Genética y Cultivo

Inoculate sterilized jars of brown rice, rye or millet with 3-5 ml of Liquid Culture. Incubate at 24°C in the dark. Note: Hericium mycelium is wispy and silky; Shake after 5 days and move to a block before it begins to fruit inside the jar.

In a laminar flow cabinet or SAB, transfer 10% of colonized grain to polypropylene bags with 2.2 kg of sterilized Master's Mix substrate. Seal the bag, mix homogeneously and compact the block eliminating air pockets.

When the block is covered with dense white mycelium and begins to form small nodules, fold the top of the bag firmly to expel the upper air and make 1 or 2 clean "X" shaped cuts (2.5 cm) on the sides.

Transfer to the fruiting chamber (Martha Tent) at 17-18°C, 90% humidity and high CO₂ extraction (<750 ppm). The pink bud will turn snowy white and develop descending spines.

Harvest by gently twisting the pompom from the base when the spines measure 1-1.5 cm, just before they turn yellow or release white spores. Close the cut with micropore tape, let it rest for 10 days and open a new "X" for the second wave.

• Don't wait to see a white block like acrylic paint: Hericium tends to form premature grain primordia; Sow as soon as it covers 100% even if it looks translucent.
• Keep the plastic of the bag very tightly against the substrate to prevent fruiting inside the plastic in areas without oxygen.
• Ultrasonic mist must be indirect; The water drops deposited on the pompom oxidize the brown or pink spines.

Immerse the chopped straw in a drum with water and hydrated lime (0.2% calcium hydroxide, pH >12) for 14 hours, or pasteurize it in hot water at 70°C for 90 minutes. Drain on a clean mesh screen for 2 hours until only 1 or 2 drops fall when you squeeze a handful.

In a 10-15L polypropylene bucket with 10 mm side holes covered with micropore tape (or in tubular bags), alternate 5 cm layers of moist straw with handfuls of colonized grain (proportion 10% by weight) firmly pressing each layer.

Keep the buckets or bags at 22-24°C. The cottony white mycelium will bind all the straw into a compact block and begin to appear through the breathing holes.

Remove the tape from the fruiting holes and expose to 14-16°C with indirect light (12h/day), 88% humidity and constant ventilation. In 48 hours, dense clusters of blue-gray primordia will sprout, doubling in size every 24 hours.

Pluck the entire bunch in one clean twist just as the edge of the larger caps goes from curled down to horizontal (before they curl upward and send up clouds of white spores).

• Cold pasteurization with slaked lime (Calcium Hydroxide Ca(OH)₂, never quicklime or carbonate) saves gas/electricity and leaves an alkaline pH that blocks Trichoderma for 2 weeks.
• The more blue/white light it receives during fruiting, the darker, meatier and more flavorful the oyster mushroom cap will be.
• Always trim off the standing remains from the previous harvest so that they do not rot before the second wave.

Inoculate blocks of oak sawdust supplemented with 10% colonized grain. Incubate at 22-24°C until the entire block is white.

The mycelium will begin to form white, popcorn-like lumps and bumps. It is essential not to move or hit the bags at this stage.

With some indirect ambient light inside the incubation room, the block exudes amber liquid and its surface oxidizes turning chocolate brown like tree bark.

When 80% of the block is brown and firm to the touch, cut and remove the ENTIRE plastic bag. Pat the block firmly (simulating falling branches in the forest) and bring it to 16-17°C and 90% RH.

In 4 days, dozens of Shiitakes will sprout on all sides of the bare block. Lower the humidity to 78% the last few days to achieve the precious white cracking ("Donko"). After harvesting, let the block dry for 10 days and immerse it for 12 hours in ice water for the 2nd wave.

• Never remove the plastic while the block is still white: without its protective brown skin ("browning"), it will dehydrate and become covered in green mold within 48 hours.
• The drop in humidity from 90% to 75% halfway through cap development causes the brown cuticle to grow more slowly than the white interior flesh, creating the mythical "Hana-Donko" cracked pattern.

Inoculate blocks of sawdust supplemented at 20% with bran or soy. P. eryngii is a demanding eater: in simple straw it produces small mushrooms, but in supplemented sawdust it produces colossi of 200g per specimen.

Once the block is 100% white at 23°C, let it rest for an additional 5 days before opening it so that the mycelium can deeply digest the lignin.

Lower the temperature to 14-16°C. Cut the top of the bag leaving a plastic "chimney neck" about 10cm high above the surface of the substrate to retain moisture and a soft cushion of CO₂.

When dozens of small brown-headed buttons appear, you can leave the strongest 4-6 per block and remove the rest so that all the energy in the block fattens giant logs.

Harvest when the edge of the brown cap begins to flatten and the trunk reaches its maximum firm thickness.

