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Other basic materials neededA cigarette lighter, scissors, a clean rag, dish soap, a chopstick (or somethingsimilar in size).OverviewPart One of the growing process is the easiest part to master. During this part, you willbe preparing jars of birdseed that will be used as the substrate, or food, for themushrooms. Once you complete the steps in Part One, you will have between 4 to 6weeks before they are ready to be used in Part Two.First you are going to hydrate, clean, and dry the birdseed. Then you will partially fill the½ gallon jars with the birdseed, place them in a pressure canner and heat sterilize them.After the jars of birdseed have cooled down, you will inoculate them with mushroomsspores using a syringe filled with spore solution. You will then place the jars in a warmand dark area to incubate. About 10 days after being inoculated, the mushroom sporeswill germinate and you should notice one or more small spots of white mushroommycelium growing on the birdseed.Over the next 4 to 6 weeks, the mycelium will continue to colonize the birdseed until theentire mass of birdseed is covered in white mycelium. Once the birdseed is completelycolonized it is ready to be used. I would like to point something one thing before moving on. The process outlinedin this guide is the way I prefer to perform it. I am a patient and experiencedgrower so I don't have a problem waiting for ½ gallon jars to be completelycolonized. I know as a beginner grower you will be anxious to see results so Ifwant to speed up the process I suggest using less birdseed per jar. I think an inchunder half of a jar full would be a good amount to start with. You can still get agood yield using this amount. You can counteract the lack of substrate by using 4jars instead of 2. This will also be helpful later in the guide when you will beusing the jars because if something goes wrong, you will still have 2 fullycolonized jars ready to be used. This will keep you from having to wait another 6weeks for new birdseed jars to colonize before you can try again. Once you areconfident in your skills then you can follow the process as I do it.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 9 of 32

Modifying the Jar LidsWhen you modify the jar lids you will be making a small hole in the middle of the lid,pulling a small piece of polyester stuffing through it and trimming it. The purpose of thepolyester stuffing is to give you a convenient way to insert the needle of the spore syringeinto the jar without having to remove the jar lid. This modification ensures you don’t letany contaminates into the jar. Another purpose of the polyester center is to act as an airfilter so the mycelium can breathe a bit.First, take the 3/8 inch drill bit and heat it up on a stove or with a lighter. Push or drill thedrill bit through the center of both plastic lids. Do not try to drill the hole without firstheating the drill bit because you will likely crack the lid. Once you have the hole madescrape off any melted plastic still stuck around the hole.Now take a small piece of polyester stuffing and use a chopstick or something similar topush the polyester stuffing through the holes in your lids. Grab the stuffing and pull itthrough until it tightly fills the hole. Now take a scissors and trim off some of the excessstuffing from the top and bottom of the lid. See pictures in member’s area for a detailedview of this step.Hydrating the BirdseedBecause the birdseed is very dry and the mushroom mycelium needs to have somemoisture in the substrate in order to colonize it, we have to hydrate the birdseed beforewe can use it. The method I use for this is simple and works very well.Measure out enough birdseed to fill both of the ½ gallon jars, approximately 2/3 of theway full and dump the birdseed into the large bucket. Using water from the tap, fill thebucket with enough water that it will completely submerge all of the birdseed. Thetemperature of the water isn’t very important and room temperature will work fine but Iprefer to use warm water to help with the hydration of the seed.Stir up the birdseed a bit and let it sit for 12 to 24 hours. Don’t let the birdseed soak formore than 24 hours, doing so can lead to an overgrowth of bacteria and will preventmycelium from colonizing the birdseed.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 10 of 32

Cleaning and Drying the BirdseedCleaning and drying the birdseed before loading it into the jars is important because itkeeps the jars clean, prevents the seeds from clumping, and reduces the risk ofcontamination. Don’t neglect this step.After the birdseed has soaked for the appropriate amount of time, the water will lookgrimy and may have a bit of a funky odor. This is normal. The first thing that I like to do,but is not necessary, is to remove some of the Sunflower seeds if there are a lot of them.I prefer to have mostly the small round millet seed in my jars. The Sunflower seeds willfloat to the top of the water so they are easy to skim off of the top.Now strain out the dirty water from the seed and fill the bucket with clean water. Put adrop of dish soap in the bucket with the seed, stir it around, and strain it again. The dropof dish soap helps to remove any oily residue that is stuck on the seed. Repeat thisprocess using only clean water until the water you strain is clear. I usually have to strainthe seed around four times before the water is clear.Now it’s time to dry the seed. Strain the seed well, and then spread it out onto a dry clothlike a t-shirt or towel. I prefer to use a t-shirt because it doesn’t have as many loosethreads on it but a towel will work just fine. Use another dry t-shirt or towel to rub theseed to dry it off. Once the cloths become saturated, transfer the seed onto another dry tshirt or towel and continue to dry it off. After that, the seed should be dry enough to loadinto the jars. The seed doesn't have to be completely dry but you want to remove most ofthe excess moisture. There will still be plenty of moisture left inside of the seed and thatis where you want it. Having seed that is too wet will invite bacterial growth and slowcolonization. Later you will be injecting spore solution into the seed so drying the seedallows you to add more solution without over saturating the birdseed.Sterilizing the BirdseedDuring this step you are going to sterilize the jars of birdseed in order kill off anycompeting molds or bacteria spores that exist in the birdseed. In order to properlysterilize birdseed you have to raise the internal temperature of the seed to 250 degreesFahrenheit. The way to do this is with the use of a pressure canner.DISCLAIMER: I cannot instruct you on how to use your pressure canner. A pressurecanner can be dangerous if used improperly. You need to read the instructions belongingto your specific pressure canner in order to operate it safely and properly.Now that the seed is mostly dry, fill both jars 2/3 of the way full. You can fill the jarsmore that 2/3 full but 2/3 is plenty of birdseed and having some air in the jars helps withcolonization. Now firmly screw on the plastic lids with the polyester stuffing in them.Place both jars into the pressure canner, bring the pressure up to 15 PSI, and cook theseed for 1 hour and 15mins.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 11 of 32

