Magic mushroom cultivation has been a regular practice for many since the earlies 90s when Psilocybe Fanaticus pioneered a method for home cultivation called PF Tek. Now, with the arising of a new counterculture focused on embodiment and sensory pleasure, there is a renewed interest in the potential benefits of growing fresh mushrooms at home. For beginners looking to harvest their own medicinal mushrooms or experience psychedelic journeys, it may feel overwhelming to browse the web looking for the correct information. In this article, we’ll share our favorite psychedelic mushroom grow kits and what you can expect from them to help you choose the one that suits you best.
Disclaimer: Please notice we only provide resources to persons above 21 years old who decide to grow psychedelic mushrooms on their own initiative. We do not encourage nor condone the use of illegal psychedelics in any way. Furthermore, we do not claim the use of psilocybin may be comparable to or be a substitute for professional medical help, therapy, medical advice, or prescriptions.
As science resumes its research on psilocybin’s potential benefits for neurotherapies and decriminalization movements gain momentum across the United States and worldwide, the community of mushroom growers is beginning to expand, and there is a higher demand for reliable information about mushroom cultivation. Although growing your own shrooms may still be illegal across most states, purchasing grow kits and syringes containing mushroom spores is perfectly legal.
HOW DO YOU GROW YOUR OWN PSYCHEDELIC MUSHROOMS
Before you can set on the fungal adventure of growing your own shrooms, let’s see some of the elements involved in the process. Also, if you’re a post-COVID mushroom enthusiast, know that all the sanitizing knowledge you learned during the pandemic will come in handy now, as you’ll need a perfectly clean space to successfully take your spores to the fruiting stage.
What are Mushroom Spores?
Spores are to mushrooms what seeds are to plants. These contain the genetic information needed to replicate new mushrooms. Typically, you won’t be able to purchase the grow kit along with the psilocybin spores syringe, given that growing psychedelics continues to be an illegal practice in many countries and US states.
What is Mycelium?
Mycelia, on the other hand, are to fungi what roots are to plants. The mycelium is an organism of thread-like filaments that colonize the mushroom substrate, drawing the nutrients and humidity they need in order to grow and fruit. It looks like a fluffy white layer taking over the surface of the substrate.
What is Substrate?
Substrates are the growing medium for your mushrooms to grow and fruit. There are many types of substrates, some of which are better or worse depending on the kind of mushrooms you’re growing. For example, cubensis mushrooms grow well in composted manure. For other edible species, the most common substrates are mixes of straw, hardwood sawdust, soy hulls, coco coir and vermiculite, and various grains like rye or millet.
What is Grain Spawn?
Grain spawn is a bag of sterilized grain that has been inoculated with a live mycelium culture. It’s like a mushroom growth boost because mycelium takes off like wildfire when you add this to the substrate.
What is Mushroom Culture?
This is the live mycelium of a particular mushroom species, ideally of an isolated strain. You will use this to inoculate your substrate or create your grain spawn to add it later to your substrate.
Aside from having the base components for a successful mushroom grow, you need to bear in mind fungi require specific environmental conditions to grow, such as humidity, light, and temperature. Most grow kits are equipped with thermometers, gauges, and sanitizing material to help you create the ideal environment and avoid the risk of contamination.
Now, let’s see…
What are the best psychedelic mushroom grow kits for 2022?
- The Third Wave
- Spores-Lab
- Midwest Grow Kits
- North Spore
Let’s see why these grow kit providers made it to our top and what you can expect from them.
BEST PSYCHEDELIC MUSHROOM GROW KITS FOR BEGINNERS
The Third Wave
The Third Wave’s Mushroom Grow Kit provides everything you need to grow your own mushrooms, from sterilized grain pre-packaged into two 1lb mycobags to sterile needles, alcohol swabs, and gloves to avoid any risk of contamination. They even provide a light bulb for accelerated fruiting and an LCD hygrometer to ensure your mushrooms have the ideal environment.