• The "plastic collar" 10 cm above the block is the secret of Japanese growers to create that 1200 ppm CO₂ microclimate that fattens the foot like a ticket.
• Slightly scratching the surface layer of the block with a disinfected fork before inducing fruiting synchronizes the emergence of primordia.

Inoculate LC-sterilized grain at 26°C. Its white mycelium is very vigorous and usually climbs the walls of the glass.

Sow in blocks of supplemented sawdust or pasteurized straw. Compact the substrate well to promote dense bouquets.

Make a single 2 cm "X" cut on each face of the block. Small cuts force the mushroom to concentrate all its energy into a large bouquet.

Maintain between 20-25°C with good lighting (12h/day) to achieve an intense golden yellow and high humidity (90%).

Cut the base of the bouquet before the cups become infundibuliform (funnel-shaped), since their blades are fragile.

• It greatly appreciates supplemented substrates (Master's Mix): in pure straw the caps come out thinner and more brittle, while in sawdust with soy they come out fleshy.
• Handle the clusters from the white fleshy base because the yellow caps are delicate raw.

Inoculate grain at 27°C. The mycelium itself turns salmon pink tones as it matures: don't confuse this with lipstick mold contamination!

Transfer the pink grain to the pasteurized substrate. In just a week the block will be completely compact.

Make a 3cm vertical slit in the side of the bag as soon as neon pink nodules appear.

Keep at 23-28°C with high humidity (90%) and good lighting to enhance the deep pink carotenoid pigment.

Harvest when the stalks are still flexible and bright pink (before they pale). Cook them the same day or the next day.

• NEVER put Pleurotus djamor mycelium or blocks in the refrigerator (<6°C): being strictly tropical, the cold kills its mycelium in a few days. Keep it at room temperature.
• Healthy P. djamor mycelium stains deep pink on agar and grain; It is its natural pigmentation.

Pasteurize chopped straw in hot water (70°C) or hydrated lime bath and drain to optimal field capacity.

Mix with grain colonized with P. pulmonarius in tubular bags or 12L perforated buckets.

Incubate at 24-26°C. Its mycelium is very fast and gives off a light and pleasant sweet-anise aroma.

Go directly to fruiting conditions (18-24°C, 85-90% RH and plenty of fresh air). It matures much faster than the winter oyster.

Harvest when the edges are still slightly curved downward; If you wait for them to flatten completely, the meat loses firmness.

• It is the ideal species to grow at home from May to September without spending on air conditioning.
• Check the clusters twice a day during fruiting: with heat it can go from bud to overripe in just 36 hours.

Use Phase II compost free of ammonia odor (it should smell like sweet forest soil and have 68% humidity). Never autoclave compost or you will kill the beneficial bacteria that feed Agaricus.

Mix 5-8% of colonized grain in a tray or monotub with 15-20 cm depth of compost. Incubate at 24°C until the bluish-white mycelium invades the entire block.

Spread 4 cm of moist peat buffered with calcium carbonate (pH 7.6) without weighing it down. After 7 days, when the mycelium appears through the valleys, gently stir the surface ("ruffling") to even out the emergence.

Sharply lower the air temperature to 16-17°C and ventilate to lower the CO₂ from >3000 ppm to <900 ppm. The mycelial cords will condense into hundreds of round buttons.

To obtain the authentic Paris White Mushroom, harvest by turning each bud when it measures 3-5 cm with the lower veil completely closed and taut.

• Agaricus bisporus does NOT fruit on coconut fiber or sterile sawdust: it needs humic acids and the Pseudomonas putida bacteria present in non-sterile peat to form primordia.
• Maintain fine waterings on the peat during casing invasion, but discontinue them as soon as the buds are the size of a pea to avoid staining the white caps.

Inoculate the mature compost with Heirloom Brown strain grain at 24°C, compacting the substrate well in 20 cm deep trays.

Apply a thick layer of well-hydrated casing (peat + limestone at pH 7.6). Because Portobellos are huge and take more days to mature, they draw most of their water from this peat reserve.

Lower the temperature to 17°C and introduce fresh air (<850 ppm CO₂) to set the brown buds.

Harvest some young buttons (such as Cremini mushroom) to leave physical space between the remaining specimens so that they can open 10-15 cm caps without colliding.

Allow the veil to break and the hat to flatten, showing its dark chocolate-colored blades. Harvest before the edges curl up.

• Harvesting 40% of the buttons in the Cremini phase (small and closed) allows the remaining 60% to become authentic giant restaurant Portobellos.
• By lowering the humidity from 90% to 80% in the last 3 days, the hat takes on that slightly flaky texture and a much more concentrated umami flavor.

Fill wide-mouth glass jars (750 ml - 1L) with the supplemented sawdust up to 2 cm from the edge, make a central hole with a rod to the bottom for aeration and sterilize at 15 PSI.

