Jochen Gartz - Magic Mushrooms Around the ... - preterhuman.net

about the champignon's ability to fruit on a ryegrain
medium, provided a cover layer was added
on top. It wasn't long before these findings were
applied to the cultivation of Psilocybe species.
By 1932, J. Sinden had already
published a patent for a cultivation process that
involved the inoculation of mushroom mycelia
derived from champignons into horse dung
compost (a medium widely used for cultivation
purposes) but only after the mycelia had already
grown to permeate a medium of sterilized grains.
Since that time, this process has mainly been
used in the production of table mushrooms,
specifically, for manufacturing the spawn to be
placed onto the compost without inducing
fruiting on grain. Psilocybe cubensis fruits after
about three to eight weeks on this substrate.
If a moist cover layer is added (e.g. a
peat moss/lime mixture, 2:1), the yields may
double. However, this process is risky, because
over-saturation can render the containers nonsterile
and invite contamination from bacteria and
molds. Most authors prefer a mixture of rye and
water that has been inoculated with mycelia from
an agar culture. Still, rice, barley, wheat and
other grains have also been used with varying
degrees of success. Figure 52 shows that, after
about five weeks, small mushrooms even grew
on wet pages of a newspaper that used to be the
official print medium controlled by the former
East Germany's SED Party ("Sozialistische
Einheitspartei Deutschlands" or "Unified
Socialist Party of Germany").
Some Recent Findings
Today, Psilocybe cubensis is clearly one
of the most easily cultivated mushroom species
around and it can thrive on a large variety of
substrates. Naturally occurring specimens are
most often found growing on cow dung.
Generally, the species tends to grow on dung and
straw as a primary decomposer, but the
mushrooms can also utilize nutrients previously
converted by other organisms, such as various
types of compost, among others (see Figure 53,
p. 77).
Within the scope of this book, it is
impossible to discuss all details pertaining to the
fruiting process of psychotropic mushroom
species. P. Stamets and J.S. Chilton are the
authors of two outstanding books that deal with
all the technical and practical aspects of
mushroom cultivation. The psychotropic species
are included along with information about many
kinds of culinary mushrooms. Still, I would like
to make special note of the fact that Psilocybe
cubensis cultures benefit when horse or cow
dung is added to the original nutrient mixtures,
as evidenced by the mushrooms' relatively faster
growth rate and the development of
comparatively more robust specimens (see
Figure 45, p. 71 and Figure 49, p. 74). Before
adding the dung to the nutrient mixture,
however, it must first be suspended in water and
autoclaved, which considerably reduces the risk
of contamination. Only then should the
suspension be added to the rye grain substrate
and sterilized once more.
In spite of numerous claims in the
popular literature, most attempts by laypersons
to cultivate fruiting bodies of Psilocybe cubensis
on rye grain substrate are thwarted by the
presence of contaminating agents such as
bacteria and molds. Even though mushrooms are
organisms that do not perform photosynthesis
and thus are no longer thought of as plants, some
mushroom species, including Psilocybe cubensis,
are heliotropes, meaning they will grow toward
stationary sources of light. All Psilocybe species
examined to date require light to promote the
biochemical process in the mycelia that will
induce fruiting. Additional exposure to light is
needed, if the fruiting bodies are to develop into
normal shapes and produce spores.
Apart from a series of interesting
physiological experiments performed by E.R.
Badham during the 1980s, there are a few other
noteworthy substrates for cultivation of
Psilocybe cubensis fruiting bodies. For instance,
we were the first to discover that a new type of
plant hormone (brassinosteroids) will accelerate
fruiting of the mycelia (Figure 40, p. 64). During
these experiments, we were also able to
completely suppress the formation of psilocybin
and psilocin through high concentrations of
phosphate. It is now possible to design future
physiological experiments to study different
hallucinogenic mushroom species under these
conditions.
In recent years I have also succeeded at
cultivating the European hallucinogenic
mushroom species.