Some questions on SPAWN bags

[Wulffe]

I was just wondering, seeing how it is summer and all, is it possible to grow them indoors(specifically the cyanescens)? Also, is it possibly to store them (freezer maybe)? Or when you get them you have to start growing them immediately? Im a little skeptic on how it works but willing to try if its possible to grow them now, rather then later...



any replies would be greatly appreciated!!! THANKS!

 

[Sjamaan I-net]

Hello Wulffe,



I would be not hard to grow them inside because the temperature needs to drop below the 10 degrees,

here are the instructions to make it clearer:



The magic mushroom spawnbags contain sterile hardwood chips with mushroom mycelium.



What to do?

(1) Find a good place in your garden, in the woods or a forest near you, a park or somewhere else. The place should be in the shade and nobody should interfere with your little guerrilla garden.

(2) Buy a large bag with wooden chips from your garden shop.

(3) Soak the wooden chips in water and let dry a bit.

(4) Carefully mix the chips from the spawnbag with the purchased wooden chips (inoculate).

(5) In the ideal place (see 1) you make a bed of about 60 to 60 cm and about 15 cm deep

(6) Fill the bed with the inoculated wooden chips.



Remarks

The larger the bed of woodchips that you have available outdoors is, the better. The spawn can be multiplied by taking a handful of chips from your outdoor-patch to start new ones. The outdoor beds should be about 10-15 cm deep to provide good growth of the mycelium. Leaves and twigs can be placed on top to prevent that the spawn chips become to dry. In summer or dry periods you can water 1-2 times a day (do not drown!!). The mushrooms should appear in late autumn when temperature drops below 10°C. Harvests will expand every year.



You don't need to use the spawnbag right away, you can store it in your frig,

best regards,

sjamania

 

[Sha-manic]

Get yourself some mycelium of Psilocybe azurescens. Let it grow on wet cardboard for a while until its enough to place the card board between wet woodchips. Let it grow for a while at roomtemp. Do not worry about sterility. Psilocybe azurescens is a very strong parasite.



Then the essense of guerilla farming: go to your local park, neighbours garden and find yourself a patch of woodchips. Put your mycelia on woodchips between the patches. Not all in one place ofcourse. The infected patches will need a few months to be full of it. Then after the first drop of temperature to around 5 degrees celcius, the gremlins will come out and will start to grow into the strongest psychedelic mushrooms on this planet.



Check them out 10 days later and keep track of their lives. When the first ones start to open their caps, it's time to reap and if you like to devour their psychedelic character. Do not reap the mushies that are not fullgrown.



Except when frost comes. That will be the sign for the mycelium to stop producing shrooms and strong frost will turn your shrooms into snot. There is also a method to keep the mushies growing in frost and snow. What you need is a bed of woodchips of about 30 cm, in which you have the mycelium growing. This should be covered by 10 cm of sawchips.(not sawdust, but the kind you can buy at the petstore for cavia's) This way you protect the mycelium so that it can take mild frost and stil goes on producing magic mushrooms. The nice thing about guerilla farming is that because of the strength (in growing) of this species of psilocybe mushrooms, it is hard to get rid of it. Remove all the woodchips if you want. Come back a couple of years later and see them grow everywhere. A guerilla farmer has free mushrooms every year. Any questions?

 

[Sha-manic]

I thought this document might be handy:

The outdoor cultivation of Psilocybe azurescens is somewhat more complicated and takes more time compared to the indoor cultivation of Psilocybe cubensis, on the other hand it is easier in some aspects since major parts of the cultivation are done outdoors by mother nature and the outdoor yield can be substantial.
This document outlines the cultivation and links to the available information on the net about the cultivation of Psilocybe azurescens and similar species (Psilocybe cyanescens, Psilocybe subaeruginosa, Psilocybe bohemica, Psilocybe arcana, Psilocybe serbica ... )


Psilocybe azurescens

All of these wood loving species above essentially the same cultivation requirements.

The requirement for a successful outdoor cultivation is that you live in the correct climate, the Autumns should be cold and moist to enable fruiting.
Outdoor cultivation of the wood lovers is possible in the plant hardiness zones 6, 7 and 8.
The range can likely be extended also to zone 5, but the beds will need to be protected by applying a layer of fresh wood chips or a thicker layer of straw to survive the low temperatures in winter.
You can find out in which Plant Hardiness Zone you live by using the maps underneath:

All of these wood loving species above essentially the same cultivation requirements.

The requirement for a successful outdoor cultivation is that you live in the correct climate, the Autumns should be cold and moist to enable fruiting.
Outdoor cultivation of the wood lovers is possible in the plant hardiness zones 6, 7 and 8.
The range can likely be extended also to zone 5, but the beds will need to be protected by applying a layer of fresh wood chips or a thicker layer of straw to survive the low temperatures in winter.
You can find out in which Plant Hardiness Zone you live by using the maps underneath:
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
Hardiness Zone Map of Europe
World Hardiness Zone Maps

Cultivation procedure

The colonized wood chips are used to inoculate an outdoor wood chips bed located in a shady spot in spring. Best are fresh wood chips from deciduous trees(alder, beech, poplar, but any other deciduous wood will work) also spruce and Douglas fir. Dried, soaked wood chips also work. The bed is kept moist throughout the summer, and in September - December when the weather is rainy and the temperatures drop to around 5°C one or several fruiting occurs, dependant on the weather conditions.

Time line for the cultivation of Psilocybe azurescens

March, April, May (as soon the snow melts):
Transfer colonized wood chips to outdoor wood chips beds.

October, November, December
Fruiting.

Once you have an established patch, you can simply mix fresh wood chips into the patch every spring and thus extend its lifetime for years.