Inoculate with LC or colonized grain and maintain at 22°C until the entire jar is colonized.

Uncover the jar, scrape off the top 3 mm of old mycelium and place it in a cold room or bottom floor of a modified refrigerator at 8-12°C and 90% humidity.

When the white stems reach 2 cm above the rim of the jar, wrap the mouth of the jar with a 12 cm high cone or cylinder of wax paper or acetate. The darkness and the CO₂ retained inside the tube will stretch them straight and white.

Remove the collar when the bouquet reaches 12-15 cm and tear off the entire block from the base.

• You can choose which mushroom to harvest with the same genetics: in darkness + cold (9°C) + collar you will get white ramen Enoki; With light + 15°C + fresh air you will obtain the wild golden velvet mushroom, much more fleshy and aromatic.
• It is perfect for growing in garages or unheated basements in the middle of winter.

Inoculates brown rice, rye or wheat grain at 24°C. The mycelium is dense, creamy white and over time takes on light ocher tones.

Sow in bags of hardwood sawdust with 20% bran. Wait until the block is completely compacted.

Open the top of the bag, lightly scrape off the top millimeter of old mycelium, and spray with clean water to hydrate.

At 17-19°C and 90% humidity, compact bouquets with dozens of small dark brown heads will emerge.

Cut the bouquet at the base when the caps turn from dark brown to hazelnut ocher and the lower veil begins to peel away (before they release their abundant tobacco-colored spores).

• If you have a stump or freshly cut logs of poplar, poplar or willow, drill holes every 15 cm, insert Cyclocybe aegerita plugs and seal them with wax: you will have poplar mushrooms every spring and autumn for 4 years.
• In cooking, the white feet of young specimens are tender and sweet; don't discard them.

Inoculate bags of supplemented sawdust at 64% humidity and maintain at 22°C. After covering 100%, let it mature for an extra 10 days until the surface forms orange-brown spots.

Cut the top of the bag 5 cm above the substrate and spray clean water forming a thin wet film on the crown.

Take it to a cool fruiting chamber (14°C) with very high humidity (92-95%). Tight bouquets of bright caramel-colored pearls will emerge.

Maintain a constant fine mist; Unlike other mushrooms, Nameko loves to have shiny, wet caps.

Cut the bouquets with scissors when most of the hats are still hemispherical and the lower white veil is beginning to open.

• Unlike the Lion's Mane or the Champignon, the Nameko enjoys the direct spray of fine water on its caps during fruiting: this activates the production of its natural gastronomic gelatin.
• Do not wash Namekos under the tap before cooking or you will lose their umami polysaccharide coating.

Pasteurize the mixture of chopped straw and compost or mature manure at 68°C for 2 hours and allow to cool to 25°C.

Inoculate 10% with colonized grain in deep containers. The cottony white mycelium is very vigorous.

Cover with 3-4 cm of moist casing (peat + vermiculite + limestone). Coprinus comatus needs to feel the physical weight and flora of the soil to trigger fruiting.

Lower the temperature to 16-18°C with good ventilation. White cylinders covered with woolly scales will sprout.

Harvest when the cylinder is firm and the inner sheets are 100% white or slightly pink. Cook them within the next 3 hours.

• Conservation trick: as soon as you start a Coprinus comatus, unscrew and separate the stem from the hat immediately; That interrupts the hormonal signal that triggers the conversion to black ink and gives you several extra hours of margin.
• You can also bury colonized blocks in the garden under 4 cm of moist soil in spring or autumn.

Choose an area of ​​the garden or orchard in semi-shade (or between rows of corn/tomatoes). Place a base of uninked brown cardboard directly on top of the soil to discourage weeds and attract worms.

Place an 8 cm layer of previously soaked hardwood chips, spread the shavings or grain mycelium on top (500g per m²), and cover with another 8 cm layer of chips mixed with straw.

Cover the bed with 3 cm of fertile garden soil and a thin layer of straw or dry feuilles to conserve moisture. Water abundantly.

If you lift one sliver a month, you'll see thick white cords like roots ("rhizomorphs") weaving throughout the soil.

After the fresh rains, massive mushrooms with a red wine-colored cap and a cogwheel ring will emerge. Cut when the cap is still convex and the blades are grey-whitish (before turning black).

• Association in permaculture: plant zucchini, tomatoes or corn in the same bed; Stropharia breaks down wood, releasing nitrogen and phosphorus directly to the roots of your vegetables.
• When you harvest, cut off the earthy base of the stem with its white threads and bury it in a pot or new corner with chips: it will clone the bed for free.

Inoculate bags of supplemented oak sawdust and keep at 25-27°C. The Ganoderma mycelium is very fast, forms a hard white crust and resists competitors very well.

