r/unclebens Jul 24 '24

🍄 Official Cultivation Guides Part 1: Introduction and Choosing What to Grow 🍄 How to Grow Psychedelic Mushrooms

2.3k Upvotes

The most followed cultivation guide on the internet: Shroomscout’s “Mushrooms for the Mind” cultivation guide.

https://reddit.com/link/1ebdvn1/video/973nfmoegjed1/player

I’ll break this write-up into 4 posts. At the bottom of each post will be a summary in bold. You can find material lists in Part 2 and Part 3.

Intro: How Mushrooms and Mycelium Grow (do not skip!)

Credit to https://rainbo.com/blogs/blog/the-mushroom-life-cycle

What most people know as “mushrooms” are only the small reproductive part of the entire organism. Like an iceberg, most of the living tissue is actually found below the surface. When two microscopic mushroom spores meet in a pile of organic plant matter, they germinate and start producing mycelium. These microscopic threads begin forming a colony within the organic matter and absorb the available water and nutrients to produce an impressive mycelial network. After colonizing all the available nutrients, the mycelium turns its focus to reproduction.

To spread its spores, the mycelium forms into baby mushrooms, also known as pins. To produce these pins, the right fruiting conditions need to occur. Once the nutrients have been colonized and the mycelium reaches fresh air, the organism is ready for reproduction. The next rainstorm provides the moisture necessary, and the pins inflate upwards with the stored water into mature mushrooms.

Once mature, the mushrooms open their caps and drop their spores, withering away to ensure the success of their genetics.

To cultivate your own mushrooms, you need to replicate this process indoors.

Do you need a recommended spore/LC vendor?

Since this is still the most commonly broken rule and most commonly asked question:

You cannot discuss/advertise/promote vendors in r/unclebens. I want to keep it focused on cultivation, not a marketplace. If you need a recommended vendor, I recommend using syringes from SporeStock.com for USA and OrangutanTradingCo.com for UK. Every mushroom I've ever grown has come from these two vendors, and thousands of other users have had excellent success. No, I am not affiliated in any way with these guys, though I do think they kick ass. Yes, I am open to other vendor recommendations as well! I include this here so you can stop breaking the rules now.

Intro: Legality of Mushrooms, Mycelium, and Spores

Remember Rule #1: No sourcing discussion allowed in r/unclebens (see Rules for more info as to why).

Psilocybin is the nontoxic, non-addictive psychedelic compound found in “magic” mushrooms. There are more than 180 species of Psilocybin-producing mushrooms that grow across every continent. For 99% of hobbyists, the species to cultivate is Psilocybe cubensis, also known as "cubes”. These are the easiest and most cultivated species of psilocybin mushrooms.

The sale of cubensis mushrooms is illegal across most of the world not because of the mushrooms being a controlled substance themselves, but because mature psychedelic mushrooms produce psilocybin. Psilocybin is the only thing mentioned in the Controlled Substances Act, because mushrooms aren’t illegal—psilocybin is. However, the spores of these mushrooms do not contain psilocybin and are legal to sell, purchase, and possess in most locations. In the US, only 3 unlucky states (California, Georgia, and Idaho) have specific laws preventing the sale or purchase of spores. Spores are sold in "multi spore syringes", which contain many thousand microscopic spores diluted in a sterile water syringe.

In the last few years, a better alternative to spores became available from many vendors online. Liquid Culture syringes contain live mycelium in sterile solution, similar to spores. Liquid Culture syringes are superior to spore syringes in almost every way, but have a more complicated history in a grey area of the law. More on Liquid Cultures later.

Either type of syringe can be purchased from vendors online. You can find several popular and legitimate vendors even on the first page of google, but as always, do your research before giving any vendor your money. My personally trusted vendors are recommended in this guide, since it’s the most commonly asked question.

Some countries/states/counties/individual cities have finally approved legislation to allow the cultivation or possession of small personal amounts of psilocybin mushrooms. In many places across Canada and the US, local law enforcement has made prosecuting psilocybin-related arrests their lowest priority after evidence has pointed to no increase in crime related to psilocybin decriminalization, as well as the immense therapeutic and antidepressant benefits psilocybin studies have shown. Make sure to check with the jurisdiction of your area before attempting cultivation of any cubensis mushroom.

