they happen to be touting. Please don't do this. We do grow weary of it and have collectively adopted a sort of prickly and snarky attitude towards those who do this. As I mentioned before, we are tired of hearing about the Uncle Ben "tek". So tired, in fact, that new threads about this dubious technique will be automatically locked and ban warnings will be issued by the forum moderators. 

β˜… Shut the fuck up. (STFU) You can actually just not say anything at all. You can still be a member here and get information by using the search function or finding the appropriate thread. I don't recommend this, actually. We'd like to see you as an active member in our community.

β˜… Humble yourself. Growing mushrooms well isn't easy. Theres a ton of information you'll need to do it. Please realize that some of the members here have been doing this for decades. We've seen, tried, or heard of others trying just about every method you can possibly imagine. We adhere to convention (which I went over at length in the first Hitchhiker's guide) for a reason. If you're veering away from our convention, you should probably ask your why. If you insist on learning the hard way, do so at your own peril please.

β˜… Ban yourself.  No really, sometimes its best to take a break.  Ive done it several times.  You can use our self-ban feature to bar yourself from The Shroomery for a specified amount of time. 

β˜… Do nothing.  Ignore them. Actually, you can literally ignore them by clicking this little icon at the bottom of whatever it was they said that is bothering you:

Easy peasy. Now you never have to hear another word from that person as long as you live.

Really, this is a great community. We've been accused of "gate-keeping", namely by the cultivation community members of Reddit. I find that peculiar, being that we work so hard--unpaid-- to spoon feed the information we have curated to anyone who seeks it. We have an open door policy, and we are open-handed with our help. I've made life-long friends here, and you can too. Sure, theres a couple members with prickly personalities, but I believe that if you adhere to the guidelines aforementioned, you'll find that they're secretly very nice helpful people. As a rule, you should always be prepared to accept criticism and that applies to your entire life, not just here at the Shroomery. If you think Stipe-n Cap's tone is painful to your ego, wait until you try a higher dose of psilocybin.

CHAPTER 3: Variety is the Spice of Life.

So you might have noticed by now that there are a lot different strains of Psilocybin Cubensis ("Cubes"). Here is a fairly comprehensive although incomplete list of Cubes. I will mention here that an important strain, ESS, is missing from this list. I only feel like I should mention it because it was developed by an old Trusted Cultivator, MudaFuka, who sadly passed away. So, why do we grow all these different cubes and continue to develop new strains all the time? You might be wondering as a first time grower which cubes you should attempt first. The way I see it, cubes can be organized into two major categories: Classic cubes and Penis Envy (PE) strains. Classic cubes tend to be easier to cultivate due largely to their propensity to pin easily under normal conditions.  PE strains and especially albino PE (APE) strains tend to be much more potent but often slower and more difficult to pin. For this reason alone, I recommend going with a classic Cube for you first attempt. Golden Teacher, Amazonian, Cambodian, Huautla, Mazatapec, etc.

But, are all cubes the same in terms of the psychedelic experience, and only different in terms of growth habit and appearance? You might here some members say "A cube is a cube". In other words, the active chemical structure is identical across all strains, but only different in terms of concentration. As someone who has been consistently using and micro-dosing mushrooms for over a decade, I wholehearted disagree. Its difficult to detect any difference from strain to strain on a short term basis, but over long periods of consistent use, the difference is night and day. I wrote a fairly comprehensive comment in another thread about it, and rather than paraphrasing, I've copied the comment here for posterity.

In my experience over the last 12 years or so as a consistent micro-doser, all cubes are not created equal and semps and tamps are on a completely different tier.  Sure, trying a handful of a specific strain one weekend and then a handful of another the next weekend might not seem noticeable, or if there is a difference, easily chalked up to set and setting or your specific headspace that particular weekend, but try microdosing a certain strain for 90 days and then switching to a different strain of similar potency. Theres major differences and its not something that can be assessed as a snap judgement. Chemistry just isn't that simple. Even at the pharmaceutical level, consistency is an issue.

Psilocybin is a prodrug, meaning it is inactive until it is metabolized in the body. Once ingested, it is quickly converted into psilocin through dephosphorylation by enzymes. Psilocin then acts on serotonin receptors in the brain, but theres variability across species, particularly distant species in terms of geographic relativity. While the chemical structure of psilocybin itself is consistent, there is variability in the concentrations of psilocybin and other compounds within different species of psilocybin mushrooms.  In addition to psilocybin and psilocin, psilocybin mushrooms contain a range of other chemicals in different quantities. These include baeocystin and norbaeocystin, which are structurally related to psilocybin and considered psychoactive. Different strains also contain different levels of various alkaloids, such as norbaeocystin and aeruginascin, which--albeit exist in much smaller quantities-- may still have some effect on the experience as well.

