Growing with the Golden Teacher XP Fresh Mushrooms Grow Kits is extremely easy. These kits are completely maintenance-free thanks to a fully colonized substrate without fillers.

• Fast growing: 1 week to first pins
• High yields: Up to 4 flushes. (in ideal conditions)
• High Potency: According the supplier the XP (Extra Potent) strains are twice as potent!

Contents of Golden Teacher XP Mushroom Grow Kit

• 1x Golden Teacher Mushrooms Grow box – This contains rye substrate with active mycelium
• 1x Growbag – The bag has filters across the bag.
• 2x paperclip – For closing the grow bag.

You need

• Misting Bottle  – Misting is needed for the humidity level
• Potable water – For misting and soaking
• Clean environment – Work clean to give other fungi and bacteria (micro organisms) no chance to contaminate.

How to prepare the room and yourself before you begin

• Close any open windows. Wind or draft may bring micro organisms that can contaminate the Magic Mushroom grow kit.
• When taking out the grow box with the cake from the carton box, put it on a disinfected surface. If this surface would not be clean, micro organisms may attach to the grow box and will flourish inside the Magic Mushroom grow kit, and will contaminate the grow box.
• Make sure you work with clean hands and arms. We recommend using surgical gloves or a good disinfectant when handling the kit. You should use a facemask to avoid breathing into the grow bag and on the cake.

Instructions: Starting the Golden Teacher Magic Mushroom grow kit

1. 1. Take the magic mushroom grow kit, plastic bag and paperclip out of the box. Remove the lid of the mushroom grow kit (store the lid properly). Rinse the lid under running water. You will need it again later (step 7).
   2. Place the mushroom grow kit without lid in the plastic grow bag (opening at the top). Slide the opening of the bag under the bottom with the micro perforation pointing upwards. The opening of the bag is now largely closed. You do not have to worry about air circulation.
   3. When you see the first small mushrooms ( called pins), you can put the grow bag upright. Do not water! The first magic mushrooms will be visible after about 1 week.
   4. Place the mushroom grow kit in an area with enough daylight and at a temperature between 18 °C and 28 °C. NEVER place the grow kit in direct sunlight. Although mushrooms will grow at almost any temperature above 15 °C, 23 °C is the ideal temperature for an optimal harvest. Special heat mats are available to ensure this temperature and not have to heat the entire room.
   5. When the mushrooms are slightly bigger as the pins keep the bag a bit open the entire time so the moisture can evaporate (Phase 2). Too much moisture is not good.

The first mushrooms will be visible after approximately 1 week. Your first harvest will be about a week later. Make sure that you harvest before the first spores begin to fall! Freshmushrooms grow kits produce their first harvest fairly quickly. The first buds are already visible after only 1 week. Low and high temperatures may slightly delay this growth process. As soon as the buds are visible, stop spraying the inside of the bag. It usually takes one to two weeks before the mushrooms are fully developed.

1. These kits can produce several mushroom harvests. To do so, fill the kit with clean tap water after the first harvest. This process is known as cold shock. It breathes new life into the mycelium and ensures that enough moisture is present for the mushrooms to grow.
2. Place the lid of the grow Kit back on the kit. Let the kit rest for 12 hours. Open a corner of the lid and drain the excess water. From here you can follow the instructions from step 1 again. This process can be repeated several times.

Growing with a heatingmat (use only for this brand)

Place the plastic bag with the Grow Kit in it on the heat mat. Switch the heat mat on. After two days switch the heat mat off and wait until the buds have developed, which usually takes between five and ten days. Then switch the heat mat on again and open the top of the bag a little so the moisture can evaporate.

What to do if the buds haven’t developed after ten days. Take the cake out of the plastic box, put it back in the plastic box on its side and start again with two days with the heat mat.

How to store the grow kit correctly

It is recommended to start the cultivation process right away. If you decide to start growing later, you may store themagic mushroom grow kit inside a Soaking Bag in the refrigerator (2°C to 8°C) for 4 weeks after the production date.

Temperature

The ideal temperature is 24°C. Do not have the temperature drop under 18°C and not exceed 29°C. To keep the temperature from dropping under the 18°C, you can use a thermo mat to maintain the ideal temperature. A thermo mat is a must-have in the winter or colder regions of the world.

Light

The magic mushroom grow kit only needs light for the mycelium to ‘understand’ it has reached the surface. Only then, mushrooms will grow. A few hours of fluorescent/artificial light or indirect sunlight a day is more than enough. Direct sunlight kills the mycelium, so avoid the sun to shine directly on the grow kit.

Mushrooms

If the conditions are optimal, you can expect the first small mushrooms (the pins) to appear between 7 and 10
days. This also depends on the strain. Some cubensis strains grow slower than others.

Flushes

The mushrooms come up in groups. This can be a small or large group. That depends on the strain. A growth like this is called a flush. Mushrooms are almost never ripe at the same time. You can get more than one flush out of a kit. The first two flushes are the largest. When more flushes come, they will be smaller than the previous one.

Picking

Mushrooms are ripe and should be picked when the veil between the hat and the stem has just torn. Don’t wait much longer. Use surgical gloves or disinfect your hands, wrists and arms. Pick the mushrooms that are ripe and let the others continue to grow. The cake has no top layer such as vermiculite. This makes is much easier to pick the mushrooms than with the standard grow kits. The mushrooms can easily be pulled out of the cake by holding them between thumb and index finger. They mushrooms let go almost immediately. When most of the larger mushrooms have been picked, also pick the smaller ones and the pins as well.

Mushrooms that grow from the sides

Mushrooms grow where the light reaches and where there is little penetrating resistance. Because the cake has light shining on the sides, the mushrooms might also grow there. It is hard to counter this and can be allowed. Some growers wrap the sides of the grow box in aluminum foil to keep the sides dark, but this doesn’t always work well.

When mushrooms grow there, they can be picked just before you soak the kit:

Clean hands! Take the grow box out of the bag and place it upside down on your other hand. Wiggle the plastic box so that the cake will fall out, onto your hand. The plastic box can be placed on a disinfectant surface. Now you have this hand free to pick the mushrooms from the sides of the cake. When all mushrooms are picked, you can place the cake back as it was, in the plastic box and continue to the soaking process.

The end

When no more mushrooms grow out of a grow kit after the second flush for at least three weeks, or when the Magic Mushroom grow kit turns green, red, grey or yellow; the grow kit can be disposed of.  The change in color is a sign that the grow kit is contaminated with another fungus or a bacteria. No more mushrooms will grow out of the Psilocybe cubensis Magic mushroom grow kit and the grow kit should be thrown away in the garbage outside.

Spores

When you are too late picking the mushrooms, they will drop their spores. The cake and the mushrooms will turn black/purple (some other cubensis strains red/brown) because of the spores. This is not really a problem; it just doesn’t look very pretty. When mushrooms release their spores, they also start to degrade and the active ingredients are breaking down. Mushrooms will lose some of their potency.