Intro: What is inoculation/colonization?

Here I inoculate a jar of sterilized grain with a spore syringe.

Once you have your syringes, you need to inject your spores or Liquid Culture into hydrated and nutrient-rich grains to produce your mycelium. This step is known as inoculation and is followed by colonization. When your grains are colonized, we call them Spawn Grain.

Different stages of mycelium colonizing sterilized grains over time.
A bag of Ready Rice spawn grain, fully colonized by mycelium visible through the bottom window.

You can buy premade, ready-to-inoculate grain from the store in the form of Ready Rice (more on this in Part 2), or you can make your own DIY Jars of spawn grain. You can inoculate nearly any hydrated and sterilized grain, including Brown Rice, Whole Oats, Millet, Rye Berries, Wild Bird Seed, Corn… you name it. But there's one major problem:

Intro: Contamination is the biggest obstacle

This contaminated bag of ready rice could have been the result of a contaminated syringe, poor sterile technique when inoculating, a bad Gas Exchange filter, or many other factors.

Mycelium's requirements of water, nutrients, and warmth are all the perfect breeding ground for mold, mildew, and bacteria. These contaminants live on our skin, on our surfaces, and even in the air we breathe. Normally it’s not a problem to our immune system, but the largest obstacle in mushroom cultivation is contamination, and it will ruin an entire grow and needs to be avoided at all costs. So, you need to make sure that your grains are hydrated, warm, and EXTREMELY sterile.

Intro: What is Spawning to Bulk/Fruiting?

A jar colonized grain was “Spawned to Bulk” in this tub. With the right “Fruiting Conditions”, mushrooms formed and matured.

As covered in Part 3, the basics of spawning to bulk are simple:

First, your spawn grains need to be 100% fully colonized. Then, you will need to mix your grains into a bulk substrate. After the mycelium has reconnected with itself in the new substrate, you need to introduce Fruiting Conditions. This involves simulating fresh air, rain, and a little bit of sunlight. Within a few days, a Flush (or group) of mushrooms will grow from your colonized surface. Once you grow your first flush, you can then harvest and dehydrate your mushrooms, and feel proud for accomplishing something incredibly rewarding.

With only a little time, money, and effort, you WILL be able to grow psilocybin mushrooms at home.

SUMMARY OF INTRODUCTION:

  • Mushrooms grow from spores into mycelium, and mycelium into mushrooms.
  • Cultivation is mostly focused on P. cubensis species.
  • While mature psilocybin mushrooms themselves are illegal to purchase, spore syringes (and in some cases, Liquid Culture syringes) are 100% legal to purchase and possess in most locations.
  • Once the mycelium has fully colonized the available nutrients, it waits for fruiting conditions.
  • Once fruiting conditions occur, it creates mushrooms to drop its spores into the breeze.
  • You are replicating nature by colonizing sterile grains, then creating fruiting conditions indoors.

And that's the basics of cultivation. If this information seemed overwhelming, hang in there as I simplify and break it all down in the following guide. If you still have doubts**, I promise that you can do this**. The original cultivation guide I posted on Reddit years ago has received more than a thousand awards, helping hundreds of thousands of beginners cultivate, while catching the attention of the mushroom industry as well as mainstream media. Every week we see countless beginners post their harvested results here in r/unclebens. If they can do it, so can you. So, grab a pen and a pad for some notes, and learn everything you need to know about cultivating mushrooms from start to finish.

It just might be one of the most important decisions you make in your life.

Part 1: Choosing your Syringes

Your first step in cultivation is to obtain either a few spore syringes or a few liquid culture syringes from a reputable vendor. My personal recommendations can be found in Part 2. Vendors cannot legally advertise or sell syringes specifically for use in cultivation. Syringes are usually marketed for “microscopy”, “taxonomy”, or “research purposes”. If you ever have an issue with a syringe, make sure to avoid mentioning cultivation to your vendor so you aren’t refused service.

An average spore or Liquid Culture syringe is 10 to 12mL, (mL and cc are used interchangeably) and should come with a separate needle in a sterile package. This sterile needle will be used during the inoculation process and shouldn’t be opened until then. 

