37 replies to this topic

[DonShadow]

Psilocybe Tampanensis

- Spore print to malt/yeast agar, clean in 1 transfer.
I made no attempt at an isolation, I simply chose the most vigorous leading edge of the 1st plate.
- Grain spawn - 2 : 1 / Ryegrass seed : weak coffee (by volume) + pinch of gypsum. Sterilized 60 mins @ 15PSI.
- Several agar wedges were used to inoculate the ryegrass seed. Jar was then shaken vigorously for 1 minute.
- Grain spawn incubated at 78F, fully colonized in 12 days.
- Bulk substrate was prepared using the following recipe (yields 2 quart-sized wide-mouth jars loosely packed for easy emptying):

• 140g dry coconut coir
• 50ml fine used coffee grounds
• 50ml oat bran
• 50ml clean sand
• 12.5ml gypsum
• 12.5ml calcium carbonate
• Approx. 750ml reverse osmosis water. Boil half to hydrate coir and add the rest gradually until field capacity is reached.
• Sterilize 90 mins @ 15PSI
• (These are all approximate measurements; a little more or less of each is fine)

- 1 : 3 spawn to bulk ratio, inside of two small square PP5 containers lined with trash bag, spawn depth 1.5 inches. Four 1/4-inch holes were drilled in lid and covered with micropore tape for gas exchange. The lid seals over the excess trash bag, which is then easily cut away by running a razorblade along the edge of the lid.
- Incubated at 78F, fully colonized in 10 days
- Cased at 1/4" depth with 10 : 1 : 0.5 = Peat moss : Calcium carbonate : Sand (by volume). Hydrated to field capacity with reverse osmosis water, sterilized 90 minutes at 15PSI. Fill your casing jars only 2/3 full so they may be easily shaken to evenly distribute moisture. This way unused casing may be stored in the refrigerator, while maintaining proper hydration.
- Fruited at 70-75F using this fruiting chamber.
- Light misting (8-10 pumps) twice daily until pins appeared, then misting reduced to once daily until harvest (or more as required when caps appeared dry).
- Spore prints taken on tin foil in front of flow hood inside of upside-down well-sealing plastic shoebox tote. Caps were removed from foil after 24 hours and prints were allowed to dry in front of flow hood for 15 minutes or so.

The following improvements to the referenced fruiting chamber TEK were made for this grow:

• CPU fan moved from the back of the tote to the center of the lid for more even airflow. Clear packing tape was used to seal the old fan port.
• Fanning schedule changed to 3 minutes, 4 times daily, spaced 6 hours apart (for entire duration of grow).
• I no longer bother monitoring humidity, as the chamber effectively keeps it at 95% or above with minimal daily misting.

These mushrooms are very easy to grow, and the yield was not bad for the amount of effort required.


First flush:






Second flush:








Spore printing:

Edited by DonShadow, 02 June 2019 - 09:55 AM.

[peacefrog]

Nicely done!

Beautiful flushes there.

[Mushinist]

Way to nail it Don Shadow, nice job!

[elfstone]

Beautiful grow. Interesting choices in the bulk substrate. You think the coffee grounds add something they like?

[Moonless]

Great job! Was this your first time with said variety? such a great yeild!

Those prints are quite lovely  very cool geometric shapes!

[DonShadow]

Thanks folks! It was my first time with this strain, yes. It is obviously very well domesticated, as the mushrooms volunteered themselves without much encouragement. They seem to be genetically very similar to other mexicana strains, but more dense than either the Jalisco or Chicon Nindo strains (though the CN is no slouch!). So far they are the easiest and highest-yielding stone-producer I've grown. I'm looking forward to working with a clone to see how that improves the yield. I haven't sampled them yet, but will do so in the next few days to see how they compare in quality to the two mexicana strains I've sampled.

 

The substrate is a mish-mash of ideas borrowed from other growers. I've experimented with several different substrates for mexicana, including various combinations of whole grains and compost-based substrates, but at the end of the day, the coir based substrate with added coffee grounds has always yielded the best results. It's the same substrate I use for cubensis, and it works wonders for that species. I like it because of its ease of preparation, and its seeming resilience against contamination. I've got a tray of Ps. semperviva going on the same substrate, I'm really curious to see if it will take to it. It colonized very aggressively as is normal for that species. Fingers crossed for fruits!

Edited by DonShadow, 02 June 2019 - 11:45 AM.

