There are so many psychedelic magic mushrooms out there. You can grow the best-known shroom varieties yourself with a magic mushroom grow-kit. You can do that by following 10 easy steps. We want to tell you all about that, but first we will introduce you to the world of mushrooms with a hallucinogenic effect.
Would you like to go straight to the growing instructions? In that case, skip to the end of this article.
Hundreds of Shroom Species
When we talk about psychedelic magic mushrooms we mean mushrooms which contain substances which have a hallucinatory effect. If you ask a random person on the street to think of a mushroom and describe it, then nine times out of ten the answer will be ‘red with white spots’. What you might not know is that the well-known fly agaric also contains substances with which you can go on a heavy trip!
Fly Agaric
Fly agaric is also a very poisonous mushroom from the amanita genus of which the green Death Cap also forms part. Every year people become ill and even die from wrongly identifying mushrooms. For that reason it’s so important to leave them in the woods, especially if you’re interested in these kinds of mushrooms.
Leave mushrooms in the woods and grow them yourself. Then you know exactly which species you are dealing with.
There are lots of other mushroom groups besides the amanita genus in which you can find psychedelic examples.
- Conocybe
- Copelandia
- Galerina
- Gymnopilus
- Inocybe
- Mycena
- Panaeolina
- Panaeolus
- Pholiotina
- Pluteus
- Psilocybe
Psilocybe
By far the most numerous genus is that of the Psilocybe which is named after the main substance which lets us trip: psilocybin. There are hundreds of species within all these groups and new species of mushrooms are continuously being discovered. As you might imagine, there are many differences as regards where they grow, how large they are and how much of the substances they contain.
If you are curious about the visual effects or are searching for a spiritual experience, shrooms and Magic Truffles can take you to another dimension.
But there are also similarities. You can cultivate some species yourself with little more than a tray with a growing medium, water and patience. With this kind of grow-kit you know exactly which species you are dealing with. Much safer than searching and picking! A shroom grow-kit has everything you need to cultivate your own shrooms with psilocybin.
The Strongest Shrooms or the Best Known?
When selecting a shroom grow-kit it’s important to make the right choice. They are definitely not all the same. One species will grow differently from another species. There are also differences as regards the concentration of the active substances psilocybin, psilocin and baeocystin. The differences in composition make the experience that bit different.
If you are curious about the visual effects or are searching for a spiritual experience, shrooms and Magic Truffles can take you to another dimension.
Perhaps you would like to cultivate the most concentrated shroom so you can boast about it to your friends, or just so you know the cultivation has worked without making it too difficult. Or perhaps you just want to try and cultivate a particular shroom for a harvest which you can use for undergoing a mystical or spiritual experience. Let’s go through a number of shrooms to help you on your way to deciding.
Popular Shrooms: Thai
Thai (Psilocybe cubensis) shrooms grow in many parts of the world and are by far the best known psychedelic shrooms. They are easy to cultivate and contain an average amount of hallucinatory substances. The original cubensis was brought to the West in 1957. Soon after that, psilocybin was identified as an active substance. In the 60’s and 70’s shrooms went mainstream and both LSD and shrooms were a central component of hippie culture. In no time at all, cubensis became synonymous with shrooms - a status which the Thai still enjoys nowadays in spite of the huge variety of freely available choices there are now.
With a Thai shroom grow-kit, you will have a good harvest within two to three weeks. With a small tray with 250 cc of spawn, you can expect to get 100 grammes of fresh shrooms.
Spiritual Tutor: Golden Teacher
You may have heard or read about people who were never the same again after taking shrooms. That happens because a strong dose of shrooms can confront you with suppressed feelings, fears and deep questions which you harbour. Some shrooms seem more suitable for spiritual development than others.
The Golden Teacher (Psilocybe aurumescens) is a variation on cubensis which is slightly stronger. It’s possible that Golden Teacher also contains a cocktail of other active substances which make the trip different. As it’s closely related to the Thai, this golden-coloured shroom is just as easy to cultivate. A complete grow-kit with 1200 cc is enough to cultivate 400 grammes of fresh shrooms. If you dry them, the shrooms will be left with about a tenth of their weight and they will be approximately ten times stronger.
Powerful Fungus: McKennaii
Out of all the available complete grow-kits, the McKennaii variant is the most potent. Using the same growing instructions as at the end of this article, you can cultivate shrooms yourself which belong to the most powerful that have been discovered. Shrooms such as the pointed Liberty Cap (cyanescens) and the most potent of all, azurescens, grow in a completely different way making them less easy to cultivate in a complete grow-kit than these. So are you an experienced pschonaut who wants the most potent shrooms from the range? Then you should choose McKennaii.
Not for nothing is McKennaii named after psychedelic pioneer Terence McKenna. There must be one king shroom. The Americal ethnobiologist Terence McKenna, along with his brother Dennis, showed the world that tripping on magic mushrooms must be done responsibly and that it is accompanied by unprecedented individual effects. It’s thanks to their life’s work that shrooms are so popular in smart shops.