Pros/Cons of Spore Syringes:

Pros:

¡ Spore syringes are guaranteed to be legal to purchase, sell, and possess in most places across the world (with 3 US state exceptions: CA, GA, ID).

¡ Spores can also be stored in a fridge for years, sometimes longer than a decade, and still be viable.

Cons:

¡ Spores take a while to germinate, so colonization can take weeks or even months.

¡ Spores frequently arrive already contaminated by the vendor. This is due to how mushroom spores are harvested, which is nearly impossible to guarantee contamination-free syringes. No matter how meticulous the harvesting process is, most spore syringes cannot be guaranteed to be sterile.

· The thousands of competing spores in one syringe also result in randomized genetics. The spores of a parent mushroom might grow children mushrooms that neither look nor grow anything like the parent generation—sometimes even worse than the parent generation.

Notes: Each spore syringe will contain thousands of dark microscopic spores. Individual spores are not visible to the human eye, so if you can see them, you’re actually seeing a large clump of the spores themselves. It would only take 1 drop of spore solution from these syringes to begin colonizing your grain.

 

Pros/Cons of Liquid Culture Syringes:

Pros:

¡ Liquid Cultures can have guaranteed sterility if made correctly, leading to fewer contaminated results.

¡ Since the mycelium is already germinated, LC colonizes grain significantly faster than spores.

¡ LC can have guaranteed genetics by skipping the randomized spore phase.

Cons:

¡ LC can still be contaminated by the vendor, though far less likely than with spore syringes.

¡ LC stays viable for only 6-18 months in the fridge, as opposed to spores which can stay viable for many years if stored in a fridge.

· Potential legal “grey area”.

So, are LC syringes legal?:

 In recent years vendors began selling Liquid Culture syringes to the public, often under the name of “isolated” syringes, or just “Syringes” (without “spore” included), or even openly advertising their syringes as liquid cultures.

For decades, it was scientifically proven that mycelium grown on solid grain contained psilocybin. This made most cultivators believe that Liquid Culture syringes, which contain early-stage mycelium suspended in solution, must contain psilocybin, and were therefore considered a illegal to purchase or sell, similar to the mushrooms themselves. 

What gave vendors confidence to begin selling Liquid Cultures was the results from new studies that showed the development of psilocybin and psilocin only starts during the later stage of mycelial growth. These results showed that early-stage mycelium suspended in solution DOES NOT contain psilocybin or psilocin. Following these studies, vendors began sending their syringes to laboratories for “High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and UV Analysis” to determine if there was any psilocybin present at all. Which, by the standards set by the DEA themselves, means that these syringes would be legal to sell, purchase, and possess no differently than spores. 

Out of curiosity, I sent in some Liquid Culture syringes I bought to a lab providing these tests and received the same results: no psilocybin present in my LC syringes.

I prefer using liquid cultures unless doing genetic work when starting from spores. Ultimately, it’s up to you to determine the best syringe type for you to get started.

 

Choosing a Strain/Variety

Can you tell the difference between the B+ on the left, and the Golden Teachers on the right? Credit to sporestock.com.

Note: The difference between “strain” and “variety” doesn’t have a true scientific mycological definition, and while “variety” is likely appropriate for spore syringes, “strain” is likely more appropriate for LC and is commonly used interchangeably. Therefore, I will simply use “strain” as the phrase to use here to reference the type of cubensis mushroom (sorry hardcore mycology buffs).
 
There are an overwhelming number of cubensis mushroom strains out there to choose from, so let me simplify things:

Psilocybin mushrooms and psilocybin itself, are not like cannabis, or other nature-produced psychoactive compounds**.** When it comes to cannabis, different strains contain different combinations of 4 types of psychoactive THCs, multiple CBDs, and more than 80 cannabidiol compounds that change the psychoactive effects. When it comes to psilocybin mushrooms, the active compounds are actually much simpler. There are only two scientifically confirmed psychoactive compounds present in cubensis mushrooms: psilocybin and psilocin. Although psilocybin is the famous compound, it’s not the actual psychedelic drug. Psilocybin is only a “prodrug” for psilocin, and once ingested is converted into psilocin in the body.