[DonShadow]

Third flush coming up... in a moment of complete numbskullery I accidentally doused this tray with alcohol instead of water, to the absolute saturation point! But surprise! These shrooms can hold their liquor! I ate 3g last night, whew! The best.

[Skywatcher]

 in a moment of complete numbskullery I accidentally doused this tray with alcohol instead of water, to the absolute saturation point! But surprise! These shrooms can hold their liquor! I ate 3g last night, whew! The best.
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Perhaps you shouldn't smoke such a big fatty prior to tub maintenance? 

They are looking great !!!

[Moonless]

My gosh DonShadow glad everything turned out alright!! These shrooms sure are hardy. The other day I accidentally misted with anti-bacterial countertop spray hahaha and everything turned outfine too.

 

Really happy you've gotten so many flushes so far. Keep up the good work! How are these ones in comparison to other Mexican varieties and also to cubes?

[DonShadow]

Yes it's quite fortunate that the mushrooms compensate for our frequent ineptitude :)

 

These were very potent, on par with other Mexican varieties for sure. They were similarly clean and clear like the Jalisco and Chicon Nindo strains, but lacked the spirit of Mexico that I've found to be very apparent with the species endemic to the region. I didn't feel much, if any discomfort in the body. It's hard to compare to cubensis because I've noticed so much variability with that species. I've had some great strains of cubensis, and some not so great. I've recently had a couple of very positive experiences with a cube strain from the island of Martinique, and I would rate it as being similar or equal in quality to these more petite species, but this may be more a matter of where one is at spiritually/psychologically/circumstantially at the time. The tampanesis seemed to be quite neutral in spirit, and lead me directly to an expansive dimension that is becoming more and more familiar and comfortable as I temper my reactions to what I see there. It feels like immense love and wholeness, like being home.

Edited by DonShadow, 05 June 2019 - 02:25 PM.

[DonShadow]

Here's the third flush from the tray I soaked in alcohol, just before harvest. The other tray is recovering from a soak, and showing many hyphal knots. I've noticed that this strain tends to form primordia on the surface of the casing when it's still very wet, whereas other Mexicana strains tend to form knots below the casing as it dries out.

[WalkingCatfish]

Great grow, and thanks for describing your process so well. The next time I grow these, I'll follow your method.

[Moonless]

Thanks folks! It was my first time with this strain, yes. It is obviously very well domesticated, as the mushrooms volunteered themselves without much encouragement. They seem to be genetically very similar to other mexicana strains, but more dense than either the Jalisco or Chicon Nindo strains (though the CN is no slouch!). So far they are the easiest and highest-yielding stone-producer I've grown. I'm looking forward to working with a clone to see how that improves the yield. I haven't sampled them yet, but will do so in the next few days to see how they compare in quality to the two mexicana strains I've sampled.

 

The substrate is a mish-mash of ideas borrowed from other growers. I've experimented with several different substrates for mexicana, including various combinations of whole grains and compost-based substrates, but at the end of the day, the coir based substrate with added coffee grounds has always yielded the best results. It's the same substrate I use for cubensis, and it works wonders for that species. I like it because of its ease of preparation, and its seeming resilience against contamination. I've got a tray of Ps. semperviva going on the same substrate, I'm really curious to see if it will take to it. It colonized very aggressively as is normal for that species. Fingers crossed for fruits!

 

Yes it's quite fortunate that the mushrooms compensate for our frequent ineptitude :)

 

These were very potent, on par with other Mexican varieties for sure. They were similarly clean and clear like the Jalisco and Chicon Nindo strains, but lacked the spirit of Mexico that I've found to be very apparent with the species endemic to the region. I didn't feel much, if any discomfort in the body. It's hard to compare to cubensis because I've noticed so much variability with that species. I've had some great strains of cubensis, and some not so great. I've recently had a couple of very positive experiences with a cube strain from the island of Martinique, and I would rate it as being similar or equal in quality to these more petite species, but this may be more a matter of where one is at spiritually/psychologically/circumstantially at the time. The tampanesis seemed to be quite neutral in spirit, and lead me directly to an expansive dimension that is becoming more and more familiar and comfortable as I temper my reactions to what I see there. It feels like immense love and wholeness, like being home.

 

   Mexican verietys are very cool. I like how they are used for traditional ceremonies while cubes are not. Cubes seem to be from Africa and Middle east, and traveled down into south Asia through the migration of Proto-Iranian speaking people and their domesticated cattle into the Indian sub-content, and later SE Asia. When they came people The Indian subcontent was already populated with people, so there are multiple lineages of people in India. This migration is thought to have introduced Cubensis mushrooms which could have been a medicine or of the same nature for these people and possibly inspiring their beliefe systems.

