spiders

there are heaps! do a search under any of the mushrooms you wish to grow and you'll find tons of info. Especially shiitake, blazei, reishi and oysters - less so fo Hy.capnoides and other unusual species

a flush is when a fruiting cycle takes place and mushrooms form. The best method to grow Subaeruginosa is to germinate the spores on agar. If your looking for a simple idea, try germinating the spores in sterile malt water and then transfering the mycelia water into a sterile jar of wood mulch or pine woodchips. Subs do colonise spawn mediums like rye and brf, but its a bit of a waste of time - being woodlovers you can by-pass these easily contaminated mediums and colonise woodchips or cardboard

Baeocystin is pretty much a misnomer. It was first identified by a chemist looking for an alkaloid similar in activity to psilocybin/psilocin, but which could have more toxic effects. A girl reportedly ate a number of 'toadstools' in her garden in the US and after suffering vivid hallucinations, she developed symptoms similar to regular mushroom poisoning and died. The assumption was that it was a psilocybe mushroom that poisoned her. The identification of the mushroom was made incorrectly and when analysed, the mushroom in question - ps.Baeocystis - was found to contain high levels of a new alkaloid - baeocystis. Later it was concluded that her poisoning was caused by the consumption of mushrooms from the highly toxic Gallerina family.

ive read about this in the paper - people being busted for possession of what they believed to be es, when in actual fact they were hay-fever tablets. They still got done for it because of 'intent' or something of that nature.

Malaysia was very interesting - dog sized rats strung up in restaurant windows are always nice. No truly I loved Malaysia, but their government tends to have these laws - but enforcement is often lax. In Penang i was repeatedly offered heroin once right in front of a policeman who was too busy perving at western girls to care. The customs at entry from Singapore consisted of an old lady who took our entry tickets and that was it! We met a lot of homeless people over there all of whom could get no aid from their government at all. At mosques the homeless can obtain food only if they are muslim, otherwise they will receive nothing.

Torsten, do you think that the charges regarding cultivation will stick? Its a bit of a long shot, but i bet the guy incriminated himself.

If your growing native australian psilocybes it can be as easy as transplanting mycelia into an appropriate mulchy area.

Copelandias contain more psilocybin than psilocin so im not sure about your point there. Copelandia Cyanescens species from Australia and Cambodia have higher ratios of psilocin that variants found in Hawaii and Florida, but Gartz still found a higher ratio of psilocybin than psilocin. The Copelandias in Australia and Asia tend to oxidise more of their active alkaloids when bruised and dried than those from Hawaii, which is where the cultivated specimens in question were from originally (as a clone). In a specimen from Florida, .71% psilocybin to .04% psilocin was detected as quoted by Stamets. From personal experience of Australian and Cambodian Copelandia Cyanescens i can say that these mushrooms are still active after drying and after considerable bluing and handling.

Wow! There are similar tales posted in the past - from the US and Canada - on the shroomery and Forest Floor - they often seem to revolve around district police with nothing better to do.

Sporeworks and Mushmush have the best spore products on the market - always great genetics and always nice and dark. The hawks eye were very good, but I think they are having some troubles at present.

well i think his baggies were made for 500ml of water - i just guess the ratios usually as i doesnt matter if the nutrients are lower than the agar content, but too much agar inhibits growth.

big arse tuppaware work a treat! I even autoclave these

Id love to see some pictures - a gill fragment and some prints for Reville and myself would be a lovely bonus!!!!

Generally the most effective method is to spawn pasturized manure, straw or compost with colonised rye grain, millet or brf. Simple and easy - the mycelia will fly through compost and do well on a manure and verm mix as well. Straw is usually a little bit trickier, so i use a mix of h202 to help stop contamination. Generally mushrooms like Cubensis will not fruit until the substrate is fully colonised.

Nice link!

microwave sterilisation is questionable.

From reading my original post, I do concede that it is a bit irresponsible - and I do suggest that people remain silent or do not atleast incriminate themselves. However, depending on the situation, there are methods that can be employed to sway police officers themselves. Im not suggesting to taunt or patronise law enforcement as this will almost certainly turn a routine situation into prosecution. Just use your head. I understand what you are saying, but I trust in my friend's account. His mushroom related charges were dropped before court, whereas other charges were taken further. As for identification i believe it still has relevance and the case explained to me by John Allen in New Zealand is a prime example - not only of incorrect identification, but also that it was used to demonstrate the intent of the person being prosecuted.

Because mushrooms produce millions of spores of which only a few find the right conditions to germinate, colonise and fruit while the rest do not. When your cultivating mushrooms your are attempting to create conditions that are the same as in those few odd occasions in the wild when mushrooms grow. In order to guarantee better results it is important to take as many steps as possible to minimise the chance of introducing competitors into the environment.