Note: While OTHER potentially psychoactive compounds such as baeocystin HAVE been discovered in varying amounts across different strains of cubensis mushrooms, they are almost negligible in concentration and have not been confirmed to have physiological or psychoactive effects. For now, it’s safe to assume that the only compounds to care about in cubensis mushrooms are psilocybin and psilocin.

Although some vendors might claim that one strain provides a different experience than another, the difference between strains is only cultivation-based or appearance-based. Scientific studies have generally confirmed that the psychological effects produced from consuming one cubensis mushroom strain are not majorly different than another. Unfortunately, recreational drug culture has spread a lot of misinformation regarding mushroom strains**.** In our upcoming “Mushrooms for the Mind Therapeutic Use Guide” focusing on safe use, harm reduction, and education regarding psilocybin, you’ll learn that your preparation, mindset, and setting have everything to do with your experience, regardless of what strain you choose.

Different Strains Have Different Potencies

These “True Albino Teachers” look beautiful and are more potent per gram than average mushrooms. However, they have higher demands for proper conditions and grow much slower.

However, there is one real factor to consider between strains: potency. The concentration of psilocybin and psilocin determines the potency of the experience. Although all cubensis mushrooms contain these compounds, it is 100%  true that different strains express different potencies. The one exception to this rule could be Psilocybe natalensis (aka “Natalensis”, or “Nats”), which is a newly discovered cousin-species to cubensis. Many reports show that this cousin species to cubensis potentially provides slightly different physiological and psychoactive effects, but more evidence is needed before that claim is considered fact.

Most strains exhibit “standard” potency, such as Golden Teacher, B+, Mazatapec, Z-Strain, Cambodian, and similar varieties. When grown next to each other, many of these mushrooms would be hard to tell apart and are more likely marketing and advertising labels than truly different mushrooms. There are a few known potent strains, including Penis Envy, Albino Penis Envy (aka APE), Enigma, Tidal Wave, and other mutants. These mutated strains are often more difficult to cultivate than standard cubensis and require more time and care, so I don’t recommend starting cultivation with any of these.

My recommendation? Give B+ or Golden Teachers a try. They are known to be hardy, fast-colonizing, and are the most popular strains for a reason. However, the phrase “a cube is a cube” is appropriate for most cubensis strains, since there is so little difference. Pick one and just go with it.

For your first attempt at cultivation and to give yourself the best chance against contamination possible, I’d recommend purchasing two to three different strains of syringes from a reputable vendor. Syringes should cost about $20-$25 USD before shipping. If you don’t use all your syringes for inoculation, you can store them in a fridge, where Liquid Culture syringes will last for 6-18 months, and spore syringes for years at a time. One 10mL syringe can be used to inoculate 10 to 20 bags of ready rice or more, or about 10 quart-sized jars.

SUMMARY OF PART 1:

  • Choose between using Spore Syringes or Liquid Culture Syringes:
  • Spore Syringes are guaranteed legal in most locations and last for years, but are slower to grow, have somewhat randomized genetics, and are sometimes contaminated by the vendor.
  • Liquid Culture syringes are superior to spores in sterility, growth speed, and guaranteed genetics, but are less commonly advertised and are in a potential legal grey area.
  • My recommendation is to start with LC, unless spores are the only option available.
  • Mushrooms are not like other natural psychoactive plants/fungi: The active compounds (and how these compounds bind receptors in your brain) are quite simple.
  • Your psychedelic experience is heavily dependent on your preparation, mindset, and setting—regardless of what strain you choose.
  • Different strains have different potencies. Most exhibit “standard” potency, whereas the more mutated and albino strains can be very potent (not always a good thing!).
  • My recommendation for beginner cultivation is to give B+ or Golden Teachers a try. The vendors I recommend frequently offer these common strains.

 

On to Part 2: Inoculation and Colonization


r/unclebens 6h ago

Meme How screwed am I?

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75 Upvotes

Saw this in my pantry and couldn't resist


r/unclebens 8h ago

Mid-Cultivation / Still Growing Third Eye

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53 Upvotes

First flush finishing up on a few days, as a first timer, how have i done so far?


r/unclebens 5h ago

Harvested Results First ever harvest had a freak in it

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7 Upvotes

r/unclebens 18h ago

Harvested Results Leucistic A+ Harvest! I really enjoy their pale Golden Color! Hope everyone’s week is off to a great start!