WITHOUT opening the bag, put it under light (12h/day) at 25°C. The combination of light and high CO₂ accumulated inside the bag will cause vertical cylinders with a lacquered mahogany red base and active white tip ("Antlers") to emerge.

If you want Antler Reishi (maximum concentration of ganoderic acids), let them grow closed for 3 more weeks. If you want classic fans ("Conks"), cut the top of the bag and place them in a humid chamber (88% RH) with fresh air (<1000 ppm CO₂).

Upon receiving oxygen, the white tips widen horizontally, forming bright yellow and red concentric rings with white pores beneath.

You will know the Reishi has finished growing when the white outer edge disappears and the entire cap is mahogany red and releasing brown dust (spores). Cut with a serrated knife, laminate fresh before it hardens like wood and dehydrate at 50°C.

• Cut the Reishi into thin slices the same day you harvest it: once dry it becomes literally as hard as oak wood and you will need a saw to cut it into pieces.
• The cocoa brown dust that covers the caps at the end of the cycle is not dirt or mold: it is Reishi spores, the most triterpene-rich part of the entire mushroom.

You weigh exactly 35g of brown rice and 55ml of nutritious broth into each wide 500ml jar. Closes with lids provided with injection port and 0.22 µm filter. Sterilize for 35 minutes at 15 PSI and let cool without stirring the rice.

In laminar flow or SAB, inject 6 to 8 ml of young Cordyceps militaris Liquid Culture, distributing the liquid in a spiral over the entire surface of the rice so that colonization is instantaneous and uniform.

Store the jars in total darkness at 20°C. In a week a cottony white carpet will cover all the rice.

Lower the temperature to 17-18°C and turn on LED lights (cold/blue or white spectrum 6500K, 500-1000 lux) on a 14h light / 10h dark cycle. In 48 hours the white mycelium will turn intense coral orange and dozens of tips will sprout.

Over the next 5 weeks the orange fingers will grow until they touch the lid of the jar. When the tips grow club-shaped and have fine points (peritecia), open the jar and pluck the Cordyceps forest with clean tweezers.

• Monitor genetic senescence: Cordyceps militaris degenerates very quickly if you make more than 3 consecutive passes from agar to agar (it stops fruiting). Always use F1 mother stocks or clone from sexual spores.
• Do not exceed 22°C during fruiting: above 23°C cordycepin synthesis is inhibited and the stromas abort.
• The colonized rice block below ("spent substrate") also contains cordycepin and beta-glucans: you can dehydrate it and grind it into powder.

Inoculates hardwood sawdust blocks with colonized grain. Trametes versicolor forms a very dense and leathery pure white mycelium.

Let the block consolidate for 5 more days until you see small creamy bumps under the plastic.

Make 3 or 4 4 cm horizontal cuts in the bag and bring it to fruiting conditions (18-22°C, 88% RH and good lighting).

In good light and gentle humidity fluctuations, the white nodules will fan out showing brown, gray, bluish and cream rings.

Harvest when the white outer edge stops expanding and the underside shows tiny white pores. Dry at 45°C to prepare decoctions or extracts.

• Light with the blue/UV spectrum and slight fluctuations in humidity between 80% and 90% are responsible for the appearance of its spectacular colored rings; With fixed humidity at 99% and little light they come out almost white.
• It is excellent for inoculating old stumps in the garden.

Incubate the oak sawdust block at 22°C in the dark. The mycelium will take about 5 weeks to consolidate and will form amber metabolite droplets on top.

DO NOT open the bag yet: lower the temperature to 16°C and give it soft light (12h/day). A large gray-white nodule resembling a cauliflower will form inside the closed bag.

Only when the primordium is the size of a golf ball and shows dark gray folds, make a cross cut in the plastic just above it to expose it to fresh air (<750 ppm CO₂).

With 85% humidity, plenty of light and plenty of ventilation, the nodule will unfold into dozens of wavy graphite-gray petals.

Cut the basal trunk when the petals are extended and the lower white pores are visible, before it releases white spores.

• The master secret of Maitake is to let the primordium form INSIDE the closed bag before cutting the plastic; If you open the bag before the primordium exists, the surface dries out and does not bear fruit.
• When you put your spent Maitake blocks in the garden at the foot of an oak tree or in a shady pot in autumn, they often give up a huge second bunch.

Mix 6-8% of colonized grain into Phase II compost. Incubate at 26°C. When you open the incubator you will notice an unmistakable smell of marzipan and almonds.

Cover with 4 cm of peat and moist calcium carbonate mixture. Keep at 25°C until the white beads reach the surface.

Lower the temperature slightly to 22-23°C and introduce fresh air (<850 ppm CO₂) maintaining 88% humidity.

Robust mushrooms with a thick white stem and an almond-shaped golden brown cap will sprout.

Harvest just before the lower veil breaks to preserve its maximum polysaccharide density and crunchy texture.

