! !
Part 4: Harvesting, Drying, and
Preparing for the Next Flush
Shroomscout’s Comprehensive
“Easiest Way to Learn Shroom
Growing with Uncle Bens Tek”
Instructions.
Shroomscout’s Official “Easiest Way to Learn Shroom Growing with
Uncle Bens Tek”
So, you want to grow magic mushrooms. You’re a bit confused, lost, or
overwhelmed by the whole process, the many different Teks, or even the
basics and where to start. You’ve come to the right place!
I’ll break this write-up into 4 main parts. At the bottom of each part
will be a summary in bold:
Part 1: Understanding how mushrooms and mycelium grow (Very
important, do not skip!)
Part 2: How to Inoculate Uncle Bens Bags (Inoculation &
Colonization)
Part 3: How to Spawn to Bulk (Fruiting)
Part 4: How to Harvest, Dry, and Prepare for next flush
(There will also be a TL;DR at the very bottom)
---------------------------------------------------
Part 4: How to Harvest, Dehydrate, and Prepare for the Next Flush.
HERE is the Video Version of this post!
Note: if your mushrooms have “fuzzy feet”, or grow “long and skinny”, it
means they didn’t have enough FAE. You really do need to provide
constant airflow, without drying anything out, to get healthy, full-sized
shrooms.
Once you get your full-grown mushrooms, it’s time to harvest. There are
two methods:
A) Twisting and Pulling, where you rip the mushroom from the
mycelium.
I tried this method on my first ever tub, but I was wrong. No
further flushes grew from/around the areas I ‘twisted and
pulled’ from, and it ruined half of my tub.
B) Slicing and leaving stumps.
IMO, this is the far superior method.
The stumps will quickly oxidize, turning slightly (or majorly)
blue. They make a good microclimate for future pins.
Here’s a picture of the stumps left behind. This user should
have cut the stumps much closer to the substrate. You want to
leave as little stump behind as possible.
If you didn’t modify your tub with holes, you can use BOD’s Floating
Harvest Tek to harvest your flushes.
1. Using clean tap water, or distilled/filtered water (I use my RO
water system), trickle in some water down the side/corner of
your tub.
1. As the water fills your tub, it should begin floating the entire
‘cake’ of substrate+mycelium to the top.
2. Take a precise pair of scissors (I use curved fly tying scissors), cut
your stumps as close to the substrate as possible.
1. Work from one corner in, then flip the tub around.
3. Don’t leave any pieces of mushrooms, or sliced pins, on the
substrate. They will rot if they’re not connected to the mycelium
network.
4. Rinse, wipe, or cut off any coco coir attached to your
mushrooms. I see a lot of users that leave their substrate on their
stems (even something that’s bad for your stomach like
vermiculite!). Clean your fruits off people!
"When do you harvest?" BEFORE the veil breaks, if possible.
See this site for great examples of perfectly picked mushrooms.
Once the veil breaks, three (speculated) things happen:
1. The mushroom no longer produces psilocybin anymore. It puts all of
its energy into dropping its spores. Potency may even decline. This
is speculated, and not scientifically confirmed (as far as I know).
2. The mushroom drops it’s spores. The spores are dark black and will
fall onto other shrooms, the walls, and the surface below. They can
suffocate healthy mycelium. DO NOT LET your mushrooms get this
far. If they do, they’re safe for consumption, but the dropped spores
can ruin your monotub.
3. Finally, the mushrooms and their caps begin to rot.
So, harvest before the veil breaks and spores drop!
Now you’ve harvested your tubs. "What now?"
Mushrooms are 85-95% water weight. Fresh fruits, when removed from
their mycelium, will begin rotting within 12-24 hours. You need to
dehydrate your harvests.
Here’s a video on a couple of methods. You can use a fan and a window
screen, Epsom salts, silica packets, or an oven (not recommended).
But, the holy grail of dehydrating is… a dehydrator!
If you plan on growing even a decent amount of shrooms, you should
invest in a dehydrator. Here’s the dehydrator I use, for $34. I also cut
some cheap fiberglass windowscreen to fit in the trays, because really
small fruits and pins I harvest would fall through the trays. It works
perfectly.
Psilocybin doesn’t lose potency until hotter temperatures. This is why an
oven is not recommended. A Fan+screen, silica packets, and a
dehydrator are all excellent ways to dehydrate at lower temperatures. I
usually run my dehydrator at 130*F overnight to dehydrate a harvest.
