PSYLOCYBE FANATICUS MUSHROOM MUSEUM

PF home page - www.fanaticus.com

Psilocybe Cubensis spore race photos and descriptions

Where do these all come from? Actually, nobody knows. But what is certain, is that since the late 1950's, magic mushrooms (mainly Psilocybe Cubensis) have been cultivated around the world by thousands and thousands of people. With all of this having been done and being done now, it stands to reason that the great variety of different Cubensis spore races (varieties) that are going around today on the internet and in the magic mushroom spore "market", surface to the top.

There is a lot being made about how one "strain" is better than another. Acutally, they all seem to blend after awhile, especially if one has different races of dried cubensis on hand. They just become little piles of similar dried and twisted shrooms. But when they are growing, they have distinct characteristics that remain true with their cultivation.

In the following pages, the shroom race description will be "attempted" considering these obvious parameters:

1. CAP (size - shape stages - colors)
2. STEM (length - girth - flesh - colors)
3. VEIL (deliquescent - partly deliquescent - persistant anulus)
4. SPORULATION (at what developement stage does it begin?)
5. TENACIOUSNES (Strength of attachment of the stem base to the cake)
6. SHAPE SHIFTING (shapes and changes of flush to flush - strain to strain)
7. SIZE TENDANCIES (overall size of the mushroom at maturity)
8. GESTATION PERIOD (generalized time of primordia appearance after inoculation)
9. POTENCY (This simply comes down to how fast the shroom loses its latent potency - relating to the advent of sporulation)
10. FLUSHING (Ability to repeat flush)

All of these shrooms in the PF Shroom museum were grown identically - PF style in the "Richmans terrarium" - basically the PF neglect tek. No humidifiers or perlite layers were used to increase humidity. Only a couple of airings and mistings were done per day and sometimes less (neglect tek). Some have vermiculite casings on the tops and some are without. All have a "bottom" casing of wet perlite covered with vermiculite (in a jar cap) which keeps the cakes hydrated and adds to the humidity of the terrarium.

NOT ALL OF THE SHROOMS HEREIN HAVE SPORES FOR SALE BY PF.

This cubensis race study is part of the overall PF TEK and its use. Every Cubensis race apparantly grows well PF style. Then the next problem might be the question, "which one is the best"? The opinions are flying full force around the internet, but surely it will fade, because the real quality of these shrooms is not in what "strain" they are, but how they are grown, harvested, preserved and used. And this is in the hands of the cultivator. None of these Cubensis races have clearly emerged as the most potent. There has been plenty of hype by various spore sellers about how great their "strains" are, but all in all, they are all good. But they are also all DIFFERENT in many ways and the difference is mostly on how good they are as CULTIVARS which is translated as how fast they grow, how big and how many flushes they can deliver (with all growing parameters being equal).

PSYLOCYBE FANATICUS
November 2000