• Unlike the common mushroom that requires cold (16°C), the Sun Mushroom fruits wonderfully in spring-summer at 23°C.
• Its almond aroma in the mycelium is the best proof of the strain's authenticity.

Inoculate cylindrical bags of supplemented sawdust and incubate at 25°C until dense white mycelium covers 100%.

Hang the bags vertically in the fruiting chamber and make 15-20 small "V" shaped cuts (1.5 cm) around the entire cylinder.

Keep at 20-24°C with 90-95% humidity. Unlike leafy mushrooms, Auricularia appreciates being sprayed directly with clean water once a day.

Alternating hours of intense fog (95% RH) with hours of ventilation (82% RH) stimulates the elastic growth of the amber-violet lobes.

Pluck the ears when they reach 5-8 cm and their edge is wavy. They dry very quickly and when rehydrated in warm water they recover 100% of their original shape and texture.

• Auricularia is revitalizing: if one day the humidity in the tent is low and your ears shrink, they are not dead; When the humidity rises again to 92%, they swell again and continue to grow.
• Elder (Sambucus nigra), maple and beech are their favorite woods.

Be sure to purchase dual culture blanks that include both Tremella fuciformis and its ascomycete symbiont Annulohypoxylon stygium (a pure plate of Tremella alone will grow as yeast and will never mushroom).

In cylindrical bags of sterilized sawdust, make 3 1.5 cm holes, insert the dual mother sawdust into each hole and cover them with microporous tape. Incubate at 25°C.

When you see a yellowish gelatinous nodule peeking out from under the patches and the feather mycelium of Annulohypoxylon has invaded the block, remove the patches and move to 23°C and 92% humidity.

With constant 90% humidity and fresh air, each hole will unfold a 10-15cm curly white translucent rosette.

Cut the rosette at its yellowish base when the petals are completely open and springy.

• Never try to isolate Tremella by cloning a piece of commercial mushroom on agar alone: ​​without the filamentous mycelium of Annulohypoxylon, Tremella remains in its single-celled yeast phase and is unable to form the fruiting body.
• It is delicious simmered in traditional Asian desserts with pear and goji berries.

Inoculate blocks of oak or mulberry sawdust and incubate at 26°C. Its mycelium turns from creamy white to a beautiful mustard yellow and brown tone.

Make 2 3x3 cm windows on the sides of the block and place it in a warm chamber (25°C) with 90% humidity.

Bright yellow velvety consoles that darken in the center will slowly emerge.

Harvest when the woody body reaches good thickness, chop before dehydrating and preserve for long-term decoctions.

• Adding shavings or sawdust from the mulberry tree (Morus alba) multiplies the speed and concentration of medicinal polyphenols (hispidin).

Culture on malt-yeast agar plates at 25°C. The mycelium soon acquires a characteristic reddish-orange color and camphorous aroma.

Inoculate jars of wheat or brown rice supplemented with a 0.22 µm filter.

Keep at 24°C in the dark; The mycelium will form a porous resupinated crust of intense ruby ​​red color that is very bitter (a sign of high richness in triterpenes).

Dehydrate the red scab and prepare hydroalcoholic extract.

• The intensely bitter flavor of the red scab is the direct indicator of its richness in antcins and zhankuic acids.

Inoculate sawdust blocks and sterilized oak branch pieces and incubate at 20-22°C.

Bury the colonized blocks under 5 cm of humus-rich soil in a cool, moist area.

After thermal decreases and irrigation, multi-pile clusters will emerge from a single basal trunk.

• Both the edible aerial bouquet and the underground sclerotia ("Zhu Ling") have great medicinal value.

Hydrate thick shavings and short blocks of debarked pine with bran and sterilize them in large polypropylene bags.

Inoculate with Wolfiporia extensive LC and maintain at 26°C. Its white mycelium is very vigorous in conifers.

In darkness at 22-24°C (or buried in a sandy terrace), the mycelium condenses the sugars of the pine wood, forming a hard tuberous mass with a snowy white interior and rough brown skin.

When the bag or soil cracks due to swelling of the sclerotium, remove it, peel its brown bark, and cut it into white slices or dice before dehydrating.

• It is one of the very few medicinal species that transforms pine wood into therapeutic biomass without the need for a humidity chamber.

Choose the grain according to your possibilities and equipment: • Route A (Brown Rice / Broke Boi Tek - No autoclave required): No prior soaking required. Boil brown rice in boiling water for 10-12 minutes (it should be "al dente", cooked on the outside but firm in the core, without opening or turning into mush). Drain thoroughly in a colander, let it cool and evaporate the surface moisture for 15-20 minutes until the grains no longer stick to your fingers. Fills jars 75% with lids provided with a hole with a micropore filter. You can sterilize in a traditional pot with a steam lid for 90-100 minutes (or 60-90 minutes in a pressure cooker at 15 PSI). • Route B (Rye, Oats, Wheat or Popcorn): Soak hard grains for 12-24 hours (optionally with 1 tablespoon of gypsum to prevent sticking). Boil for 15-20 minutes until the interior is hydrated without bursting the shell. Drain on screens until the external moisture is dry and sterilize in jars with a filter in a pressure cooker or autoclave at 15 PSI for 90-120 minutes.