After the time is up, turn off the heat and let the canner cool down for at least one hourbefore opening it. Once the canner has cooled down, remove the lid and use a papertowel to dab off any moisture that is on the polyester stuffing.If the jars are still too hot you may need to put on a pair of oven mitts before you takethem out. Take the jars and thoroughly shake the seed around. Shaking the seed loosensany clumps and balances out the moisture content in the seeds. If you are having a toughtime shaking the seed, you can bang the jars on a thick phone book to help break up theseed.Set the jars back into the pressure canner and over the next few hours as the jars continueto cool down, shake the seed a couple of more times. If you wait until the seed iscompletely cool before you try to shake it, it will be clumped up and will be very difficultto break free which is why you should do it when the seed is still warm. It is important tokeep the seeds loose because you will need them to shake freely later on.When the plastic jar lids cool down they contract and become very difficult to remove.In order to keep the jars lids from tightening up you should periodically twist them asthey are cooling down. Allow the jars at least 8 hours to cool before moving to the nextstep. I usually let them cool overnight.Inoculating the Jars of BirdseedNow that the birdseed jars have completely cooled down they are ready to be inoculatedwith the mushroom spores using the spore syringe.For this step, first clean off a working surface, like a counter top or table top, with adisinfectant wipe. Then gather both of the birdseed jars, the spore syringe, a cigarettelighter, and the disinfectant wipes and place them on the clean working surface.Note: Depending on where you purchased your spore syringe, you may need to attachthe needle to the syringe. If the needle is not already attached to the syringe, take the capwith the needle in it, place it on the end of the plastic syringe and twist it to the right untilit locks into place. Now the needle is attached to the syringe, when you are ready to useit you can just pull the plastic cover off.Now take the syringe and snap the center of it with your finger a few times to help toevenly distribute the spores in the solution. Remove the plastic cap from the syringeneedle and use the lighter to flame the tip of the needle until the last quarter of the needleturns red and then remove the flame. Be careful not to heat the entire needle to red hot orit will melt the plastic syringe and the needle will fall out. Now, squirt a tiny bit ofsolution through the needle to cool it down and then wipe off the needle with thedisinfectant wipe.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 12 of 32

Now stick the syringe needle into the jar through the polyester stuffing and inject 3 cc’sor ml’s (cc’s and mls are the same thing) into the jar and then pull the needle out.Inoculate the second jar the same way as you did the first jar but you don’t have reheatthe needle; just wipe it off with the disinfectant wipe.After you have inoculated both jars, you can wipe the needle off with the disinfectantwipe, place the plastic cap back on, and store the syringe for later use. Now take each ofyour jars and shake them up rigorously to evenly disperse the spores throughout the seed.Watch the video in the member’s area to gain a better understanding of how to inoculatethe jars of birdseed.Incubating the Jars of BirdseedNow that the jars of birdseed have been inoculated, they need to incubate so themushroom mycelium can colonize the birdseed.During the incubation stage, the mushroom mycelium prefers to be kept at a temperaturerange between 70 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Typically, the warmer the jars are kept thefaster the mycelium will colonize the birdseed. However, you don’t want thetemperatures to get too high, as higher temperatures also increase the chance ofcontamination and temperatures higher than 100 degrees can kill mycelium. In mostenvironments I simply suggest wrapping the jars in some clean towels or linens forwarmth.It should take between 4 and 6 weeks before the jars are completely colonized. After thejars are completely colonized you can store them in a dark and cool place for up to threemonths before using them, but I would only do that if I had to.See the picture in the member’s area of a fully colonized jar of birdseed.Congratulations, you are now finished with Part One of the growing process. Beginpreparing for Part Two while the jars finish colonizing.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 13 of 32

