Get ready to grow some very special mushrooms outdoors! The cultivation kit contains substrate inoculated with the mycelium of the famous Psilocybe Azurescens, a wood loving mushroom. Since it is wood loving, its favorite substrate is wood chips so, you will need a bag of wood chips, water, a cardboard box (30 x 30 x 15cm) or cardboard pieces and a nice little place in your garden that does not receive direct sunlight.
5 to 10 L of wood chips will give a nice mushroom patch that you can care for and grow beautiful mushrooms every year, you just need to have a bit of patience with these little beauties.
Procedure
Get a plastic container (preferably with a lid) and fill it with most of the wood chips. You should leave some space for the mycelium you will add so, do not fill it completely. You should spare some wood chips for later.
Fill the container with boiling water to submerse the wood chips. Cover it and leave it to cool down (at least 12 hours).
Drain all the water out.
Carefully, take the substrate of the grow kit from the box and break up the mycelium over the wood chips. With a clean spoon or fork, evenly mix the mycelium with the wood chips.
Cover the mix with a piece of wet cardboard. Do not press it, it should fall gently on top of the wood chips so it allows some fresh air to get in. The mycelium needs air to grow.
Let it sit for around 30 days in a clean space, so the mycelium can inoculate all the wood chips (it is very easy to see when it is fully inoculated, all the wood chips are pearly white).
Place the remaining wood chips from step one into a large container and submerse them in boiled water for around 12 hours. After it cools down, drain all the water out.
You are now ready to take your kit outdoors.
If you are using a cardboard box: combine the inoculated wood chips and the wet wood chips in the card box and mix it with a clean spoon. Take the box out to the place you selected in your garden and bury it, leaving it open. Make sure that it does not get any direct sunlight.
If you only have some cardboard pieces: mix the inoculated wood chips and the wet wood chips in a clean container. Choose a place in the garden away from direct sunlight. You can get some stones and delimit a bed with a size that will allow the wood chips to have some height. Fill the whole bottom of the bed with the pieces of cardboard (you can even place them at the sides against the stones) and spread the mixture evenly on top of it.
If possible, add a thin layer of soil over it (around 1 cm) to give your mushroom patch the best care possible.
Maintenance
The thing you should pay more attention is if the patch is always moist.
If the location is good the mushroom patch will never dry out and can be left alone most of the year.
You can check if it by poking your finger in the substrate once in a while. If it is dry you should water the patch, if it is still moist you can leave it alone.
You should not use any chemicals or fertilizers around the mushroom patch. That can harm the mushroom or stick to them and you will end up by consuming them also.
Harvest
Mushrooms fruit in Autumn, usually near the end of October and November. Depending on the weather conditions where you live, it’s possible to have 2 flushes, or even more, if you create a small greenhouse around the patch.
The mushrooms should be picked when the veil between the stem and the hat starts to break. The best way to pick the mushrooms it to gently grab the mushroom by the base of the stem and softly push upwards while twisting it a little bit to get it loose from the substrate.
During the harvesting period, you should check daily if there are mushrooms ready to be picked.
Since this is an outdoor patch, you should keep an eye out for other mushrooms that may grow around it. Be very careful to make sure that you are picking the correct mushrooms.