Its not only my anecdotal experience that all shrooms are not even close to being the same, its measurable in terms of chemistry and a near-impossibility that any two strains are chemically alike. As a personal curiosity of mine, Id like to see studies of these other tyrptamines in isolation. I have a hunch one of those chems is the mind-fuck chem that seems to be in high concentration in B+ strain. I and (many others) often describe certain strains as being "mellow" or others being "cruel" and it really isn't just potency. Certain strains seems to cause more anxiety than others. I've described some cubes as having a "skinny" experience. In otherwords, lacking in terms of visuals, or that certain magic. I find Semperviva to have a very "full" experience, seemingly devoid of the anxiety that seems replete with other mushrooms despite being a great deal more potent than even the cruelest APES.

That being said, don't be daunted by the options. The classics are classics for a reason. Its hard to go wrong with a gold old fashioned Golden Teacher or any of the other classics. I still grow Huautla although I've messed with its genetics so much its hardly recognizable as its original strain anymore. Most of my friends actually prefer the experience of it over the other various APES and PE strains I grow. More is not necessarily better. Semperviva and PE strains might be tempting to grow when you first get into this hobby, but they can be frustratingly difficult to get a good crop out of. Semperviva takes a comically long time to produce a crop. So thats my opinion. Theres nary a bad cube out there. Go with a classic at first. If you want to do a PE or ape, thats fine too, but have a backup plan and brace yourself for "blobs" rather than the beautiful dongs that are often pictured.

--------------------

CHAPTER 4: Frequently Asked Questions and Other Things We Think You Should Know.

I thought I'd wrap this up (for now) by throwing in a few choice tidbits of information, tackling a few FAQ's and then leave the guide open ended and subject to public suggestion. My intention has always been to help streamline the information flow so I am totally open to suggestion here. Even after the publish of the first episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Shroomery, I still see the same questions popping up time and time again.

β˜… Is it time for me to initiate Fruiting conditions?
This has got to be the most frequently asked question here at The Shroomery. So lets try to put this to rest once and for all. *ahem*
THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GROWING AND FRUITING CONDITIONS.  We don't EVER choke our substrates from air. This is very old and outdated information. Not only does it inhibit the growth rate of mycelium, but it increases C02 levels which promotes bacterial growth. Its a bad idea. We introduce FAE at the very start of spawning. This is why I keep promoting Pasty's Ez Dial Monotubs. End of story.

β˜… When do I harvest my mushrooms?
I see this question a lot. There are approximately two different answers in my opinion:
For classic cubes, (anything but Penis envy and other related strains) we are watching the veil for breakage. The moment it breaks or is about to break is the perfect time to harvest. The veil is that little paper-thin bit of tissue between the edge of the cap and the stem. To be clear, its totally okay to harvest before the veil breakage, or after. Yes, its okay if you got to it late and the spores dropped all over your tub. Yes, the mushrooms are still safe to eat. Mostly we do this because the mushrooms are at a maximum size and they get ugly when there or black spores all over everything.
For Penis Envy and other related strains, we are checking density. When the mushroom has reached its peak size, it will begin to deflate and become "marshmallow soft" This is when we harvest. You'll get a feel for harvest timing the more you do it. I still fuck up and harvest late all the time because I'm busy. I don't really mind because I tend to grind my mushrooms up and put them into capsules anyway.


β˜… Why am I getting blobs? Penis Envy tends to "blob".  Rather than growing nice little dongs like the pictures showed when you purchased your culture, you're getting ugly little warts that will grow into big ugly toads. This is part of the nature of Penis Envy varieties and we all struggle with blobs from time to time. Yes, you can still eat them. If they are very thick, (like any very thick mushroom) you should slice them up before you dry them. Yes, they're still every bit as potent as the dongs. Typically, you'll get a wave of blobs on your first flush and then subsequent flushes will produce some dongs. Its always tempting for noobs to want to grow penis envy as their first attempt, and I personally don't think this is a great idea for this reason. I recommend using Stipe-n Cap's "pseudo-casing" technique to help mitigate this issue. I also use this technique for nearly every variety I grow and you'll see that it is included in my "Beefy Tub" tek previous discussed in the HHG pt. 1. 

β˜… The 50 cent upgrade for your Presto Pressure Cooker
If you've ran a few PC cycles, by now you're realizing that it makes a lot of noise. Its annoying. Most of us have opted to upgrade our PC's by taping a couple quarters to the pressure regulating weight. This serves a couple purposes. First of all, it makes it a lot quieter. If you have neighbors, you might not want them hearing the pressure cooker. Secondly, it will allow you to obtain the same 15psi pressure setting using a lower heat setting on your stove. This will also mean that you will use less water for your cycles. Its a win/win. We do recommend it, but please, monitor your pressure carefully throughout the cycle. We never recommend leaving a pressure cooker unattended.