Third Wave’s grow kit has been specially designed to tackle the space problem. So, your mushrooms will grow inside a bag that can fit into a closet, cabinet, or any other small space.
Along with purchasing your grow kit, you will have access to a very easy-to-follow course, including a text manual and detailed videos that will walk you through the process from the inoculation stage to the fruiting.
Kit Price: $249
Spores: Not included. You need to purchase your own.
Shipping: They only ship within the United States.
Spores-Lab
With Spores Lab’s grow kits, mushroom growing comes easily. They offer a Master Culture Mushroom Grow Kit containing a fully colonized mushroom culture or spawn, 1kg of fruiting medium, and a large plastic growing chamber. It comes ready to use, and you’ll only need to mix the mycelium and the fruiting medium in the container and utilize the rest of the tools provided in the kit to change the environmental conditions for growing and avoiding the risk of contamination.
They also offer a Liquid Culture Syringe Mushroom Grow Kit containing (aside from sterilization tools) a spawning jar with inoculation ports in the lid, 350 grams of spawn medium, one liquid culture syringe, and 1kg of mushroom fruiting substrate. While you’ll need to buy a growing container separately for this kit, the alleged advantages of using liquid culture are a lower risk of contamination, shorter incubation time, and limitless mycelium growth.
Aside from having really useful tutorials and information on their website, Sports Lab will email you a 14 page-manual after checkout, detailing all the steps for sterilization, hydration, and colonization.
Certainly, one of the perks Spores Lab offers is that you no longer need to purchase your own spores separately. Here you’ll be able to choose from a wide variety of shroom variants from Amazon to Golden Emperor and Mexicube.
Kit Price: From $94.99 to $164.99
Spores: Includes mushroom spawn and liquid culture.
Shipping: They only ship within Canada
Midwest Grow Kits
Midwest Grow Kits and Midwest Organics, their parent company, have been over 18 years in the industry, supplying mushroom substrate and mushroom cultivation kits to mycologists and hobbyists. They offer everything from mushroom harvesting knives to substrate jars and portable UV-C light sterilizers.
One of their star products is the 2021 Best-seller Mega Mushroom Growing and Incubator Kit which will make your life much easier if you have already decided to start actively and consistently growing your mushrooms.
This Mega Growing Kit is completely automated as it comes with innovative tools such as an under-tank style heating mat that will evenly heat your container without the risk of overheating some spots and drying your mushroom substrate. Undoubtedly, one of the greatest benefits is that almost everything included in the kit, like the heating mat, the electric air pump, or the digital thermometer, can be reused for future growing projects.
Kit Price: $159.99
Spores: Not included. However, they will recommend a few best-in-class spore syringe providers.
Shipping: International Shipping
North Spores
North Spores is committed to the mushroom lovers community and provides a wide variety of products ranging from grow kits to tinctures, T-shirts, and books.
They’re also committed to sustainability and creating educational resources to help mushroom growers find alternatives to plastic bag cultivation. Therefore, one of their best-featured products is the Boomr Bag Monotub Mushroom Grow Kit. It contains one monotub, 15 lb of Broomr Bag manure-based substrate, one organic sterilized grain bag with injection port, coco coir, and other items for a successful mushroom harvest.
Although the monotub setup was originally used by magic mushroom growers, since Psilocybe Cubensis strains grow really well in this environment with composted mixed manure, some other edible mushroom species can grow successfully under these conditions. In fact, North Spores has a rich array of mushroom grain spawn you can choose from, including Golden Oyster, Lion’s Mane, Shiitake, and Reishi.
Kit Price: $189.99
Spores: Not included with the monotub kit.
Shipping: They only ship spawn, grow kits, and substrate to Canada. However, they can ship tools, tinctures, and teas internationally.
Mushroom Supplies
Mushroom Supplies is a company based in California that has become increasingly interested in mushrooms’ vast diversity and medicinal benefits. Obsessed with making mushroom growing more accessible for everyone, they have brought to the table their own mushroom grow kit in a bag.