 

Their main god was Indra like Zeus god of thunder and rain, big dude in the sky. Other prominant gods were the Ashvins twins Holy healer of the gods and born from the sun and clouds. and the god of the sea.

As cubensis realm can be populated by entities of the cultures unconscious, do you see the derumbes relm as populated by spirits of the Faith of that land? Having tried both do you notice If the entities manifest in different ways depending on the mushrooms used?

How is the Semperviva going by the way?

Edited by Moonless, 23 June 2019 - 01:37 PM.

[DonShadow]

Hey Moonless, thanks for that very interesting information. I always appreciate learning about the role mushrooms have played in shaping human history.

 

This is going to sound a bit out there, but I really do believe that the mushrooms carry the imprint of the region they have evolved within. They seem to have a memory of their surroundings; the people, the artwork, the landscape, and the traditions that interact with them. Cubensis feels very cosmopolitan to me, it isn't endemic to any particular region, and therefor the spirit is not of any particular place, but may contain the spirit of many places. The mexican species like mexicana and semperviva on the other hand, quite obviously carry the spirit of Oaxaca within them. It's as if the mushroom itself is a hologram which, when installed in the holographic projector (the body), its spirit will be decoded and projected onto the screen of the mind. While this is definitely an interesting quality of mushrooms, it isn't my primary concern by any stretch. Cubensis has taught me as much as any other mushroom.

Edited by DonShadow, 26 June 2019 - 01:35 AM.

[Foster]

Great write-up, fantastic grow, and very interesting thoughts, perceptions, interpretations.    I see a Tampanensis attempt in my near future.

Nicely done, thanks for sharing.

[Moonless]

Hey Moonless, thanks for that very interesting information. I always appreciate learning about the role mushrooms have played in shaping human history.

 

This is going to sound a bit out there, but I really do believe that the mushrooms carry the imprint of the region they have evolved within. They seem to have a memory of their surroundings; the people, the artwork, the landscape, and the traditions that interact with them. Cubensis feels very cosmopolitan to me, it isn't endemic to any particular region, and therefor the spirit is not of any particular place, but may contain the spirit of many places. The mexican species like mexicana and semperviva on the other hand, quite obviously carry the spirit of Oaxaca within them. It's as if the mushroom itself is a hologram which, when installed in the holographic projector (the body), its spirit will be decoded and projected onto the screen of the mind. While this is definitely an interesting quality of mushrooms, it isn't my primary concern by any stretch. Cubensis has taught me as much as any other mushroom.

 

Dear Don Shadow!

 

Ya know that is not too far off what some Natives of this land thought. During ceremonies it is thought that the collective will of the ancestors would be able to communicate with the participants. On the other side (some white people theories) it is said that psychedelics are a matrix of information, when you take the mushroom or LSD for example, not only are you downloading the conscious of LSD or shrooms, but the LSD is downloading your subconscious too. I am at a loss for who said this (maybe Kili Ilii, however from this idea we can extrapolate that psychedelics are a collective experience of all that have tripped before us.

 

To descend into a different topic. I remember you talking about 4 Aco DMT and the spirits it resides. It was somewhat discussed that the 4 Aco DMT is laking the spirit of the mushroom, it could be that the drug while giving access to the sub/unconscious, it lacks the cultural symbols found in other mushrooms based on that fact that it is a new discovery. I must say however that on said drug I saw Vishnu and I call 4 Aco DMT and to some extent Psilocin to be the molecule of Vishnu. On cubensis I get alot of buddhist and hindu mythology, which makes sense as the mushroom is closely related to the proto iranian culture from which the vedas were born.

 

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts.

 

Your friend,

Moonless

[mrmushroomwolf]

Great job! Was this your first time with said variety? such a great yeild!
Those prints are quite lovely very cool geometric shapes!

My thoughts exactly. Those prints are a work of art.

[DonShadow]

Dear Don Shadow!

Ya know that is not too far off what some Natives of this land thought. During ceremonies it is thought that the collective will of the ancestors would be able to communicate with the participants. On the other side (some white people theories) it is said that psychedelics are a matrix of information, when you take the mushroom or LSD for example, not only are you downloading the conscious of LSD or shrooms, but the LSD is downloading your subconscious too. I am at a loss for who said this (maybe Kili Ilii, however from this idea we can extrapolate that psychedelics are a collective experience of all that have tripped before us.

