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A BRIEF HISTORY OF PSI LOCYBIN MUSHROOM CU LTIVATION

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PSI LOCYBIN  MUSHROOM CULTIVATION


At the time of R. Gordon Wasson's "rediscovery" of the Syrian use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms in Mexico in the 1950s, the science of mushroom cultivation was still in its infancy. Until then, the only mushroom species at least in the western 2 was Agaricus bisporus, the common white button mushroom. The cultivation methods used were more or less the same as those devised in France during the 17th century: cultivators collected mycelium-rich soil from wild areas where the fungus was found and mixed it with horse manure in naturally controlled caves. Moved in rows. . . This method was effective, but because it used raw, unpasteurized substrate, it left a lot to chance, and the beds often became contaminated. Finally, in the 1960s, the foundation was laid for the successful cultivation of psilocybe Cuban sauce. In the late 18th century, American mushroom grower and researcher William Faulkner published a book entitled Mushrooms: How to Grow. Jor Prqfit and Pleasure, a practical book on mushroom cultivation, summarizes recent discoveries in the cultivation of Agaricus, and includes a chapter on the advantages of the "coating layer." By placing a thin layer of soil on top of compost beds before fruiting, growers found their mushroom yields greatly improved. In writing this chapter, we were greatly assisted by Yachaj's article "Mushroom Cultivation, From Falconer to Fanaticus and Beyond" in the Winter 2001 issue of E11fheogen Reliew (pp. 127-139). This excellent article covers the history of Psilocybe mushroom cultivation better than we do here, and is well worth a look. 2 In Asia, the science of bush cultivation was much more advanced. Shiitake mushroom (LeHtim/" edodes) has been propagated for more than a thousand years by placing fresh-cut logs with mushroom Stress, a rudimentary but effective "inoculation" method. 3 "spawning transfer. " methods are quite effective if collected. The substrate itself is resistant to pollution by nature. See Chapter 13 on how it can be used to create new beds for wood-loving Silocybes.
Several years after Falconer's book was published, United States Department of Agriculture scientists found that many of the contamination problems previously associated with mushroom production were eliminated by using horse manure inoculated with Agaricus.-mycelium. were subjected to heat sterilization prior to application. This process essentially created what was the first pure mushroom "spawn." In 1930, while working at Pennsylvania State College (still one of the major centers for mushroom cultivation research), psychologist James W. Sandon discovered that sterilized wheat kernels were an even more efficient and Makes strong breeding. In time whole wheat would prove to be an almost universal breeding medium and to this day is the medium of choice for the cultivation of many species of mushrooms. In the late 1950s, French psychologist Roger Hamm was the first to successfully cultivate several species of Psilocybe, using material he had learned from his travels with R. Gordon Wasson in Mexico. To determine the best conditions for fruiting, he tested each of the species he collected on different sterile substrates. With Psilocybe rubensis, he discovered that sterile horse manure produced the best fruit. Due to the relative obscurity of psilocybe mushrooms and their powerful effects, along with the fact that Heim's writings were not translated into English for nearly twenty years, his work remained largely unknown to the rest of the world.
In the latter half of the 1960s, a number of "underground" pamphlets and pamphlets were published detailing the manufacture and cultivation of psychedelic drugs (many of which were legally available at the time), including Psilocybe. Many types of mushrooms. . However, the techniques they described were either crudely presented or too technical for the average person to use with much success, and many of the books gave the impression that one might The authors had not tried their methods either. It was not until the publication of two books in the late 1970s, O.T. Oss and O.N. Oeric's Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide (1976) and Dr. Steven H. Pollock's Cultivation of the Magic Mushroom (1977), a reliable technique for cultivating psyllium mushrooms became widely available. Although the methods described in these books were quite complicated for the layman, they were well researched and clearly presented, and with a little effort and maybe a little luck, almost anyone could put them to work. Both books dealt with similar material, but each approached the subject slightly differently, and both books would influence the future development of the art.
T. Oss and o.N. Orrick was the pseudonym of brothers Dennis and Terence McKenna. His book was the result of his experiments with the cultivation of Psilocybe Cubans on sterile rye berries using James Sindon's grain breeding methods. As the brothers discovered, this strain grew and thrived happily on rye, especially when La Faulkner's sterile coating was applied over the colonized grain. In their method, spores were grown in a sterile agar medium and the resulting mycelium was transferred to sterile rye grains in quart canning jars. The hull layer was added directly to the colonized pot cultures and fruiting would begin several weeks later. The relative simplicity of his method, relying on the use of more or less readily available ingredients and aids, along with his idiosyncratic aesthetic and psychedelic, sci-fi music, gave him great appeal and helped spread the mushroom and its message. Spread far and wide.