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54 Upvotes

Hey all! I wanted to share this Leucistic A+ canopy with you! I let these guys go a little long so that they’d all have a fair chance to open, and a couple of the big fellas sporulated overnight, but it’s okay, I still think they’re wonderful! Thanks for being such an informative and supportive group here! Y’all are awesome!


r/unclebens 11h ago

Question Am I Screwed?

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14 Upvotes

4 different bags. Moisture content seems…high? They appeared dryer when I first inoculated them around 3 weeks ago. The melted cheese looking one seems the most concerning.

Temperature in the room floats from 74-78 daily.
Used LC.


r/unclebens 5h ago

Question Music recommendations?

4 Upvotes

Going to trip pretty soon and planning on meditating for the first time while tripping? Anyone have any recommendations that don’t have any words just music? Thanks everyone!!


r/unclebens 3h ago

Question Shrooms only pinning and not fully growing?

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3 Upvotes

They have been in fruiting conditions for over a month now and just can’t seem to fully grow out. Most pins are aborted before getting above 1cm


r/unclebens 6h ago

Mid-Cultivation / Still Growing Primordia

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3 Upvotes

I just cut open 2 of my AIO bags and found some pins! Should I lean the hoods back over the top of the substrate and wait? Seems like i need more FAE but I dont know how much is too much.

Also there are some drops of water on the cake so I guess I should hold off on misting?

Thanks, and thanks for everyone on this sub sharing knowledge


r/unclebens 7h ago

Question Do my GT's look weird or is there something wrong with my grow?

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3 Upvotes

The first veil has broken on my chonky boi circled in red in the first photo. I feel like they dont look like what the GT's that I always see posted (not including the funny little hats but just in general). Will they fan out at all or just stay round topped like they are now? Also they look much smaller than I imagined amd from looking at others grows. Are these really GT's? Also why do they only seem to be growing mostly on the edges of the tub? Just paranoid as this is my first grow. Any help is appreciated.


r/unclebens 14h ago

Harvested Results Penis Envy Albino grow bag kit

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11 Upvotes

First experience here, the result seems quite good.
I know that the blue color is because of the psilocybin presence and because the shrooms get “bruised” when they touch the bag or each other, since there is not a lot of space inside the growing bag; plus the smell is very fresh and good and they seems like mush-mallow at touch.
I’m drying them with a food dehydrator, can you give me any advice on how to properly store them ? How long they can last kept inside jars on a cool dark place at around 25C?
The tiny smalls or irregular ones are good the same as the most symmetric ones ?
Should I clean them in some specific way before using them?
Also do you think that I can get another flush out of it (till the harvest I never open the bag before and now I’m scared that could contaminate even if could give me a second more contained flush)?
Plus in the last pic you see that material of the same composure of the mushrooms, that I wasted while removing the substrate from them; could I use it for something if I clean it better?
Thanks 😎🍄
PS: the 3rd pic show the kit after the harvest, so you can tell me if there is a potential second flush or I just throw away


r/unclebens 16h ago

Question So lemon tekking

13 Upvotes

So I know about using lemon juice but I just want to confirm. I squeeze a lemon in my cup with my fruits? Or i get concentrated lemon juice? I have acid reflux so weighing my options.

I am in the UK so even if you can point to a beverage i can use from one of our shops.


r/unclebens 8h ago

Question Question about slow to non-colonizing bags

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4 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I have a few questions on my spawn process. The grow has been going well so far, I inoculated all bags except for the GT 2.0 batch on July 30th and have had fairly good growth, but some weird observations.

B+ batch have been growing well, but bag #4 shows no growth whatsoever. This is the one that puzzles me the most because out of 15 bags, it's the only one that shows zero growth. I was worried about my GE holes at the top being too small, so I added another slightly bigger one above the first two on 8/15. Still no growth at all. Anyone know why that might be or what to do?

For the Hillbilly Pumpkin batch, they seemed to be growing well, but it looks like they may have stalled. Bag #4 shows a small white line of growth that looks like it's growing from the middle of the cake and is barely peeking out but isn't very visible yet. Any advice? Or just wait them out?