To descend into a different topic. I remember you talking about 4 Aco DMT and the spirits it resides. It was somewhat discussed that the 4 Aco DMT is laking the spirit of the mushroom, it could be that the drug while giving access to the sub/unconscious, it lacks the cultural symbols found in other mushrooms based on that fact that it is a new discovery. I must say however that on said drug I saw Vishnu and I call 4 Aco DMT and to some extent Psilocin to be the molecule of Vishnu. On cubensis I get alot of buddhist and hindu mythology, which makes sense as the mushroom is closely related to the proto iranian culture from which the vedas were born.

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts.

Your friend,
Moonless

I get a lot more out of reading fiction, indigenous perspectives, and the sacred texts from ancient cultures than I do from reading contemporary western approaches to psychedelics, though admittedly I haven't read a huge amount of any of those. From what I've gathered, it seems clear to me that the literature left behind by ancient cultures was conjured by people who understood that reality is governed by a consistent underlying pattern that repeatedly cycles throughout all times and on all scales, and this is reflected both within and without. It may seem like our world is in certain ways more advanced than that of ancient civilizations, but this may be more due to the magnifying effect of the ego as it separates and divides reality into smaller and smaller parts (the technological shell that protects us and divides us). I believe in the notion that reality ebbs and flows toward stages or plateaus of development, followed by periods of decline that erode redundancy and resurrect the core pattern when it becomes forgotten.

I don't know if this is true, but my intuition tells me that a child will typically emulate the good characteristics of its parents, and weed out the bad traits. In a mate it will also seek these good characteristics and integrate the novel characteristics accrued by their lineage. What this means is that the child and mate will be better adapted to their environment than both sets of parents, and will possess the combined accumulated knowledge of both lineages. It's perfectly normal for a person to seek a mate who possesses the good qualities of their parents, in fact, I'd say it's quite healthy to do so. We do it unconsciously anyway.

This basic pattern seems to exist everywhere in nature, and is represented quite elegantly in the Fibonacci sequence, which is defined as a set of numbers in which each is the sum of the preceding two. 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21... Father + Mother = Child. Combining the old (the eternal) with the new (the temporal), seems to be the axis of reality.

As for mushrooms and their role in history... while it does interest me, I feel like I've got the message. The mushroom seems perfectly capable of delivering that message without poring over books. I'm much more interested in what mushrooms can do for humanity today, right now, without any preconceptions whatsoever. I don't want to understand it anymore, in fact I feel foolish for making attempts to quantify it even in recent posts here. At this point all that really matters to me is that I learn to love other people and behave in a manner that mirrors the character of God.

Edited by DonShadow, 29 June 2019 - 03:10 PM.

[Moonless]

I have inherited negative traits from my parents, I am able to see it as a problem in myself as I got to be an outside observer to my parents personality traits which only caused them grief. I feel like it is my mission to become better than they were, to overcome their short comings for them as they might not be able to overcome in this life. They've put so much work into me in the hope that I would be able to fight the battles which they lost.

 

The myth of Osiris and Horus come to mind. Osiris the king of the underworld was unable to defeat Set god of chaos, however his son Horus (one who is above) was able to overcome his fathers short comings. Horus avenged his father by killing Set, he then shared the bounty and revived his father.

Edited by Moonless, 29 June 2019 - 07:57 PM.

[DonShadow]

I have inherited negative traits from my parents, I am able to see it as a problem in myself as I got to be an outside observer to my parents personality traits which only caused them grief. I feel like it is my mission to become better than they were, to overcome their short comings for them as they might not be able to overcome in this life. They've put so much work into me in the hope that I would be able to fight the battles which they lost.

The myth of Osiris and Horus come to mind. Osiris the king of the underworld was unable to defeat Set god of chaos, however his son Horus (one who is above) was able to overcome his fathers short comings. Horus avenged his father by killing Set, he then shared the bounty and revived his father.

I'm sure many of us can relate, since we are doing the work of overcoming the frivolous Christian attitudes toward psychedelics. My father has worked his whole life trying to heal the sick, and most of his patients suffer because of past trauma. Possibly the most effective tool for mending trauma is the tool he has, until very recently, rejected outright. I know that my effort to learn about mushrooms was an unconscious attempt to help my father, and to find love.

Edited by DonShadow, 29 June 2019 - 09:11 PM.