In a laminar flow hood or still air box (SAB), inoculate each jar using your chosen method: 1.5 - 3 ml of Liquid Culture (LC), colonized agar wedges, grain-to-grain transfer (G2G) from a master jar, or a multi-spore syringe (MSS) (note that spores take 5 to 10 extra days to germinate). Incubate at 24-26°C in darkness. Once you observe 25-30% snow-white colonization, shake the jar vigorously (Break & Shake) to redistribute inoculum points: full colonization will accelerate, finishing in just 3 to 5 more days.

Check the field capacity of your pasteurized substrate (when you squeeze a handful with your hand with full force, only 1 or 2 drops of water should come out between your fingers). Mix your colonized grain with 100% coconut fiber or CVG mix in a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio inside your Monotub or Shoebox. Gently level the surface and lightly press the edges to avoid side pins. Optionally apply a "pseudo-casing" of 3-5 mm of coconut or vermiculite to cover any exposed grains. Keep closed at 23-25°C until the mycelium colonizes the dough.

Lower the temperature slightly to 21-23°C and introduce passive ventilation through the holes with micropore tape. The biological key to fruiting is not to spray water on a schedule, but to keep the surface dotted with thousands of tiny microdroplets of dew that shine under the light. The slow and constant evaporation of these microdroplets, stimulated by fresh air, is the exact physical trigger that transforms hyphal nodes into primordia (pins).

Harvest by twisting and gently pulling from the base of the foot just when the partial veil covering the blades begins to stretch or break (before the purple-black spore falls on the bread). After removing the fruits, immerse the block in cold water for 4 to 8 hours (dunking) to restore all the lost hydration and prepare for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th waves.

• Don't get bogged down with dogma: growing with 100% pure coconut fiber (Bucket Tek) gives spectacular yields and minimizes the chances of failure for beginners. If you are looking for extra water retention for late flushes, add vermiculite and gypsum (CVG formula).
• Brown rice is the most grateful and accessible grain if you do not have an autoclave or professional pressure cooker: it is bought in any supermarket and responds wonderfully to steam sterilization in a traditional pot.
• The role of vermiculite: it is an inert mineral that does not provide calories to the fungi but acts as a biological sponge. You can mix it with the coconut in the bulk to increase water retention, or reserve it exclusively to create a moist surface layer (casing) that protects the microclimate of the primordia.
• Learn to read the surface of the substrate: do not spray according to a fixed routine, but only if the tiny pearls of dew that shine on the mycelium disappear.
• The 30% "Break & Shake" in grain not only shortens colonization times: it acts as an infallible early detector of hidden bacterial contamination (a healthy grain recovers in 24-48 hours; if it stops or smells sour, it was contaminated).

Inoculate jars of steamed brown rice, oats or rye at 26°C. Its rhizomorphic mycelium colonizes up to 30% faster than P. cubensis.

Don't use a 1:1 ratio (too much nutrition triggers the overlay); Mix 1 part grain with 3.5 to 4 parts coconut fiber alone or CVG at field capacity, and cover with 1 cm of clean coconut.

It transitions to fruiting conditions (high FAE) from the first days or as soon as the mycelium appears on 70% of the surface.

Even if some white surface foam forms, do not fork tek: in good continuous fresh air, the ocher cap primordia will break through the cloud on their own.

Unlike cubensis, P. natalensis continues to grow long after breaking the veil: wait for the cap to flatten, acquire turquoise edges and the blades to darken to harvest the maximum weight.

• P. natalensis is extremely noble with substrates: it does not require complicated formulas, with only coconut fiber it performs at the highest level as long as it has abundant ventilation.
• Using a 1:4 ratio (less grain and more coconut fiber) is the definitive trick to avoid excess aerial mycelium and achieve clean canopies.
• If a dense white mycelium cushion forms before fruiting, that aerial mycelium itself is active and the primordia will end up coming out through it if you increase ventilation.

Inoculate millet, brown rice or rye at 27°C. The mycelium of Pan Cyan is greyish, thin and cottony (it never forms thick white ropes like cubensis).

Place the mixture of horse manure, vermiculite and gypsum in bags or jars in a controlled water bath at 68°C (measured in the center of the substrate with a probe) for 90 minutes. Let cool to 28°C.

In aluminum trays or low tupperware (only 4-5 cm substrate thickness to avoid overheating), mix 15-20% of colonized grain and incubate at 27°C covered with perforated aluminum foil.

