Does it matter if the ground freezes solid during the winter?
No, it doesn't matter. Here in Austria the winter temperatures go up to - 20°C for short periods of time, usually it's a few degrees below 0°C for about 3 months in winter. The mycelium is pretty hardy and once the bed is established and colonized it survives pretty cold temperatures. Just to be sure, you can cower the bed with a new layer of chips or straw or cardboard before winter.
I am not in one of the hardiness zones, should I give it a shot?
If you are in a hardiness zone less than 5, you could potentially still have success by letting the substrate colonize outdoors during the summer, and then move it indoor in a cold cellar when the temperatures fall under the freezing point.
This has been done in the past and it worked.
Check this:
Materials needed:
Mycelium of azurescens
Wood chips ( i don´t know which wood i got it from the saw mill)
Rye
Water
Pressure cooker
trays (I took some made of polystyrene)
jars (with filter lids --> tyvek works great!)
maybe a syringe (for mycelium syringes)
wet Cardboard (put the cardboard in COLD water for 15 min.)
A Bush?!?
)
a terrarium
a glas or a plastic lid for the terrarium
I got this strain in Mai from "Lisa" (a friend of mine) and made some mycelium syringes.
First i took about 2 kilograms of rye and boiled it in water (1-1.5 hours) till they have enough water content. I put the grains into 8 jars and inoculated them with the liquid mycelia. About two weeks later the jars were fully colonized.
I took the colonised jars and mixed them !!unsterile!! with wood chips (the wood chips were soaked in water for 1 day) in a polystyrene (we call this "styropor" i dunno if there´s the same word in english) tray. The trays are ´bout 60x40cm (-> 23,6x 15,7 inches)
I put the trays outdoor with a lid (no light to the mycelium) and added water every 2 weeks. In the end of juni the wood chips were fully colonized. I was wondering how fast the mycelium grew!!!
I took some wood chips and put them on a wet cardboard to have some mycelia in automn:
This is the outdoor Tek:
I placed the trays (without lid of course!) under a bush and watered them if needed.
In the end of september/begin of Oktober the first shrooms grew.
I made a few pics:
Then there was nothing till halloween......
On 31th Oktober the second flush began to fruit:
These little babies are still growing!!!
It is not as difficult as i thought.....
Now the INDOOR TEK:
I placed one tray into my terrarium added some water (for the humidity I think some water also becomes vapor by this temperatur).
Here´s a pic of my Indoor setup:
The terrarium is placed in my cellar where the temperatur is as cold as outside ´cause of the broken window .
On the 2nd of Nvember the indoor tray also began to fruit (only a few magic Mushrooms but better a few than no magic mushrooms):
It's June already, can I still inoculate the outdoor bed?
You can begin anytime of the year.
If you plant the bed outdoors too late, it simply won't fruit this year, but if you add some fresh wood material in the Spring next year, it will fruit in the Autumn of the next year. Better start now than be late next year again.
Would it be a good idea to cover the bed with cardboard to keep it moist?
Yes, you can do this through the hot summer, although it is not essential. Definitely uncover it in Autumn.
How often should I water the patch?
Depends on the weather. If it rains at least one a week in the summer, you probably won't have to water it at all. Water it in times of prolonged droughts. Best what you can make though is to choose the location of the patch wisely, somewhere in deep shadow, possibly along a creek where the conditions are naturally moist throughout the year.
It is also important to not over-water . The bed should be moist 1 or 2 inches below the surface all the times for fast colonization , but don't let it sit in water.
If you keep the bed moist, the colonization will speed up considerably. In drier conditions the colonization will take longer.
I had a couple of patches that I didn't water at all throughout a very dry summer, and they still fruited, wood lovers are quite hardy.
is the point of being outdoors is to have the full environment?
Yes, the point of colonizing them outdoors is to expose them to natural conditions. It seems as they profit greatly from this, since "normal" indoor cultivation attempts are very hard to successfully accomplish.
Does my patch need a casing layer?
The wood lovers don't need a casing layer, but it is possible to apply one, and it might be beneficial.
I like to make my patches in form of several parallel long channels each around 20 cm broad with 10 cm space in between. This way the mycelium is in contact with soil which it obviously benefits from, most fruits come from the area where the wood chips have contact with soil. Some fruits also occur away from the patch in soil covered with growing grass.
Is indoor cultivation of Psilocybe azurescens possible?
Yes, it is possible , but one needs a dedicated controlled environment. Here is how it can be done:
First I have prepared mycelium on a sterilized wheat grain by inoculating it from mycelium on agar. After the grain was colonized I inoculated alder chips (not sterilized, soaked during 2-3 day in water) with this colonized grain.
The alder chips were dried chips, I bought them in a shop, they are used for smoking fish etc.