You want your dehydrated shrooms to be cracker-dry. They should
snap with little effort.
If you cannot dehydrate immediately, throw them in a container in the
fridge. They will last fresh for 1-3 days, but will rot quickly. DEHYDRATE
THEM, DAMNIT!
"How do I store my dried shrooms?"
In an airtight container, such as a rubber-gasket airtight glass jar. If you
throw in a silica packet or two, taped to the lid, your shrooms will stay
potent for YEARS. You can also vacuum seal fruits.
Store them away from light in a cool, dark, dry place. Some people go the
extra mile, with an airtight container, silica packets, and stored in the
fridge/freezer. I think that’s overkill, a jar and a silica packet will make
them last for a very long time.
I also put mine into capsules for microdosing and precise/easy trip doses.
See my video on how I make my microdosing capsules here.
"What do I do with my tub now? How do I prepare for another flush?"
Like I said, mushrooms are ~90% water weight. They just sucked all of
their water from their network up into their pins’ cells to make big
mushrooms. You need to simulate another rain, to rehydrate them!
If you used the floating harvest tek method to harvest, the
bottom/majority of the tub as already been soaking. Some people like
to weigh their monotub ‘cakes’ down underwater, with a rule of 1 hour for
every 1 inch deep substrate. It’s not a bad idea, but I can’t find a good
way to hold my cakes underwater for that long. Instead, I usually soak my
monotub cakes by floating them for a few hours, while misting the shit
out of the top until water pools. After 2-3 hours, I lightly hold the cake to
the bottom of the tub and pour out the remaining water into the disposal
drain. This has given me some awesome second flushes. Don't skip this
step, your cakes will be WAY too dry if you don't rehydrate them.
Second flushes are often smaller in number/frequency of shrooms, but
grow larger shrooms. 3rd and 4th flushes often only produce 1-5
MASSIVE fruits for me. It depends on your genetics and conditions.
Once you’ve rehydrated your substrate, flip the lid and crack it, and
prepare to see pins again soon!
Since coco coir doesn’t have many nutrients, there is nothing for
contamination to get ahold of. I’ve had a few tubs already go to their 6th
flush, producing fruits for 4 weeks straight now. Using clean, filtered RO
water might have something to do with that, but I’m not sure. Most tap
water is fine.
SUMMARY OF PART 4:
Harvest by cutting as close to the substrate as possible. The
stumps will not rot, and will leave a nice microclimate for the
next pins. DO NOT twist and pull.
Harvest before the veil breaks, or spores will make a mess in
your monotub.
If your tub is unmodified, you can float the cake to the top with
water. This also doubles as a method to rehydrate your
substrate, and is how I harvest my tubs.
Soak/rain/mist your monotubs to rehydrate them completely. I
wouldn’t leave any extra standing water, but it should be WET in
there so they can rehydrate after expending all of their water.
You NEED to dry (and try) out your harvests ASAP. A dehydrator,
set to 140F or lower overnight, is the perfect method, but there
are cheaper options.
Store in an airtight container, with a silica gel packet taped to
the top if possible.
You can make airtight microdose capsules.
Dried harvests should last years with minimal potency loss.
---------------------------------------------
TL;DR: ENTIRE Summary of Shroomscout’s Official “Easiest Way to
Learn Shroom Growing with Uncle Bens Tek”:
Mushrooms need to fully colonize nutritious grains, then
experience fruiting conditions.
We use Uncle Bens as a premade sterile grain source.
Inoculate your bags with a Multispore Syringe.
Let it colonize (and shake at 30%!).
Once fully colonized, spawn to bulk in a monotub.
Use 100% coco coir as the substrate, hydrated to field capacity,
with boiling water.
Make it 2-4” deep, with a 1/8”+ casing layer of coco coir.
Let it colonize the substrate a bit, then induce fruiting
conditions by cracking/flipping your lid.
Mist frequently enough to maintain proper moisture and
humidity. Don't over-mist.
Harvest the mushrooms before the veil breaks, but cutting and
leaving as little stump as possible.
Dehydrate them and store them in an airtight container.
Rehydrate your substrate and put back into fruiting conditions
for the next flush.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to ask questions!
You can see my results HERE.
[CLICK HERE for How to Make Microdosing Capsules (with links)]