Legality
A piece about shrooms would not be complete without saying something about legislation in the Netherlands. One of our key objectives is to sell only products that are legal. It is legal to buy a shroom grow-kit in the Netherlands and you will not encounter any problems. You are not allowed to sell shrooms, either in fresh or dried form. If you cultivate shrooms at home you have to be aware that you must not sell them.
The prohibition on the sale of shrooms from 2008 tells us that the fruiting bodies (mushrooms) are prohibited. Magic Truffles and grow-kits are not mentioned in the Opium Act.
Shroom Grow-Kit Instructions
Cultivating shrooms in a complete grow-kit is not difficult. Follow the instructions below and you will have fresh shrooms in a couple of weeks! Would you like more information about growing, eating and tripping on magic mushrooms? Then read a little further after step 10. Enjoy!
1 Work cleanly
Wash your hands thoroughly and wash the outside of the grow-kit with a clean, damp cloth. Remove the lid and clean this properly as well. Keep the lid for step three. Cleaning reduces the chance of other fungi (simply out of the air) having the opportunity to grow in place of the shrooms.
2 Perforate
Make holes in the top layer of the grow-kit with a clean fork. Distribute the holes regularly over the top layer. Preferably make six to eight rows of holes to ensure that the spawn absorbs the water better.
3 Soak
Fill the kit with lukewarm water at roughly 20º C. Pour up to edge and put the lid back on. Leave to soak for 8 to 12 hours. When soaking, place the kit in a place out of direct sunlight.
4 Draining
Remove and keep the lid. Drain off surplus water after the soaking. Allow the kit to drain off carefully for 10 seconds. Careful: do not hold at too much of an angle and avoid touching the spawn with your fingers.
5 Filling
Hold the bag up and add lukewarm water (20º C) to the bag. For 250 cc, use 250 ml and for both the 1200 cc and the 2100 cc, use 500 ml. Place the cultivation tray in the bag while making sure the water does not end up in the bag itself.
6 Closing
Close the bag by folding the top over and fixing it in place with the two supplied paperclips.
7 Placing
Place the grow-kit in a nice place outside of direct sunlight and not under a lamp or on the heating. The ideal temperature is 20 to 25 degrees Celsius so the living room is often the perfect place.
8 Look & Spray
You have now done all the prep work. Now it is important to take a good look at the mushroom grow kit every day. Can you see that there is no more condensation on the inside of the grow bag? Then moisten the inside of the grow bag (not the kit itself) with 1 or 2 sprays from the plant sprayer. Also cooled boiled water. If the water is ice cold or hot, your grow kit will die.
9 Aerate
The first mushrooms are visible after more than 2 weeks. Be patient and keep repeating step 8 until you see small buttons. That depends on the species, the temperature and how strictly you have adhered to these instructions. You can open the bag every day from the moment you see the first buttons to provide the mushrooms with fresh air. By aerating lightly every day you provide the mushrooms with the necessary oxygen.
We are ready to be harvested.
10 Harvesting Shroom Grow-Kits
The moment is here! Time to harvest your shroom grow-kit. Harvest when the flesh under the cap is threatening to come loose. Pull the mushroom out as carefully and completely as possible by gently twisting left and right. If you do this with sufficient attention and care, then you can use the kit again.
Now it's time for you to dry out and preserve your very own Magic Mushrooms. How you go about doing that, we've laid out in this article: Preserving and Drying Magic Mushrooms and Truffles.
Repeat!
Did you know that you can cultivate again with this kit? Clean the surface of the shroom grow-kit properly and remove old and dead mushrooms to give the new ones a chance. Put the kit in the refrigerator overnight but not colder than 2 degrees Celsius. Begin again from step five. You can do this two to three times before the spawn is exhausted.
Grow Reports and Other Information
The above magic mushroom grow kit instructions are the basis for a good yield with a magic mushroom grow kit. Do you want to read everything again quietly? View detailed information with photos? Then view our extensive guide to growing mushrooms.
In addition to these growing instructions, we have a lot more information about mushrooms and magic truffles on our website. Whatever topic you can think of: we have it. Check out the list of useful blogs below and become a mushroom expert yourself!
- This is how you maximize your mushroom harvest
- Mushrooms & Truffles Drying and Storage
- Magic mushroom grow reports: Golden Teacher & McKennaii (take an example from these growers)
- Five tips for eating Mushrooms & Magic Truffles
- Mushrooms & Truffles Dosage Calculator (easily calculate the right dosage for everyone)
Do you have any questions about cultivating Shrooms? Ask our customer service!
Has your grow-kit turned a strange colour? Or do you yourself have any tips about cultivating shrooms? Please contact our customer service department. You can contact us with any kind of question, whether it’s about cultivation, use or product information.