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

CHAPTER 5: Misting, Fanning, "Fruiting Conditions" and other bullshit circulating on Reddit

β˜… How often you should mist

As often as needed, and ideally, none at all.  Misting should be done to subsidize surface moisture droplets when youve got too much fae--period.

β˜… When to start "fruiting Conditions" I realize I already said this, but this is still being circulated on reddit so I'm saying it again:
Always.  Theres no distinguishment between "fruiting conditions" and growing conditions.  your fae settings should remain consistent from the time you spawn until you harvest.

Ill reiterate:  there is no such thing as fruiting conditions . Its an antiquated concept from the early days of the shroomery that needs to go to hell and die.

β˜… How much you should be "fanning"
None.  Not at all.  fanning is blasphemy. Its a waste of time and can damage your substrate surface.  Please don't, and if you're taking advice from someone whos telling you to fan your tubs, run.

β˜… Why coir does not need to be pasteurized or sterilized
I made this very long-winded post in one of my own threads, but I felt that it deserved its own space. (and now I've added it to the HHG)

The age old question: "How come my coir doesnt need to be sterilized" and other associated paranoia, i.e. is it bad to open your tub to take pictures etc.  So, lets decapitate these notions with a bedtime story:

Let me see if I can help put this to rest in my own words.  Im an abstrationist.  I understand the world in relatives and associations. Metaphors are how I make sense of the world so let me tell a story for you and for posterity:

Your success from the point of spawning a tub onward is 100% contingent on the health of your spawn.  Lets think of coir as being a battlefield.  Its not nutritious in and of itself, but the grain within (which is guarded by our allies) is.

sure there is definately other hostiles on the battlefield, but theyre not developed.  Spores, even trichoderma spores, bacterial endospores, are present. Thats a fact of life.  theyre on your skin presently too, but I can assure you, youre not about to be taken over by mold or yeast.

So heres our batflield. No matter how you prepped it, the hostiles are still just mere gametes.  (reproductive cells).  theyre not even babies yet, much less grown men who can pick up a weapon and fight.  To complicate things for our enemies,  wet coir contains no essential nutrition so the liklihood of developing into a soldier seems bleak.

Now here comes the allies.  Two full jars or clean spawn is like air driopping in the entire 101st airborn division onto the battlefield.  Theyre fully delveloped, they have rations, and they have guns, and there is literally millions if not tens and hundreds of millions of them.  They've trained their whole life for this moment, and they were expecting an army or men with weapons.  (As there surely would have been in the wild)

what they find is an almost empty battlefield. Maybe a few toddlers are trapsing around looking for their mommies. Maybe a few starving men wandered onto the field too.  Maybe they fell right out of your nose.  No matter theye marched right over the top of all the same. Left to starve.  There will be nothing for anyone to eat but our allies, and their prescious grains.

The end.

Does that make more sense now?  So like Goat said, it really doesnt matter how you prep.  Hes a TC without the tag as far as Im concerned and his method is just as good as Derrayled's. (A tagged TC, who preps his coir with cold water) Both growers, I have admired, learned from, and looked up to for years.  Whos way is better?  Youd have to be a member of the 101st airborn to know that.

I personally use hot water because its a good feeling knowing we killed a few stragglers before we drop our army off.  That, and I hear it makes a softer battlefield.

β˜… What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything

42

To the Ding-Dong telling people on reddit to read my guide yet skip the agar and inject spores into grain, youre an imbecile. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/ContamFam/s/0TU7Zn8IPn

Edited by BeefSupremeJr (04/12/24 06:38 PM)

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OfflineJanus62
Call me Hugh
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: BeefSupremeJr] * 1
    #28501535 - 10/12/23 11:22 AM (7 months, 2 days ago)

Looks awesome Beef :smile:


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πŸ…ƒ πŸ„΄ πŸ„° πŸ„Ό    πŸ„² πŸ„» πŸ„Έ πŸ„½ πŸ„Ά πŸ…† πŸ… πŸ„° πŸ„Ώ

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OfflineBajazly
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: Janus62] * 2
    #28501549 - 10/12/23 11:41 AM (7 months, 2 days ago)

Good job SeΓ±or Beef, simple and straight forward.

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InvisibleShrimps
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: Bajazly] * 3
    #28501555 - 10/12/23 11:48 AM (7 months, 2 days ago)

:ancientaliens:


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I am not crazy, I prefer the term mentally hillarious.

