Do not store your grow kit longer than 2-3 weeks

We recommend starting your mushroom grow kit right away and begin the growing process. If you decide to grow later, do not store your grow kit longer than 2-3 weeks after the production date.

Store in a cool place

Always store the mushroom grow kit in the refrigerator (2°C to 4°C). The production date is printed on the cardboard box and includes the two digits of the week number.

Avoid contamination

Make sure your fridge is clean and free of bacteria, yeasts and other sources of contamination. To be safe, pack the culture kit in a clean plastic bag and seal it tightly.

Temperature

The ideal temperature for mushrooms to develop is 24°C. Do not have the temperature drop under 20°C and not exceed 29°C. To keep the temperature from dropping under the 20°C, you can use a Thermo Heating-mat to maintain the ideal temperature. A thermo mat is a must-have in the winter or colder regions of the world.

Light

The magic mushroom kit only needs light for the mycelium to ‘understand’ it has reached the surface. Only then, mushrooms will grow. A few hours of fluorescent/artificial light or indirect sunlight a day is more than enough. Direct sunlight kills the mycelium, so avoid the sun to shine directly on the grow kit.

Humidity

The day the first pins show you begin with misting. Open the grow bag by removing the paperclip. Do not spray directly on the cake but spray one time against every side of the bag. So you mist once a day, four sprays. Misting also vents fresh oxygen inside the bag. Right after misting, close the bag again with the paperclip.

Frequent air exchange (FAE)

Keep the grow bag closed until you see the frist pins, CO2 should be as high as possible to induce pinning. After the pinning stage you can open the bag 1-2 times a day to let in fresh air. Open and close the bag and push out the air and let is some new.

Flushes

The mushrooms come up in groups. A growth like this is called a flush. You can get more than one flush out of a kit. The first two flushes are the largest. When more flushes come, they will be smaller than the previous one.

Picking and Harvesting

Mushrooms should be picked when the veil between the hat and the stem is about to or has just torn. Don’t wait longer or the mushrooms drop their spores. Pick the mushrooms that are ripe and let the others continue to grow. The other option is to remove all the mushrooms and start a new flush.

How to pick your mushrooms:

• Use surgical gloves or disinfect your hands, wrists and arms.
• Remove the mushrooms from the cake by taking hold of the base of the mushroom between thumb and index finger.
• Rotating your hand clockwise slowly, until the mushroom lets go.

Do not pull out the mushrooms. This would risk damaging the mycelium and killing it. When most of the larger mushrooms have been picked, also pick the smaller ones and the pins as well.

Mushrooms that grow from the sides

Mushrooms grow where the light reaches and where there is little penetrating resistance. Because the cake has light shining on the sides, the mushrooms might also grow there. You have a few options:

• Darken the sides of the kit by putting it in the cardboard box.
• Spray the top soil a bit to stimulate more growth on the top
• Do nothing and let them grow

Soaking

After all the mushrooms are harvested, you prepare the kit for the next flush. Disinfected your hands or use gloves; take the grow box out of the grow bag.

• Fill the container with lukewarm water (20°C)
• Take the lid use it to close the container.
• Let it soak for 5 – 20 minutes.
• Remove the lid, and drain the water
• Place the growkit in the growbag and fill the growbag with a cup (200-250ml) of lukewarm water (20°C)

This is called the soaking process. Water will now soak through the cake, preparing it for the next flush.

During the soaking you can hang the grow bag with micronfilter upside down to dry.  Many growers prefer to use new and unused grow bags after every flush.

Next Flush

To continue, follow the same steps 2 – 7 as before when you started the process for the first time. Several days later, a new flush will appear. You can get at least 2  flushes out of a grow kit. The first flush often is the biggest.

The End

When no more mushrooms grow out of your grow kit after the second flush for at least 5-6 weeks, or when the grow kit turns green, red, grey or yellow; the grow kit can be disposed of.  The change in color is a sign that the grow kit is contaminated with another fungus or bacteria. No more mushrooms will grow out of the mushroom grow kit and the grow kit should be thrown away in the garbage outside or in your garden.

Spores

When you are too late picking the mushrooms, they will drop their spores. The cake and the mushrooms will turn black/purple (some other cubensis strains red/brown) because of the spores. This is not really a problem; it just doesn’t look very pretty.

When mushrooms release their spores, they also start to degrade, and the active ingredients are breaking down. Mushrooms will lose some of their potency.