This lab-quality grow bag contains a mix developed by mycology experts. A high yield blend of sterilized miller, premium manure, vermiculite, coco coir, and gypsum. It comes with an injection port with a 0.2-micron filter patch that allows a perfect air exchange while reducing the risk of contamination.
North Spores’ Spray and Grow Kit
If life wasn’t easy enough for the increasingly growing community of mushroom lovers, North Spores has also made the easiest grow kit on the market.
The Spray and Grow Kit is a box containing a block of growing substrate pre-populated with mushroom mycelium. All you need to do is cut a stripe off the box, slice an X in the bag and use the sprayer included in the kit to water it regularly. You could have up to two grows out of this box. They grow kits for several variants of edible mushrooms, but bear in mind you won’t be able to sprout cubensis mushrooms from this kit.
AN OVERVIEW OF PSYCHEDELIC MUSHROOM’S HISTORY
From time immemorial, indigenous people have sought ways to experience deeper connections to nature and deities. Same as with coca leaves and cannabis, it’s well known that the use of magic mushrooms dates back to ancient times when natives used them in their religious ceremonies. In the American continent, you can pick the starting thread of magic mushrooms consumption with the notorious character Maria Sabina, a Mazateca healer and shaman woman from Mexico.
In 1955 an amateur mycologist named Robert Gordon Watson made the trip to Sierra Mazateca and was received by Maria Sabina at one of the mystical “soirees” she used to host. Maria Sabina showed him the use of these mushrooms she called “sacred children” and provided a few samples for him.
Watson lit the quest for these visionary mushrooms when he published a detailed article in a magazine describing in detail the magic mushroom soirees. Finally, it was Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD, who isolated the active principles of magic mushrooms.
Psilocybin was actively researched and studied. Dozens of articles were published, and dozens of clinical trials took place to fully grasp this visionary mushroom’s potential benefits. Finally, it was prohibited in 1971 by the Convention on Psychotropic Substances.
According to most matter experts, psychedelic research between the 50s and the 70s demonstrated that psilocybin treatments showed a considerable potential against depression, alcoholism, OCD, autism, and other medical conditions. Probably magic mushroom outlaw is rooted more in political reasons than medical, being that shroom consumers have consistently reported an increased state of awareness and mind clarity after their psychedelic journeys, a condition that breaks with standards and socio-political constructs.
GOLDEN TEACHER AND THE MOST POTENT PSYCHEDELIC MUSHROOMS
Golden Teacher mushrooms are one of the strains of Psilocybe cubensis and, without question, one of the most popular variants. Contrary to popular beliefs, they are not among the most potent shrooms.
Golden Teachers are moderately potent and resistant mushrooms, so they’re really easy to grow and produce the psychedelic effects most users want. However, according to the concentration of psilocybin and psilocin, the magic mushrooms that stand out as the most potents are:
- The Treasure Coast
- The Mazatapec
- The Burma
- The McKennaii
- The Hawaiian Copeland
These cubensis mushrooms contain high amounts of psilocybin and psilocin and produce extremely intense psychedelic journeys. Therefore, it’s highly recommended only for seasoned users that have already experienced psychotropic effects.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PSYCHEDELIC MUSHROOMS GROW
- Can you reuse a mushroom grow kit?
If you purchased a grow bag, you’d get up to two grows out of it. If you buy a kit equipped with a plastic growing chamber, you can buy more substrate and mushroom spores for future grows.
- How much does a mushroom grow kit cost?
It depends on the type of grow kit you choose. All-in-one grow bags tend to be less expensive. Grow kits equipped with growing chambers, hygrometers, and other tools are a bit more expensive. Your budget needs to range from 80 dollars to $250.
- How long before I can fruit my mushrooms?
Each mushroom variant has its own specifications. Typically they take up to 21 days to grow. However, when you buy your mushroom grow kit, the provider will give you a detailed guide to help you through each phase.
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