Grow your own mushrooms
DISCLAIMER: We do not endorse or condone anyone engaging in any illegal activities. The information provided here is purely educational.
Almost weekly, we get emails along the lines of “Hey! I’m visiting Tahoe this week and would love to find some mushrooms! What do you recommend?”
Until the laws are changed, our standard reply is: “Tahoe Psychedelic Society is NOT a place to buy or sell drugs. We support education and harm reduction efforts and are motivated to see the laws change so we can have better answers.”
That said —- how does one go about sourcing psilocybin mushrooms?
Find a friend who is growing their own
There are more and more people growing mushrooms these days. If you have psychedelically inclined friends, ask them who they know. How do you find psychedelic friends — be open about being interested in psychedelics. Put a psychedelic society sticker on your water bottle, bring it up in conversation, etc.
Since these things are still illegal (for some insane reason) discretion is required - so don’t be a goober.
Become a friend who is growing their own
Psilocybin mushroom cultivation is not much different than any other mushroom growing cultivation.
From start to harvest takes 5-8 weeks, requires a few careful steps to prevent contamination, and is rewarding like growing your food. If you use a kit, the actual total “work” is about an hour.
Learn
Basics
You need a moist substrate (soil) for the mushrooms to grow in. The mushrooms we consume are actually the “fruit” of the fungus - the roots is “mycelium”. The substrate for psilocybin is often grain or pasteurized manure. Sanitation is key since the same substate that works for the mushrooms we want to grow, also works for other bacterial or molds.
To grow mushrooms, you’ll combine the spores or mycelium of a psilcybin strain of mushroom with a ready substrate, put it in an area that is undisturbed and a stable temperature (think weather that you would feel comfortable being naked in), and let it be. The spores will colonize the substrate and protect itself from other fungus invaders. Then mushooms will grow. Carefully pluck mushrooms from the base (or use a knife) before the veils open (if they open the area under them typically won’t produce any more mushrooms), and then promptly dry the mushrooms for storage using an evaporator to prevent decay. A dry mushroom is 10x lighter than a wet mushroom.
Keep notes. Keep things clean and tidy.
When you try them, start low and go slow — the goal is to calibrate how strong the batch is. Then adjust your dosing from there.
Use a kit
Get a substrate
All-in-one Grow Bag
This is a vendor that sells a smaller bag. https://advancedmyco.com/meet-shrum/.
3-pound bag: https://northspore.com/products/shroomtek-all-in-one-mushroom-grow-bag
Get genetics
Spores - for “scientific study purposes only”
Liquid culture doesn’t have active compounds, so it is generally legal to ship.
This is a vendor that ships https://c2cmyco.com/. Use code TPS for a discount