When the surface is covered with white hair, sprinkle without crushing a layer of just 5 mm of peat + vermiculite (pH 8.0) previously pasteurized. Moisten with a fine spray.

Transfer to the Martha chamber or box with mosquito net at 25-26°C, alternating 15 minutes of humidifier with ventilation cycles every hour. In 3 days, hundreds of white needles will sprout, opening pearl gray caps in just 48 hours.

• Double function of vermiculite in Pan Cyan: it is mixed in the bulk substrate to fluff the pasty manure and avoid anaerobic zones, and it is also used at 50% in the fine casing layer to retain moisture against intense air renewals.
• Use shallow trays (4-5 cm of substrate) instead of thick blocks: Panaeolus cyanescens loves large surfaces with very high area/volume ratios.
• The thickness of the casing is critical: if you put 2 cm of peat as in a mushroom, the fine mycelium of Pan Cyan cannot penetrate it; put only 5 mm (so that the substrate underneath can almost be seen).

Prepare jars of brown rice (boiled 10 min), rye, oats or grass seed with 5% more hydration than for cubensis. Sterilize in jars with filter and inoculate with LC.

If you are looking for truffles, DO NOT shake the jar after day 7. Store in the dark at 22-24°C for 3-4 months. From the third week you will see dense walnut-colored stones forming stuck to the glass.

If you are looking for the fruiting bodies ("Little Birds"), mix the colonized grain (or the residual grain after harvesting truffles) with coconut fiber alone or CVG mix (with or without 15% pasteurized manure/humus) in a low tray.

Apply 1 cm of peat and vermiculite casing and expose to 20-22°C with 92% humidity and plenty of ventilation (like a Panaeolus).

Harvest the delicate bell mushrooms in 3 waves and, before throwing away the spent block, crumble it: you will find dozens of giant sclerotia formed under the ground.

• Double prize! When growing sclerotia in a jar, after 3 months wash the truffles with cold water in a strainer and DO NOT throw away the loose myceliated grains: mix them with pasteurized coconut fiber or CVG and they will give you a full harvest of mushrooms for free.
• To fruit P. mexicana aerial mushrooms, both 100% coconut fiber and CVG work excellently; The determining biological key is the 1 cm casing layer (peat + alkalized vermiculite) and the continuous flow of fresh air.
• Do not shake the jars of truffles once the nodules have started to condense or you will stop their fattening.

Hydrate brown rice (boiled 10 min), rye or grass seed (ryegrass produces giant truffles), fill jars to 75% of their capacity and sterilize with a filter.

Inject 3 ml of P. tampanensis or P. galindoi/ATL#7 Liquid Culture through the self-healing injection port.

In 2 weeks the grain will be covered with fluffy white mycelium that will begin to darken to cream and tan tones in certain spots.

Leave the jars undisturbed on a dark shelf at 21-24°C. The cream nodules will absorb the starch from the grain and turn into 2 to 5 cm hard stones, squeezing out drops of amber liquid.

Open the jar, pour the block into a metal strainer and rub under cold running water to separate the grain hulls from the solid truffles.

• The longer you wait (between 3 and 5 months), the denser, larger and more powerful the truffles will be and the less grain remains they will have inside.
• Grass seed (Ryegrass seed) mixed 50% with rye or oats doubles the weight yield of sclerotia.

At home, inoculate grain jars with P. azurescens LC and transfer them to sterilized bags of sawdust and beech/alder shavings. In 6 weeks you will have several kilos of completely white wood.

Choose the shady, humid and cool corner of your garden (north facing). Dig a 15cm deep trench, lay a base of damp corrugated cardboard and alternate layers of soaked beech/oak chips with your colonized sawdust.

Cover with 2 cm of leaf litter or thin bark and water in dry weeks so that the bed never dehydrates in summer. The mycelium will weave a very hard white network that unites all the splinters.

With the arrival of cold autumn rains and nights of 5-8°C, white primordia with caramel-colored heads will appear.

Harvest by cutting with scissors when the hats acquire their classic flying saucer shape with a central umbo. In March add a fresh 5cm layer of chips on top so that the bed lives indefinitely.

• Cloning in cardboard without a laboratory: lignicorous species such as P. azurescens and P. cyanescens devour the cellulose of wet cardboard. Wrap a couple of fresh foot bases with white hairs in damp corrugated cardboard inside a tupperware and in 2 weeks you will have mycelium ready to expand to splinters.
• Never use cedar, pine, or cypress chips; Use beech, alder, oak, poplar or apple.

Inoculate bags of beech shavings (chipsi terrarium substrates work wonders) with grain or colonized cardboard.

Create a 15cm shaded bed of hardwood chips or use wide geotextile planters on a north-facing balcony.

Maintain humidity with periodic watering. You'll see thick white cords holding the splinters together like glue.