FAQ

How exactly do you prepare the wood chips to be used as spawn?
Beech smoke chips are simmered for 1 hour in order to soak them, then strained for 10 minutes and pressure cooked for 45 minutes in jars. After they cooled down the jars were inoculated with the Psilocybe azurescens grain spawn.



Fully colonized wood chips spawn in a jar.



Wood chips spawn transferred to a plastic baggy awaiting to be spawned to fresh chips outdoors.
Can cedar wood be used for the outdoor bed?
Cedar is a conifer and its wood is very rich in resins which inhibit mycelial growth. There are other conifers which can be used, for instance douglas fir or spruce. Some other suitable tree species :
beech, oak, birch, chestnut, alder, maple, cottonwood, willow, aspen, poplar, elm , sweet gum, sycamore ...

 

[Sha-manic]

Here is a list of trees recommended for the cultivation of gourmet and medicinal species, you can pretty much translate this 1:1 for growing Psilocybe wood lovers.
The list is taken from the excellent book Mushroom Cultivation by Peter Oei.

 

[Sha-manic]

Does it matter if the ground freezes solid during the winter?
No, it doesn't matter. Here in Austria the winter temperatures go up to - 20°C for short periods of time, usually it's a few degrees below 0°C for about 3 months in winter. The mycelium is pretty hardy and once the bed is established and colonized it survives pretty cold temperatures. Just to be sure, you can cower the bed with a new layer of chips or straw or cardboard before winter.

I am not in one of the hardiness zones, should I give it a shot?
If you are in a hardiness zone less than 5, you could potentially still have success by letting the substrate colonize outdoors during the summer, and then move it indoor in a cold cellar when the temperatures fall under the freezing point.
This has been done in the past and it worked.

Check this:




Materials needed:

Mycelium of azurescens
Wood chips ( i don´t know which wood i got it from the saw mill)
Rye
Water
Pressure cooker
trays (I took some made of polystyrene)
jars (with filter lids --> tyvek works great!)
maybe a syringe (for mycelium syringes)
wet Cardboard (put the cardboard in COLD water for 15 min.)
A Bush?!? )
a terrarium
a glas or a plastic lid for the terrarium

I got this strain in Mai from "Lisa" (a friend of mine) and made some mycelium syringes.

First i took about 2 kilograms of rye and boiled it in water (1-1.5 hours) till they have enough water content. I put the grains into 8 jars and inoculated them with the liquid mycelia. About two weeks later the jars were fully colonized.

I took the colonised jars and mixed them !!unsterile!! with wood chips (the wood chips were soaked in water for 1 day) in a polystyrene (we call this "styropor" i dunno if there´s the same word in english) tray. The trays are ´bout 60x40cm (-> 23,6x 15,7 inches)

I put the trays outdoor with a lid (no light to the mycelium) and added water every 2 weeks. In the end of juni the wood chips were fully colonized. I was wondering how fast the mycelium grew!!!

I took some wood chips and put them on a wet cardboard to have some mycelia in automn:



This is the outdoor Tek:

I placed the trays (without lid of course!) under a bush and watered them if needed.
In the end of september/begin of Oktober the first shrooms grew.

I made a few pics:







Then there was nothing till halloween......
On 31th Oktober the second flush began to fruit:









These little babies are still growing!!!
It is not as difficult as i thought.....

Now the INDOOR TEK:

I placed one tray into my terrarium added some water (for the humidity I think some water also becomes vapor by this temperatur).

Here´s a pic of my Indoor setup:


The terrarium is placed in my cellar where the temperatur is as cold as outside ´cause of the broken window .
On the 2nd of Nvember the indoor tray also began to fruit (only a few magic Mushrooms but better a few than no magic mushrooms):





























It's June already, can I still inoculate the outdoor bed?
You can begin anytime of the year.
If you plant the bed outdoors too late, it simply won't fruit this year, but if you add some fresh wood material in the Spring next year, it will fruit in the Autumn of the next year. Better start now than be late next year again.

Would it be a good idea to cover the bed with cardboard to keep it moist?
Yes, you can do this through the hot summer, although it is not essential. Definitely uncover it in Autumn.

How often should I water the patch?
Depends on the weather. If it rains at least one a week in the summer, you probably won't have to water it at all. Water it in times of prolonged droughts. Best what you can make though is to choose the location of the patch wisely, somewhere in deep shadow, possibly along a creek where the conditions are naturally moist throughout the year.
It is also important to not over-water . The bed should be moist 1 or 2 inches below the surface all the times for fast colonization , but don't let it sit in water.
If you keep the bed moist, the colonization will speed up considerably. In drier conditions the colonization will take longer.
I had a couple of patches that I didn't water at all throughout a very dry summer, and they still fruited, wood lovers are quite hardy.

is the point of being outdoors is to have the full environment?
Yes, the point of colonizing them outdoors is to expose them to natural conditions. It seems as they profit greatly from this, since "normal" indoor cultivation attempts are very hard to successfully accomplish.

Does my patch need a casing layer?
The wood lovers don't need a casing layer, but it is possible to apply one, and it might be beneficial.
I like to make my patches in form of several parallel long channels each around 20 cm broad with 10 cm space in between. This way the mycelium is in contact with soil which it obviously benefits from, most fruits come from the area where the wood chips have contact with soil. Some fruits also occur away from the patch in soil covered with growing grass.

Is indoor cultivation of Psilocybe azurescens possible?
Yes, it is possible , but one needs a dedicated controlled environment. Here is how it can be done:

First I have prepared mycelium on a sterilized wheat grain by inoculating it from mycelium on agar. After the grain was colonized I inoculated alder chips (not sterilized, soaked during 2-3 day in water) with this colonized grain.
The alder chips were dried chips, I bought them in a shop, they are used for smoking fish etc.