Contamination RisksContamination is the biggest challenge a mushroom grower faces. In my experience,contamination is most problematic during the colonization of the birdseed.Contamination after the birdseed is colonized is not unheard of, but it is far less a threat.There are two types of contamination a grower faces; they are bacterial and fungal.Bacterial ContaminationIn my experience, bacterial contamination happens almost exclusively when the seed isstill in the jars. With bacterial contamination, you rarely see anything but your substratewill have an offensive odor. The smell is usually sour or funky. If a jar has bacterialcontamination you can usually smell the odor by sniffing the polyester stuffing. If thereis no bacterial contamination then the polyester stuffing should just smell like cookedgrain. Another sign that your jars may have bacterial contamination is if the colonizationof the seed suddenly stops and there is no visible sign of contamination.One particular type of bacterial contamination is known as wet spot. With wet spotbacteria, an area of your seed will look much wetter than it did a few days prior.Bacterial contamination thrives when the grain is overly wet; this is why I take the timeto thoroughly dry my seed before I load it into the jars.Fungal ContaminationFungal or mold contamination is created when spores from an unwanted strain of fungusfind their way into the substrate. Fungal contamination doesn’t have any noticeable odorbut is easy to spot because you will see growth that is a color other than white. I haveseen many different colored molds grow in my jars. The most common mold colors Ihave seen in my jars are green, grey, yellow, and red.If you have fungal contamination in your jars then it is quite possible that thecontamination was in the spore solution when you injected it into the jars. Having aninfected spore syringe is the result of the spore vendor not being completely sterile whenhe or she filled the syringe with spore solution. Buying your spore syringes fromreputable dealers will minimize your chances of getting contaminated syringes. Don’tworry too much about getting contaminated syringes as is not very common.If you experience either form of contamination in your jars then chances are you willhave to throw out the contaminated seed. The only alternative to discarding the contentsof the jar is to try to separate the healthy colonized grain from the contaminated grain. Ihave had success doing this but only if at least 80 percent of the seed has been colonizedbefore the contamination set in.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 14 of 32

Don’t throw the jars out at first sign of contamination; leave them alone for a week untilyou are sure they are contaminated. It can be easy to mistake mushroom mycelium forfungal contamination, especially for a beginner grower.If you do end up losing a jar to contamination don’t get discouraged this happens to everygrower at some point. Make sure you thoroughly clean the jars and lids with soap andwater before using again.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 15 of 32

PART TWOMaterials ListReusable 1- Large plastic storage container with lidI prefer to use the 14 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck and I highly recommend it.You can use a larger storage container than the 14 gallon, if you want, it won'thurt anything.One benefit to using a larger/taller storage container is you may not have to cutthe legs of the wire shelf to allow it to fit in the container.The drawback to a larger container is it will take up more space and be morenoticeable.I personally wouldn't go smaller than the 14 gallon container.You can find these at stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot or here atOfficeDepot.com.1- Pump handle garden sprayerYou can use a regular squeeze bottle but I highly recommend using a pumpsprayer because they work much better and produce a finer mist.You can find them here at Amazon.com1- Electric powered hand drillThis is only used to drill four holes in the plastic storage container.If you don’t have one, you don’t need to buy one as you can probably penetratethe plastic by heating up the drill bit and pushing it through or by using someother tool.1- ½ inch diameter drill bit at least 1 inch longThis size doesn’t have to be exact, slightly thicker or thinner than ½ inch isacceptable.You can find this at any hardware store.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 16 of 32

1- 2.5lb bag of puffed clay rocksSome common brand names for these are Hydroton or Geolite.2.5lbs is more than enough rocks. You only need enough to create a 1/2 inchlayer on the bottom of the plastic storage container.You can find these at hydroponic stores, gardening stores, sometimes pet stores,or here at Amazon.com.1- Wire cabinet shelfThis shelf is placed inside of the plastic storage container and is used as a standfor the tray.If using the 14 gallon or similar sized storage container, you will have to cut thelegs of this shelf to allow room for the mushrooms to grow. If you choose a tallerstorage container you can leave the legs of the shelf in tact.You can find this at stores like Target or Wal-Mart or here at Amazon.com.1- Hacksaw or a large pair of cuttersOnly used once to shorten the legs of the wire shelf. If you choose a larger storagecontainer you won't need to shorten the legs or need this tool.I use a very small hacksaw and it works just fine. It is a very small job.1- Removable oven thermometerI prefer to rely on a removable thermometer instead of the built in oventhermometer, because I believe they are more accurate. I know my oven’s built inthermometer is off by 20 degrees.You can find these at stores like Target or Wal-Mart or here at Amazon.com.1- Food dehydratorAny brand will work. I use the cheap Ronco model. Nesco American Harvestmakes some nice affordable ones too.You can find these at most retail stores like Target or Wal-Mart or you can findthem here at Amazon.com.Http://MagicMushroomMastery.comPage 17 of 32

Non-Reuseable 1- Plastic dishwashing tub or a large aluminum roasting panI use the large aluminum oven roasting pan. The dimensions are 16 5/8” X 117/8” X 2 5/8”.Aluminum trays work well but they will begin to deteriorate after a couple grows.The plastic tub can be used indefinitely.Any large tray will work; you don’t have to use one of these. The onlyrequirement is that it has

mushrooms is the Psilocybe Cubensis mushroom. When I use the term magic mushroom I am referring specifically to the Psilocybe Cubensis mushroom. One very important point I want to mention before you get started is to not get discouraged by the length or detail of this guide. This