John Allen has told me of a number of cases in Australia in the 1970s and 80s where individuals who have been caught by law enforcement with psilocybe Cubensis in NSW and charged. Australian Forensic analysists were not able to detect psilocybin or psilocin in these mushrooms despite many of those who were charged freely confessing that these mushrooms were for picked for their psychoactive compound. Those individuals who did not plead guilty had their cases dropped. A similar case involved an individual in New Zealand who was charged with possession of psilocybin/psilocin in a mushroom identified as Psilocybe Mexicanna. Doubt was cast on the individuals intention to procure psychoactive mushrooms, so law enforcement attempted to demonstrate that the mushroom was a known psychoactive species. Thirdly, identification is often used by law enforcement to prosecute individuals. As an example, agar cultures of psychoactive fungi contain psychoactive alkaloids but there have been no prosecutions in Australia of individuals for possession of these alkaloids because they were found with a culture. The particular case that you feel is a wank involves a moderator on the shroomery and someone i have known for a considerable period of time. The mushroom in question was Copelandia Cyanescens. He was found with a large bag of dried mushrooms when his car was checked by police and they asked him what type they were. He explained that they were a mushroom that he had picked for a friend who as studying mushrooms from Seattle. They doubted him, and radioed to their headquarters to find out if they had a 'identification kit' to which they were told that there was 'no kit available'. The cops took the baggie and arrested the person. They interviewed him for half an hour then released him after charging him for possession of a variety of substances. When he was notified to appear in court the charges of possession of psilocybin had been droped apparently because they could not ascertain if the mushrooms had held psychoactive properties at the time they were picked and this is what he was told.

sure ill talk to the person in question.

Hi WD - i still havent got your package. I wondering whether these wavy-caps are an existing species identified by Guzman or something new.

Recentally i started a post somewhere regarding Ps.Cyanescens being reported in Australia. The mushroom in question resembles Ps.Cyanescens in many ways and we endeavoured to have it identified. The gills of this mushroom were examined using KOH to determine its identity. As I have already posted, the mushroom displayed hyaline pluerocystidia shaped lageniform to ventricose - characteristics of native Australian psilocybes ps.Subaeruginosa, Ps.Eucalypta, and Ps.Australiana and not Ps.Cyanescens. Secondly, spore measurements from Reville and Workman at Sporeworks displayed similarities between the spores of the wavy cap and other Australian psilocybes - with a spore size larger than that of Ps.Cyanescens. Finally there is a marked difference in reports of the potency of the Aussie and NZ wavy-cap and that of Ps.Cyanescens (recentally found by John Allen and others to be the most potent mushroom in the world). General reports in Australia and New Zealand have found the wavy cap to be of similar or lesser potency to other Australian woodloving psilocybes and far lower than Ps.Cyanescens. A general high dosage of Ps.Cyanescens is suggested as dried 1 gram - 3-5 specimens whereas the high dosage for aussie wavy-caps is reported as 18-20+ fresh specimens.

Im not sure that law enforcement would use expensive forensic analysis to prosecute an individual who was carrying a small bag of dried questionable mushrooms. The VAST majority of prosecutions for possession of psychoactive fungi are due to - as Torsten has stated - the individual incriminating themselves. I too in reality would suggest that an individual say nothing to incriminate themselves, but there is historical basis for my claims. Actually there have been a number of cases in the past where individuals have questioned the identification of questioned mushrooms and this basis has been used to discredit the prosecutions case. Sure it is the active alkaloids themselves that are schedules, but this basis has been successfully utilised by soliciters in the past. A friend of mine in the US who was recentally being prosecuted for possession of psilocybin/psilocin argued that it could not be proven that the mushrooms in question had the psychoactive properties at the time they were picked. His charges were dropped despite being found with cultivated specimens.

well, if your caught, tell the police that you will only confess if they can properly identify the mushroom in question without contention, prove that the mushroom contains psychoactive alkaloids, prove that the mushroom contained these alkaloids when it was picked, and that your intent was to seek and acquire these mushrooms purely for their psychoactive properties. There are few people in Australia that would be qualified to properly identify the mushroom - and their identification would be contentious. According to Cleland they could be Ps.Subaeruginosa, whereas according to Guzman they could be Australiana/Eucalypta, etc. Tasmanian law enforcement were actually going to outlaw a species of mushroom (psilocybe collybiodes) that is only found in Argentina obviously oblivious to this fact. Any defense would have to focus on this point to discredit their charges. There are also few people in Australia that would be able to conduct the chemical analysis required to prove that the mushroom specimens that were found in the individuals possession contained psychoactive alkaloids. Another issue is that no analysis of these mushrooms has been able to adequately pinpoint when the mushrooms actually develop these psychoactive characteristics. Maybe they developed these after you picked them!?!

Due to a recent email that has concerned me, i have decided to stop trading these items indefinately [This message has been edited by bluemeanie (edited 29 June 2002).]