How To Use A Magic Mushroom Spore Syringe

If you choose to grow magic mushrooms at home, there are a number of options available to you. Perhaps you’ve already tried grow kits and are ready to graduate to something more involved. Or maybe you're just fascinated by mushroom cultivation and want to oversee the entire process from spore to fruit body.

Either way, a spore syringe is essential for almost all cultivation setups. In this article, we’ll look at exactly how to use one to grow psilocybin mushrooms.

Why choose magic mushroom spore syringes?

Magic mushroom spore syringes are a key piece of kit for anyone looking to cultivate magic mushrooms at home. Without psilocybin spores, there can be no psilocybin mushrooms. And a spore syringe covers all bases when it comes to magic mushroom cultivation; whether you want to directly inoculate a substrate, use agar, or make a liquid culture, a spore syringe is necessary in each of these endeavours.

If you don’t order a spore syringe, you’ll need to make one at home, so buying one from a trusted source ensures high-quality spores and a sterile start.

Also, there’s also no need to worry about them going off. If stored correctly, spore syringes can last up to a year or more.

How to use your spore syringe

Using a spore syringe is pretty easy, though it still pays to be careful and, most of all, clean! Once you get into magic mushroom cultivation, you’ll develop a whole new view on hygiene. Magic mushroom mycelium grows in the perfect environment for mould and bacteria, so it’s important to ensure that only the desired spores make it onto your substrate.

Preparation

First, you’ll need to prepare your space, the syringe, and the substrate. As mentioned, a large part of this will involve cleaning. Wipe the walls and surfaces, wash your hands, and wear sterile gloves; you’ll even need to pressure cook your jars and substrate to ensure that you’re inoculating a genuinely sterile environment.

Regarding the syringe itself, you’ll need to attach the needle. For the first use, do this as late as possible, as it reduces the risk of contamination. Nevertheless, it’s worth holding the needle in a flame before you inoculate, as this will kill off any mould spores or bacteria that have found their way onto it.

You might choose to build or buy a still air box, or even a laminar flow hood if you’re getting serious about mushroom cultivation. These, once again, are designed to reduce the likelihood of contamination and increase the successful colonisation of a substrate.

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Inoculation

Once everything is ready, it’s time to inoculate. But the process will differ depending on what you’re inoculating.

PF tek inoculation

Perhaps the most popular form of magic mushroom cultivation utilises the PF tek. This involves creating a substrate mix and storing it inside jars. These jars are then inoculated, and the mycelium colonises inside the sealed jar.

To inoculate:

1. 1Pressure cook the jars and substrate to sterilise them.
2. Replace micropore tape (if used) on jar lids.
3. Heat the needle of your spore syringe in a flame and let it cool.
4. Inject around 4ml of spore solution into each jar. You should distribute this over multiple holes, and try to get it down the inside of the jar so it spreads better.
5. If using micropore tape, replace it again once you remove the needle.
6. If the solution isn’t empty, store it again for later use.

Grow bag inoculation

You might also choose to inoculate a ready-made grow bag. These pieces of kit make life very easy and tend to yield reliable results.

To inoculate:

1. Heat the needle in a flame and let it cool.
2. Push the needle through the self-healing injection port and inject around 4–5ml of solution.
3. Store for later use.

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Agar inoculation

You can also inoculate the gelatinous substance agar with Psilocybe spores.

To inoculate:

1. Heat the needle in a flame and let it cool.
2. Push the needle a few millimetres into the agar.
3. Inject around 1ml.
4. Store syringe for later use.

Cultivation

Once you’ve inoculated, you need to wait for the mycelium to fully colonise the substrate, and then for the mushroom fruit bodies to grow.

Depending on the substrate used, the volume of it, and the environment, colonisation can take weeks to months. The optimal temperature for Psilocybe mycelium growth is around 27ºC. During this time, you should see a white, cotton wool-like substance forming and spreading over the substrate—this is Psilocybe mycelium. If anything else starts to grow, then it’s contaminated and you’ll have to discard that particular substrate (except with agar, where you can cut contaminated parts away).

Once a substrate is fully colonised, you’ll need to cold-dunk it and then open it up to light so that mushrooms can begin to form. At this stage, you still need to keep things very sterile; the danger has not fully passed.

Use either a shotgun fruiting chamber or a fruiting bag/tent to maintain adequate conditions for your mushrooms. They require a temperature of around 23–27ºC and a relative humidity of 90%. You should soon see pins forming on the mycelium; these are the first stages of fruit body growth. Over a day or two, these should then shoot up into mature magic mushrooms.

It’s important to harvest them before the veils on the undersides of the caps drop and release spores onto the substrate, which would inhibit further mushroom growth.

Once you’ve harvested all of the mushrooms and no new ones are developing, dunk the substrate in cold water for 24 hours and repeat the whole process. You can get around five or more flushes from a single substrate.

Start your shroom setup today

Growing magic mushrooms at home is an involved process, but it’s within the capabilities of everyone and is highly rewarding. Take a look at the Zamnesia Shroomshop to peruse our full collection of magic mushroom-related products. There’s something for growers of all levels there, so if you feel that a spore syringe and inoculation is too much for you, consider buying an already-colonised grow kit so that you can grow at home with ease.

Whatever you choose, good luck!

Max Sargent

Max has been writing for over a decade, and has come into cannabis and psychedelic journalism in the last few years. Writing for companies such as Zamnesia, Royal Queen Seeds, Cannaconnection, Gorilla Seeds, MushMagic and more, he has experience in a broad spectrum of the industry.

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