When temperatures drop below 12°C after the autumn rains, bunches of caramel caps will emerge, rippling as they open.

• Commercial beech wood shavings for terrariums (Beech chips) are the cleanest, cheapest and most effective substrate for multiplying P. cyanescens at home before taking it outside.

Inoculate grain and expand it to beech or poplar shavings. Its mycelium is very fast and forms thick rhizomorphs like ropes.

Prepare the chip bed in autumn and cover it with 2 cm of sandy soil and leaves. The mycelium will overwinter underground.

As soon as the soil warms to 15-18°C with the spring rains, the mushrooms will emerge before any other species of wood.

• If you want to grow a woodlover species without waiting a whole year or needing frost, P. ovoideocystidiata is the number one candidate.

Prepare grain mycelium and transfer it to sterilized beech or alder shavings.

Mix the spawn with hardwood chips in a damp corner of the garden.

With the humid autumn cold it fruits in dense groups of caramel caps and chalky white stems.

• It is slightly more tolerant of woods with mild essential oils (such as weathered eucalyptus) than other species of the cyanescens complex.

Transfers colonized grain to bags of hardwood shavings or washed eucalyptus.

Establish the 15 cm bed in a wooded area or shady garden.

Abundant sprouting after cold rains (<12°C).

• If you use eucalyptus chips, make sure they are aged (dried for several months outdoors) and soak them, changing the water to remove excess fresh antifungal oils.

Inoculate millet or rye at 23°C. Its mycelium forms small dense nodules similar to tiny white sclerotia.

Mix 1:2 with the coconut substrate and well-hydrated hardwood sawdust.

Cover with 1.5 cm of moist casing (peat + vermiculite + sand/akadama) and place in the Martha chamber at 18°C ​​and 94% RH.

Be very patient: unlike a cubensis that matures in 5 days, P. zapotecorum primordia grow slowly for 3 weeks without rotting, forming hard scaly stems and sinuous caps.

Harvest when the cap has spread its irregular margins and the blades are dark violet.

• Don't be scared by how slowly the primordia grow: a P. zapotecorum mushroom can take 20 days from the moment the pin appears until it reaches its final size without aborting as long as it has fresh fog.
• Adding 20% ​​of coarse washed sand or akadama to the casing imitates the mineral slopes of Oaxaca and multiplies the number of primordia.

Inoculate grain at 24°C. It develops a very clean and aromatic silky white mycelium (intense farinaceous smell of fresh cucumber or freshly ground flour).

Mix 1:2 with the pasteurized substrate and incubate until complete colonization.

Apply 1.2 cm of moist casing and proceed to fruiting (21°C, 92% RH and good air exchange).

Harvest when the convex caps show their characteristic burnished olive-brown luster with silver-blue reflections.

• It is one of the best sacred Mexican species to make the leap from P. cubensis to exotic species without extreme difficulty.

Inoculate rye or millet at 25°C. The mycelium colonizes quickly with a cottony texture.

Mix with pasteurized coconut substrate, straw and manure/compost.

Apply 1 cm of casing and ventilate at 20-22°C. Bouquets with the characteristic dark hygrophanic ring will sprout on the edge of the cap.

• It is a perfect bridge to train the preparation of pasteurized substrates and casing layers before facing Panaeolus cyanescens.

Inoculate sterilized millet with LC and keep at tropical temperature.

Mix in low trays 5 cm deep.

Cover with 5 mm of alkaline casing and transfer to the Martha chamber with high humidity and ventilation.

• Its mycelium is one of the fastest in the entire Copelandia complex, colonizing the manure substrate in just 5 days at 27°C.

Inoculate grain at 24°C. The white mycelium soon stains the substrate in yellow and orange tones.

Sow in bags of sawdust supplemented with 15% bran.

Open the top of the bag at 18-20°C with good light to enhance the violet scales and harvest before it releases its dense rust-orange spore.

• Unlike Psilocybe, the Gymnopilus genus tolerates and even digests coniferous woods (pine/fir) as well as hardwoods without problems.

Inoculate rye grain at 23°C.

Transfer to bags of sawdust with shavings to give it aerated structure.

Lower the temperature to 16-18°C with good lighting and 90% RH to unfold its purple and gold clusters.

• Its natural taste is extremely bitter due to gymnopilins.

Inoculate rye or millet at 22°C.

Transfer to bags of sawdust and shavings of deciduous softwood (willow, poplar or beech) with high humidity (64%).

Open the top of the bag at 16-18°C and 92% humidity. Mushrooms will emerge singly or in small groups with a silky pearl gray cap with a bluish scaly center and blades that turn salmon pink when ripe.

• Unlike Psilocybe lignicolas that only fruit outdoors in winter, Pluteus salicinus does fruit indoors at 17°C on blocks of willow or beech sawdust.