How to Grow Magic Mushrooms (Step by Step Guide)

You want to grow magic mushrooms but you don’t know the method yet, right?

Before we get on to the step-by-step procedure of growing the mushrooms, let’s discuss some of the prerequisites that are important for the better growth of these magic mushrooms.

What are the prerequisites of growing Magic Mushroom?

Below mentioned are some of the prominent prerequisites of growing magic mushrooms. Try your best to create an environment considering the following factors in detail.

Humidity:

90% of the content of the magic mushroom is water, which highlights that high humidity content is necessary for the better growth of the magic mushrooms. 

The humidity in the mushrooms is important for the mycelium to retain water and show it as a sign of healthy growth.

Light:

Direct sunlight is not the requirement of these magic mushrooms. The indirect sunlight signals the mycelium to start fruiting, so at the right time, the use of indirect sunlight can be helpful.

Temperature:

The temperature of the environment in which the magic mushrooms grow depends on the type of mushroom under consideration. In general, the temperature range of 60-90F is optimal for the best growth.

Oxygen:

Mushrooms need oxygen, so they require fresh air to be available for the best growth. In the case of higher carbon dioxide exposure, the fruiting body will have mal growth with smaller caps and long stems. 

Pros and Cons of growing magic mushrooms at home:

Initially, we’ll be recommending you to go for small-scale cultivation of the magic mushrooms. 

Smaller-scale cultivation ensures that you can get all your parameters right and spend lesser resources at the initial level. So that you can test your method and other such details before going to a higher level.

If you know about the positives and negatives of the home cultivation of the magic mushroom, then you can skip this section. 

Pros:

Here are some of the benefits of cultivating the magic mushrooms at home.

Easy technique:

The growth of mushrooms at home makes it easier to monitor the complete process.

Self-Sufficiency:

The cultivation of the mushrooms at home will lead you to self-sufficiency. You can grow the magic mushrooms to fulfill your needs.

Cost efficiency

Do you have thousands of dollars to invest at the moment? If not, then, growing at a reasonable level is the best option.

Cons:

Here are some of the points that might convince you that home growing of the mushrooms is not a viable option.

Effort Required:

You’ll require a lot of effort to grow the magic mushrooms at home. You’ll have to make sure that all the parameters are properly ensured to generate the best results. 

Also, you’ll have to ensure that the method you are cloning is fully followed to generate the best results.

Inexperience will count:

If this is your first time growing the magic mushrooms, then there is a high risk that you might face some loss in efficiency and productivity.

Which of mushrooms would suit the best?

Now the next question that would come to your mind as a beginner would be the initial cultivation process.

There is a wide range of products that you can choose from, however, as a beginner, we would like to provide you with some simple varieties to choose from Psilocybe cubensis B+ and Golden Teacher mushrooms as both of these are easy to grow.

Both of these varieties cannot be considered as the most potent ones. There is a higher chance of generating good results even if you are unable to maintain the optimum conditions, thus making them the easiest varieties to go with, in the beginning.

Now, once we are sure that our basic aim would be to start the mushroom cultivation at home, we’ll be highlighting the things and tactics that you would require to continue the process.

What do You need to Grow Magic Mushrooms at Home?

We know, by now, you would be getting desperate to know the entire procedure, so let’s not delay any further.

There can be different techniques to start the process but our focus would primarily be on the PF Tek Method. Robert Mcpherson initiated this technique in the 1990s. 

This technique is useful because it allows you for indoor cultivation and guaranteed results. So, based on this method, you’ll be requiring the following main things:

Materials Required for Phase 1:

• Inoculation Jars (10 fully sterilized)
• Paper towels
• Latex gloves
• Hypodermic needles
• The syringe of mushroom spores
• Rubbing alcohol
• Spore syringe
• Water
• Disinfectant spray
• Hypodermic needle

Material for Phase 2:

• Spray bottle
• Plastic tub and a lid to be the fruiting chamber in the process
• Measurer of temperature and humidity
• Vermiculite
• Hydrogen peroxide

Steps by step procedure to grow magic mushrooms:

Now, we’ll be discussing the step-by-step procedure for cultivating the magic mushrooms at home. The entire process can be divided into different phases. We have made it sure to cover the entire process in detail. 

Phase One:

This is the phase where you’ll create a birthing cake. For the newbies who aren’t aware of the birthing cake, it is the condition when the mycelium covers your jar fully forming a cluster around the substrate. When you’ll take all this mixture out of the jar it will look like a cake holding the sprouting mushrooms.

Step 1 – Sterilization:

The first step in creating a birthing cake is to sterilize the equipment and the environment. The presence of any contamination, bacteria, or other harmful elements can disrupt the quality of shrooms that you would get.

Consider choosing a small specific room in your house that can be used for cultivation purposes. Treat it as your laboratory.

Get all the things that have been mentioned in the requirements for phase 1 above and spray the room and everything within it, with the disinfectant spray. 

For the jars that you would be used for cultivation purposes, clean them with rubbing alcohol. Pour some of it on the paper towel and wipe your jar completely. Don’t forget the mouth of the jar while cleaning.

Step 2 – Inoculation:

Now take the hypodermic needle and heat it with your lighter till it glows red. Once it is red, inhibit the flame exposure, and keep it in your hand to let it cool. Don’t place it anywhere as you don’t want to contaminate it again. This is the sterilization process that you should follow as a precautionary step.

Then, you need to shake your syringe so that the spores get evenly distributed. Insert the needle in the port to extract 1 cc of the substrate in the jar.

You can repeat the same procedure starting from the sterilization of the needle to the extraction of the substrate of the jar depending on the number of jars that you have to complete the procedure.