Agar - The way to go!
Clean spawn checklist
Proper Surface Moisture
Recognizing and dealing with contamination

πŸ…ƒ πŸ„΄ πŸ„° πŸ„Ό    πŸ„² πŸ„» πŸ„Έ πŸ„½ πŸ„Ά πŸ…† πŸ… πŸ„° πŸ„Ώ

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InvisibleBenson
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: Shrimps] * 3
    #28501563 - 10/12/23 11:57 AM (7 months, 2 days ago)

Good overview, good links, good shit

:flyby:


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OfflineKinoko314
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: Shrimps] * 3
    #28501567 - 10/12/23 12:02 PM (7 months, 2 days ago)

Are you sure you want to invite people to message you?  It might get ugly.

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OfflineBeefSupremeJr
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: Kinoko314]
    #28501577 - 10/12/23 12:08 PM (7 months, 2 days ago)

no I'm not.  But we will see how it goes

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OfflineTiamo
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: BeefSupremeJr] * 2
    #28501598 - 10/12/23 12:40 PM (7 months, 2 days ago)

Good shit, thanks for the write up.

:poast:


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If you have used a Miraculix Psilocybin QTest, could you please share your results?

Shipping free Ps. natalensis spore prints to any address in The Netherlands, just :pm:

:mushroom2: Mush love :mushroom2:

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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: BeefSupremeJr] * 2
    #28501607 - 10/12/23 12:46 PM (7 months, 2 days ago)

Great thread.

I first found the shroomery early 2000's and helped me a lot thru my first PF Tek cakes.

Now I'm back into the hobby, for the love of mushrooms in general and how fun is too grow then. I must confess my first grow after many years have been MS directly to grain, I know, and got enough mushrooms for my own consumption for a long time but now I want to get into agar to learn and enjoy the process more than for the final result that I would probably end giving away to friends or just storing to trade in a apocalypse scenario.


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Barking

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OfflineDERRAYLD
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: perro] * 2
    #28501622 - 10/12/23 12:59 PM (7 months, 2 days ago)

Great thread beef

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InvisibleScemilope
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: DERRAYLD] * 2
    #28501677 - 10/12/23 01:58 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Good stuff. Thanks Beef.

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InvisibleBaba Yaga
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: Scemilope] * 4
    #28501730 - 10/12/23 02:33 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Beef got your back




Well put together beef and thank you for being so passionate about cultivation, the medicine and human beings.

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OfflineBeefSupremeJr
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: Baba Yaga] * 1
    #28501733 - 10/12/23 02:35 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Thank you baba, and thank you for all the yaga over the years.

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OfflinePnin
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: BeefSupremeJr] * 2
    #28501745 - 10/12/23 02:41 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

:fedora:
Thanks for the write-up. I'll be returning to this.


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πŸ…ƒ πŸ„΄ πŸ„° πŸ„Ό    πŸ„² πŸ„» πŸ„Έ πŸ„½ πŸ„Ά πŸ…† πŸ… πŸ„° πŸ„Ώ
>my end of 2023 grow journal<

Edited by Pnin (10/12/23 02:41 PM)

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Re: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomery [Re: BeefSupremeJr] * 2
    #28501750 - 10/12/23 02:46 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Very nice writeup. :yesnod:

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OfflineBeefSupremeJr
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: perro] * 2
    #28501757 - 10/12/23 02:51 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Quote:

perro said:
Great thread.

I first found the shroomery early 2000's and helped me a lot thru my first PF Tek cakes.

Now I'm back into the hobby, for the love of mushrooms in general and how fun is too grow then. I must confess my first grow after many years have been MS directly to grain, I know, and got enough mushrooms for my own consumption for a long time but now I want to get into agar to learn and enjoy the process more than for the final result that I would probably end giving away to friends or just storing to trade in a apocalypse scenario.




just wanted to inform you that it is now legal to ship LC to most of the states in the US and several of our sponsors are now carrying a decent inventory.  Its a helluva lot safer than using MSS and honestly, costs roughly the same. 

Good luck thanks for reading.

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OfflineBluewidow
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: BeefSupremeJr] * 1
    #28502079 - 10/12/23 05:58 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Such great information. I wish i had saw this thread before ever getting started, I can not wait to get into Agar. will be reading this thread quite frequently in about 2 weeks when i get some money to throw into agar. for now this noob will hopefully see his first grow from the PF Tek method.

Thanks for writing all this up helps a ton!

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OfflineBeefSupremeJr
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: Bluewidow] * 6
    #28502090 - 10/12/23 06:06 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Hey friendo, that means so much to me.  You were the target audience all along.  The shroomery is daunting and frankly a little disorganized.  Not one member or staffer doesnt do drugs and its hard to sort out. 

DONT PANIC!

thanks so much for this post. Good luck with your journey.

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Offlinecozmyc
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Re: Hitchhikers Guide to the Shroomer [Re: BeefSupremeJr] * 1
    #28502139 - 10/12/23 06:42 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Supreme job beef!

:seriousthumbsup:


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You're conscious population 2 stardust
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Nothing matters so everything does :sunny:

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