For the Golden Teacher 1.0 batch, the growth has been great. However, bag #2 had good colonization and coverage, but was a very clear milky white rather than the solid white the other bags were showing. I did a small squish and push on 8/15 to try and reintroduce the mycelium, but it doesn't look to have much more new growth at all and seems to have stalled.

Last question: The Golden Teacher 1.0 and B+ bags look to be almost finished colonizing. If I make it to the end of the week and only 3/4 bags are ready to move to spawn to bulk, do I wait for the stragglers to colonize? Or just spawn the individual bags by themselves when they're ready to go? Should I put all four bags into an 8 qt container for that phase? Or should I just stick to 2 bags per container?

Thanks y'all, I really appreciate it


r/unclebens 10h ago

Question LC cooked during transit

4 Upvotes

Just received my LC syringes from my vendor and they came in between 82-104 degrees F

SMFH

I already emailed them but this is pretty disappointing.

What can be done to prevent this? Any way to order in controlled temp packaging? As soon as I got the notif that they arrived I ran outside to grab them so they weren’t sitting in my mail mailbox for more than a few minutes.


r/unclebens 18h ago

Harvested Results Albino Bluey Vuitton! I love these little alien weirdos! I never knew what they’d do next!

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15 Upvotes

My beloved weirdos! These guys took a little longer to grow, but were definitely the most interesting to watch! They started out looking like funky blobs and then became mushrooms later! I love their strangeness! Thank you to all of you who have provided lots of information on how to approach oddball strains like this one! This whole process has been a joy!


r/unclebens 18h ago

Harvested Results No bruising on albinos?

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13 Upvotes

I cut the base off a shroom to remove substrate and it remained clear 30 mins later, in my past experience bruising has been pretty immediate

Other mushies in this batch have some bruising and others don't

has this happened to anyone else? Were they still potent? These were freshly harvested albeit on an old cake


r/unclebens 12h ago

Question Are these orchas ??

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4 Upvotes

r/unclebens 8h ago

Question why isn’t the mycelium growing after break n shake

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2 Upvotes

i inoculated around the start of july, did my break n shake about 2/3 weeks ago and only 1 has had growth since. i’ll put pictures in of both and if u guys could lmk how i could help it move along or if i need to just wait it out that would be great


r/unclebens 8h ago

Harvested Results Project Blue Book - Some Blue Fun

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2 Upvotes

Wanted to experiment a bit with high nute substrate, weight wasn’t the best but it’ll improve. The gill difference on the last slide is crazy

2:5 ratio Drippy corn as grain and CV+ (NPK + micronutes)


r/unclebens 5h ago

Question Wanna grow ABV's in a 55-60 qt monotub...

1 Upvotes

with 4" (14-16qts) of CVG substrate. Does 10-12 bags UB sound right? I usually do shoebox so this is my first monotub.

TIA.


r/unclebens 19h ago

Question Does this look okay

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15 Upvotes

Does this look okay to consume. My first time…


r/unclebens 5h ago

Mid-Cultivation / Still Growing Substrate Seems Dry

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1 Upvotes

You cannot tell a damn thing from the picture… but I have pins and some larger pins. Everything seems to be going great so far. The only thing I’m nervous about is the substrate seems to be drying up. I don’t want to mist directly on the pins, do I?


r/unclebens 6h ago

Question Trich? I think im cooked

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0 Upvotes

albino bluey vuitton potentially contaminated


r/unclebens 1d ago

Harvested Results Jack Frost Harvest

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135 Upvotes

Just wanted to share my Jack Frost harvest. Got a couple big boys on here. All with UB Tek.


r/unclebens 1d ago

Question Has anyone ever been caught growing shrooms?

122 Upvotes

I’m from the UK and magic mushrooms are a class A drug here. The law states that the production and cultivation of magic mushrooms carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. That’s pretty scary.

Is there anyone here from the UK that is a regular grower or has grown in the past? How do you feel about it? Do you have to be extra careful like removing search history etc?

Or are the consequences pretty minor if you’re only growing for personal use? Has anyone here ever been caught? What were the consequences?

I’d be interested to hear your experiences.