I present to you, a hypothetical problem. Lets say, hypothetically, someone wished to grow their own psilocybin mushrooms by purchasing spore filled syringes from a nameless internet source. Now, hypothetically, what would be the best type of psilocybe mushrooms to purchase, with less regard to potency and more regard to ease of growing, ehat would be the best substrate to grow them in, yielding the highest chnce of success. The options are, ordinary top soil(the kind your mother grows flowers in) clay rich grassy soil, dog shit, and cow shit. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hypothetically one would.....

Get some P. Cubensis, they're the easiest to grow. I'de go with something like B+ as its fairly common and forgiving.

All those 'substrates' you listed suck. They're not subrtates either. a substrate simply needs to lock in moisture and provide the proper nutrients, the thigns you listed can be used for casing though [aside from dog shit]. Using soil I believe is difficult though, dog shit isn't going to do anything, and cow shit is also difficult for beginners. For substrate and growing method just go with the PF-Tek [http://www.fungifun.com/pf/pf_en.htm] as its very easy. The substrate is just for the mycelium growth stage, after that you must move on to fruiting in which case I suggest a straight vermiculite casing. A lot of beginners think casings will be hard so they just fruit right off the cake [cake = mycelium covered substrate] which still works but effects the yield. You'll yield more with a vermiculite casing then you will right off the cake, and its really easy to do.

- www.shroomery.org (http://www.shroomery.org)

Read a LOT before even ordering the syringes. Basically, you should be able to resite your plan backwards and forwards, and have all the equitment you need before ever touching a syringe. Growing mushrooms is fairly easy, but thats doesn't mean you should do a half assed job of it.

[This message has been edited by SEN D-F (edited 08-10-2003).]

I would go with the gulf coast subspecies of the P. cubenisis. It has nice large caps, combined with potency, and relatively simple needs and ease of growing. As sen said, you should really study up on psilocybe cultivation before jumping into it.

Thankyou for the advice, but as I said, they must and will be grown outdoors. I lack the funds along with the patience to asemble a set up like that. Therefore, I have chosen, either cow shit, or a very moist soil rich in decomposing organic soil. So, I will wait for fall when all the leaves are falling off trees, in an area in my local woods particularly rich in organic waste, and the moisture will be no problem at all. This will have to do and hopefully this will be suitable to facilitate an acceptable yield with desirable potency.

The terranium is really worth the setup/cost...SWIM spent like only 30$ all up..case perlite, vermiculite, and glasses. And they are growing sweet...and you theoretically could grow them anytime of the year.. vermiculite/rice flower combo works wonders.

hey im want to grow shroomies too but i dont feel like boiling/steaming the jars that wont really matter will it? and i cant find vermiculite... and when the cakes start fruiting i want to make the cheapest air tight container for em.. any suggestions... b/c i had this in mind... like perlite and water on bottom then screen over that about 2 inches above and then put like a bag over it...eh?