Step 3 – Waiting:

This could be the most patience-demanding step in this stage i.e. waiting!

Once you are done with the injection process, you’ll have to place your jars in the cardboard box and close the lid. The place should be dark and warm with the maintenance of the optimal surroundings. 

Don’t open your box for up to 5 days. This is where your patience would be tested especially if you are a newbie. We know that you’ll be excited about the entire process but your mixture requires darkness and exposing them to light could ruin the entire process.

Usually, in 5 days, you’ll see a white fuzzy substance in your jars. This is the sign that your entire home cultivation process is going in the right direction. 

Do you know what the white thing is? The white substance is the mycelium i.e. the vegetative part of the fungus. You can consider it synonymous with the roots of the normal plant.

After watching the white substance growing in your jars, you’ll need to wait further for 15 days. This is to let your mycelium to cover the jar completely.

After 15 days, you can proceed with Phase 2. Keep in mind that the 15 days’ time here is just estimation. You’ll have to make sure that your jar is covered with mycelium fully.

Phase 2:

The start of the second phase will require you to remove the birthing cake from the jar. Here are some of the specific steps that you need to perform for the creation of magic mushrooms:

Step 1 – Soak your mycelium cakes:

From the last 21-28 days, you have to put your mycelium in an airtight container while making sure there is no moisture, so your cake is going to be thirstily and would require water to quench its thirst.

Get a plastic container with a lid, having some sterilized water ready for your birthing cake.

Make sure to wear clean gloves or wash your hands properly.

Now loosen the lid of the jar and bang it with your hand to release the birthing cake. 

It may take some time to loosen the cake from the jar. You should try your best that you shouldn’t be touching the cake. You can’t avoid it completely.

Put your cake in the bag of water and do the same with all your cakes. Don’t worry about the breakage of these cakes, as they usually don’t break. The reason is the hundred percent coverage of mycelium all around.

Now once you have filled the bag with water, try to drain it the extra air from it and put the bag or contained with your cakes in it in the fridge for 24 hours.

Step 2 – Prepare the chamber:

Bleach and boiling water can be used for sterilizing the container. 10:1 ratio of bleach with boiling water can be maintained as a mixture in the spray bottle. Spray this mixture as a layer on the bottom of the growing chamber of your container.

Besides, sterilize your vermiculite with the same mixture. The purpose of vermiculite in the chamber is to maintain the right amount of humidity.

Note: The substrate layers should be in between 2-4 inches, while the casing layers only need to be ½ on the bottom and ¼ inch on the top. 

Now, you’ll have to put your jar lids on to the base of vermiculite. Then place a cake on the lid. Spray the mixture of water and bleach initially created on the cakes but keep the spray limited. Don’t make puddles.

Don’t place the cakes too closely that would limit the growth of the mushrooms.

If you want to check the health of your cakes, then the smell can guide you in a better way. The cake should smell like mushrooms. If there is some bad smell coming out of the cakes, then there is a high probability that your mycelium might have bacteria grown into it.

Step 3 – Maintenance:

In this step, you’ll have to make sure that your chamber gets some indirect sunlight along with good ventilation.

You should keep your mushrooms hydrated with the bleach and water mixture. This practice should be repeated twice a day for at least one month. 84% humidity is ideal, so if you think you have a lower level of humidity, then a frequent spray may be required.

Harvesting:

The most exciting part of the entire process is here. When you see that your mushroom is ready to be harvested, just sprout them out of the birthing cake from the base of their stems.

Make sure to place them in an airtight container. You can even reuse the cakes for your second harvest (one harvest of mushrooms is known as the flush).

Yield analysis:

If you are concerned about the yield that you’ll get through a syringe then let us share that typical syringe, can usually 10 jars of mushrooms for inoculation. 

If you want to start at a really small scale, then you can keep the mixture in the syringe and the spores can work perfectly fine for a period of eight months to one year.

Storage Procedure:

These mushrooms will stay fresh up to 15 days. So, you can store them in a refrigerator. After which you’ll have to dry them and store them in an airtight container.

 Make sure to put this container in a cool and dry place.

Right Dosage:

There is no right dosage determine for the magic mushrooms. It depends on several factors including the strength of the mushroom and your capability of ingesting them. It is usually recommended to start with some lower dosages and increase it with time.

How Long Do Mushrooms Take to Grow?

As discussed earlier, the entire process has been divided into different phases, so we’ll highlighting the time frame according to each phase to provide you with some better understanding.

The stage in which the mycelium would start forming will take around 5-7 days. After which you’ll have to leave them for the next 15 days at least to let the mycelium cover the substrate fully.

24 hours or 1 day would be required for the soaking up process before starting phase 2.

Phase 2 will require approximately 5-14 days for the sprouting of mushrooms.

Overall, you can consider it 1.5 months to 2 months process for growing mushrooms if you are using this specific method.

Benefits of Using a Magic Mushroom Grow Kit:

In our opinion, a mushroom grows kits are amongst the best gift that you can get as a beginner of growing mushrooms. Because the kit is convenient to use, the lesser hassle is involved. 

Moreover, you require to perform fewer steps, and overall it is quicker to execute.

But once you learn growing mushrooms using the kit, you should shift to manual cultivation because the grow kits method would not be cost-efficient in the long run. Also, the risk of contamination is higher in this scenario along with the generation of lesser yield.

Conclusion:

This is the simplest and easiest method of growing mushrooms. As a beginner, you should try mastering every step to get the perfect mushrooms. 

Within a few batches, you’ll master this art of growing and will be able to produce some high-quality mushrooms.

We hope that this guide will be helpful for you in cultivating the best quality mushrooms.