Pollock's book was certainly less eccentric than McKenna's and was printed for only a fraction of the price, but in the end it is less influential than you. In it he describes the results of his experiments with a further range of Psilocybe species active in different habitats. Although he also stated that P. cubensis was fertilized with several royal cereals, he chose brown rice over rye as his substrate of choice because it is cheaper and more widely available. This is a lucky choice based on two votes. At first, about twenty years later, mushrooms grown on brown rice would prove the most for him, with an alkaloid content of up to 1% on a dry basis. "Psilocybe Fanaticus Technique", in Common Conditions for Psilocybe Mushroom Cultivation. Sadly, Polk never lived to make his claim as he was murdered under mysterious circumstances in his Texas home in 1983 at the age of 33. Meanwhile, in the fall of 1972, students at the University of Washington, Seattle, discovered that bark mulch used to decorate buildings and landscaping around campus was infested with a strain of the Psilocybe fungus Psilocybe stunzii. Nicknamed "Blue Rings" due to their color when they were infused, these mushrooms were quickly determined to be quite active and soon became a popular recreational psychedelic. Although the fungus itself was fertile, observers told you colorfully that the mycelium could be transferred to virgin bark to speed up the organism and produce more fruit. Being imprisoned in France with Agrix. . Your . In addition, several species of Pacific Norwest psilocybe are described that are new to science, including cybi sinensis, P. cyancephalus, and pzorisque C11s. All of these friends led you to book psilocybe species, such as those described in Paul Stemmets (himself a student at the time), Gurung Gourmet, and Medicinal Mushrooms.
In 1991, a prolific new manual, The Psilocybe Fanaticus Technique, was published to test a business with the dubious names of Psilocybe Fanaticus. His book describes a highly efficient and almost foolproof technique for growing Psilocybe cubans on a brown rice and vermeolite "cake" in a half-liter glass jar. Although this method ("PF Tek", as it turned out) clearly borrows heavily from its predecessors, it is unique in several important respects.
First, he used a substrate that was a mixture of wet brown rice flour and vermiculite. Its open and structured structure gave it a precedent for rapid growth and development, as it eliminated the need to subsequently settle or disturb the substrate. It was also easy to sterilize in an ordinary boiling water bath, making it difficult to obtain the most expensive and first necessary equipment for mushroom cultivation, the cooker. Second, the PF substrate was covered with a thin layer of pure, dry vermiculite, which served as an effective anti-inoculation and anti-inoculation agent during incubation. This allows cultures to be gloved in containers or open handles that require sterile techniques. This way you can reduce most of them, and remove the one that stopped the cultivators before. By using an aqueous spore suspension as the inoculum, PFTech eliminates the need for difficult and sensitive agar techniques. The injection is gone. In many places in the flask, prehydrate spores advance and the substrate is rapidly colonized.
Rather than relying on a coating layer to promote fruiting, the PF substrate was removed from the pot as a solid "cake", which was then placed in a small chamber with a thick bottom layer of moist perlite (an inert absorbent material) . water used in horticulture), which served to absorb water in the cake and humidify the atmosphere in the room. With adequate lighting, the cakes soon popped up on their exterior surfaces in many places.
The sheer simplicity of the Psilocybe Fanaticus technique, combined with the rapid dissemination of information in the age of newsgroups and Internet websites, created a wave of new interest in growing Psilocybe mushrooms and spawned a whole generation of hobby growers.
Meanwhile, at the same time as Psilocybe Fanaticus perfected his methods, another innovative hobby mycologist, Rush Wayne, Ph.D., was quietly preparing his own breeding revolution. Wayne, a biochemist by training, was interested in the idea of ​​growing edible mushrooms at home, but his familiarity with the complications of sterile cultivation had discouraged him from attempting it. That was until he read a magazine article describing the use of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in orchid seed germination. Apparently, the peroxide killed bacteria, yeast, and fungal spores in the agar medium without harming the orchid seeds, since orchids, like most multicellular organisms, produce peroxidases, enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of compounds by peroxides. Wayne wondered whether this method could also be applied to mushroom cultivation since mushroom-producing fungi also synthesize peroxidases.
He conducted a long series of experiments with different fungi and media, using different concentrations of peroxide, and found that his conjecture was correct: most fungal species grew very well in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, while they were organisms no. provided that the media in Initially sterile, the presence of relatively low concentrations of peroxide rendered the cultures resistant to contamination for a long time, allowing them to be handled in the open air without the need for specialized techniques or equipment. As with the PF Tek, the need for air filtration, cleanrooms, or glove boxes has disappeared. Wayne published the results of his research in 1996 in a book, Growing fllshro0111S the Easy Type: Home Mushroom Cultivation with Hydrogen Peroxide.
Hydrogen peroxide is ubiquitous in nature, so it's no wonder that coke thrives in its presence. Chemically, it is simply water with an extra gen atom (oA). Since it is a relatively unstable molecule, the resulting extra atom is easily released as a tree base. Free radicals are highly reactive and quickly attach to nearby molecules, which can then become free radicals and start a chain reaction. If this cascade becomes uncontrolled within a biological system, it usually leads to cell death. Most multicellular organisms, including fungi, bacteria, yeasts, and viruses, produce hydrogen peroxide and peroxidase enzymes to protect themselves against viruses. Additionally, fungi use peroxides and peroxides to break down the cell walls of their food sources. Because most fungi produce peroxidase, hydrogen peroxide does not protect against live fungi, including contaminating fungi. However, it destroys the spores. Thus, as Wayne discovered, adding peroxide to cultures, provided the medium is thoroughly sterilized or pasteurized, effectively protects them from all airborne contaminants. Wayne's discovery undoubtedly revolutionized the general technique of mushroom cultivation. What PF Tek did for the cultivation of Psilocybe cubensis, "peroxide tek" does for the cultivation of almost all types of mushroom-producing fungi. A practice once open only to specialists with specialized skills and expensive equipment is now available to anyone with a pressure cooker, a few glass jars, and a fairly clean countertop. It is no exaggeration to say that the book will keep you in your pocket. ". The hand would not have been written without the discoveries and writings of Rush Wayne. The inclusion of peroxide in our own collection has allowed us to explore mushroom cultivation more deeply than ever before. It is likely that without Wayne's work, , we have been frustrated long before we even thought about writing our own growing manual. Hence, our book is dedicated to Wayne as well as the many mushroom farming pioneers who came before him. Discover the fascinating and beautiful mysteries of the mycological universe.


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