Initial Purchases

To get started, you will need spores, pint size wide mouth mason jars, a pressure cooker, items to make spore lids and ingredients to make liquid culture water. Delivery of spores takes 2-3 weeks and liquid culture growth takes 3-4 weeks so the very earliest you will inoculate the substrate is 5 weeks. Mycelium cakes can take another 3-5 weeks from inoculation to a fully grown cake in ideal conditions. Mycelium cakes can take 3-5 weeks to fruit into mushrooms after they are moved to the fruiting chamber. The earliest you can harvest with ideal conditions is approximately 3 months but more likely 4 months.

Supplier

The very first purchase needs to be spores because shipping and delivery will delay your entire cultivation process. There are many suppliers with plenty of inventory. Consider prices, inventory and shipping restrictions as many suppliers won't ship to some states. You can take your time researching suppliers, their inventory and shipping restrictions if you want. But we recommend premiumspores.com because their shipping restrictions are fairly laxed (although you are in the state of Colorado 😉). They won't ship to the states of Idaho or Georgia because of state laws. Their prices are more than most but their shipping and quality make up for it. They also accept Bitcoin.

Strain

We recommend Penis Envy or Albino Penis Envy. Penis Envy is the most popular for a few reasons and is out of stock a lot (but restocked just as much). Albino Penis Envy is a good backup. You can experiment with other strains as you get farther along but we think you'll be happy with Penis Envy. It grows quickly during the mycelium/cake phase and is quick to fruit. It grows large yields, is said to be one of the most potent and is resistant to contamination. We've tried some other strains with varying results and discuss them here if you're interested.

Equipment

You will need some equipment to grow your mushrooms in. You can find kits online for different methods but after much research, it seems the best way to grow magic mushrooms is to piece the setup together ala carte. 

Pressure Cooker

You will need a pressure cooker. The PF Tek method states you need one that reaches 15 psi. The pressure cooker we recommend doesn't have a psi setting or sensor so we always use it on the high setting (no problems so far). This pressure cooker is large enough to hold 4 pint wide mouth mason jars and 8 stacked half pint wide mouth mason jars. Liquid culture is sterilized for 20 minutes and mycelium cakes are sterilized for 60 minutes.

Wide Mouth Mason Jars

Mason jars are different based on manufacturer. We have found the Ball pint wide mouth mason jar is perfect for liquid culture because they fit into the pressure cooker and only take 3 weeks to grow from spores to a full jar of liquid culture (the larger the jar, the longer the growth time).  The only reason the wide mouth are preferred over normal size pint mason jars is because the lids are special spore lids with openings that allow you access to the liquid culture while preventing contamination. You want at least 4 pint wide mouth mason jars per strain but perhaps many more. 

The Kerr half pint wide mouth mason jar is perfect for mycelium growth to form cakes and perfect for fitting 8 into the pressure cooker. There are other half pint wide mouth mason jars but they are different sizes, which makes stacking into the pressure cooker impossible. The Kerr half pint wide mouth mason jars produce the perfect size cakes. The PF Tek method states that you can even stack them in the fruiting chamber two high. 

Clear Plastic Containers

Get the 71 quart Rubbermaid clear plastic totes for the fruiting chambers and sterile inoculation box and get the 16 quart Sterilite clear plastic totes for submerging cakes before fruiting. You will want to get 4 of the large totes (3 for fruiting chamber and 1 for sterile box) and 2 of the smaller totes (for pre-fruit dunking). These totes are transparent so light will get in to trigger the fruiting phase and will allow you to see what you are working on in the sterile environment. You will need to make some holes in the larger totes for air circulation and putting your arms through. The easiest way to do that is with a soldering iron.

Perlite

The perlite is to create humidity in the fruiting chamber. You will need one 8 quart Perlite Fine bag per fruiting chamber. If you decide to buy the perlite somewhere other than Amazon, be careful ordering perlite because it comes in different grades (fine, medium, course, and super course) and sometimes won't be labeled. You need the fine grade of perlite (2mm-6mm) because it creates the most humidity. Medium and course won't produce enough humidity to trigger the cakes to begin fruiting. 

Air Circulation

According to the PF Tek method, the fruiting cakes need to be fanned with fresh air 3-4 times per day. This presents a problem because remembering to do this requires too much energy, not to mention the need to be on location. Setting up an automatic air circulation system is the ideal solution for the fruiting chamber. This is an added expense, about $25 per container, but fresh air is necessary for the cakes to produce mushrooms. You will need an exhaust vent, a fan, a fan filter and a digital timer outlet. The digital timer can turn the AC receptacle on for as little as one minute. Analog timers usually have a minimum on setting of 30 minutes, so it is best to use a digital timer. The fan should run for 5 minutes, 3 times a day.

Ingredients

Karo Syrup Clear (liquid culture) - This is the fuel source that the spores will use to grow into mycelium in the liquid culture water. Karo syrup is added to a 4% concentration with water and peptone. Clear seems to be better than caramel color for transparency. Sterilizing the liquid culture water for longer than 20 minutes will lead to caramelization of the Karo syrup in the liquid culture water, which turns the water acidic and will prevent mycelium growth.

Peptone (liquid culture & cakes) - Mycological peptone is a mixture of peptones from plants and animals origin that provides a nutritive source of amino acids and nitrogen compounds for the growth of fungi and yeasts. It is used for the isolation and diagnosis of pathogenic and non-pathogenic fungi. Peptones greatly increase the production of mycelium in the liquid culture.

Vermiculite (cakes) - According to Wikipedia, Vermiculite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral which undergoes significant expansion when heated. Vermiculite forms by the weathering or hydrothermal alteration of biotite or phlogopite. Vermiculite provides the mycelium a structure to grow in.

Brown Rice Flour (cakes) - Brown rice flour is the energy and fuel source for the mycelium in the liquid culture to grow into formed cakes that will eventually fruit with mushrooms. Without the brown rice flour, the liquid culture would not continue growing into mycelium cakes. You can also get brown rice flour by grinding up brown rice in a coffee grinder but this is a labor intensive process. We recommend saving the time and buying the flour.

Supplies

You will need various other supplies during the setup process. Some can be purchased at big box stores like Walmart, Home Depot or Costco while others can be purchased online. 

• Heavy duty tin foil (Costco or Walmart) - For covering mason jars and cake placement.

• 70% isopropyl alcohol (Walmart) - For sterilization. 70% is better than 90% because it evaporates slower.

• Nitrile gloves (Amazon or Walmart) - For inoculation.

• Bleach (Walmart) - For sterilization.

• Spray bottles (Amazon or Walmart) - For alcohol, bleach and plain water.

• Washers 1/4" stainless steel (Amazon or Home Depot) - For spore lids.

• Silicone (Amazon or Home Depot) - For spore lids.

• Drill bits (Amazon or Home Depot) - For spore lids (1/4"), mycelium cake lids (1/16") and air circulation system (11/64").

• Tyvek USPS Express Envelop (Post Office FREE) - For spore lids.

• Bolts with matching nuts #8-32 1.25" & 0.5" course thread (Amazon or Home Depot) - For air circulation system.

• Soldering iron (Amazon or Home Depot) - For melting large holes in fruiting chambers and sterilization box.

• Black permanent markers (Amazon) - For labeling jars and marking holes.