Congrats WINNERS of the Summer 2023 Cultivar Cup! (You guys took me down hard ;)

Wow, I didn't even place in the TOP 4?! 😂 Soundly beaten by the very people I gave spores to:

😂 I'm super happy about this to be honest, I think some people were starting to think the Cultivar Cup was rigged for me to win, now you know the truth!  😇.

It was really great to see so much participation in this latest Cup, the number of participants more than doubled from the prior one!  Full results can be found here (there are some summary graphs in the root folder at this link, but you can also click/tap the subfolders to find detailed individual reports).  There is much we can learn from all of this testing.  For what it's worth, it's hard to compare the results of past Cups to the current one, as the methods have been refined and improved (12 point calibration curves and a new extraction method).  I have also been doing some inter-lab comparison testing myself to see if a consensus view would emerge, and it has.  I can now happily report that FOUR different labs all produced approximately the same results on samples I sent them, even though they all use different methods - this gives me a lot of confidence at least in these four particular labs: Tryptomics, Altitude Consulting, Tryp Labs and MagicMyco.  Here are the TTBVI references from these other labs (COA 1 PCBE=3.47%,  COA 2 PCBE=3.35% and COA 3 PCBE=3.69%).

Here is a closer look at the Summer 2023 Cultivar Cup winning entry:

"Do Boy" pretty much followed my past recommendations, he went to agar first, used coir/manure based substrate, fruited at a higher temp (80F/27C), Martha setup for 5 minutes of humidification every 20 minutes and fresh air fan for 4 minutes per hour.  He harvested a bit on the early side before too much spore production, quickly dried the fruit bodies, then stored them in UV blocking jars with Argon.  JOB WELL DONE!

My own TTBVI entry came in at 2.99% PCBE.  I attribute this lower value to the fact that I sent in a second flush, that was more mature at harvest.  I also dried it at a higher temperature (160F) which may not be desirable (but don't draw conclusions on that yet, I will have to do a more careful comparison of drying temperatures in the future, more scientifically conducted, with the same flush dried simultaneously at different temps with each comparison sample tested at the same time).  All of this data is really great, we now know that the normal range for TTBVI could be anywhere from 3% to about 4.5% depending on how it is grown, when it is harvested, and how it is dried and stored.  [Note: there were a couple of samples that were dried for 18+ hours at lower temps and these tested lower in potency, so lesson learned here, dry them with at least 140F temps and short duration (normally 3-4 hours) for max potency!]

I also wanted to be sure to test some new cultivars.  I had sent in "Weza" a pan cyan from South Africa (credit for the spores goes to VLCenterCoast), as well as "XL" a pan cyan discovered in Texas by dsernabledesigns.

Both tested in the very respectable range, here's Weza:

And XL:

XL sadly, failed Doma's new "yeast and mold" analysis.  You can actually see in the above picture of the growing fruit that there are some "dark spots" on some caps that may not just be from typical benign spore drop.  This yeast and mold testing is standard in the cannabis industry where any score above 10,000 is a "FAIL".  Doma decided any score above 1,000 was a "FAIL" in his analysis for mushrooms with the reason being that people more often smoke cannabis but eat mushrooms therefore more strict standards should apply to mushrooms.  I'm not completely sure that is sound reasoning, as cannabis is also often eaten as well and I would think the safety standard would likely have to be the same for both products.  Doma did mention that no sample would have failed if the limit was the 10k used by the cannabis industry.  Furthermore it is not clear to me if normal mushroom spores of the species you were growing would also throw off the yeast and mold test?  If so, then it really isn't valid for mushroom testing AT ALL.  But regardless I thought it was an interesting new twist introduced in this Cup, something to look into more.  I am all for people focusing on producing clean/pure products and if this helps, that's great.  This might give people one more reason to harvest before spore drop which is pretty much a best practice anyway (it is not good for your health or the health of the growers/harvesters to be breathing in a lot of spores).

I'll wrap this post up with some thoughts about searching for new mushrooms to grow...

There are over 14,000 species of known mushrooms, but only a very small number have been shown to be worth growing for human consumption.  Likewise, there are over 180 known species of psychedelic mushrooms and yet the same rule of thumb pretty much applies.  I'm all for testing every species out there, but it should pretty much be expected that very few will be actually worth growing.  Here is a list of my criteria, any good candidate must at least have a few from the list:

1) Easy to grow indoors.

2) Fast growing.

3) High in active alkaloids.

4) Resistant to contamination.

5) High in one or more minor alkaloids.

6) Very positive or unusual user experience reports.

7) Non-toxic, and not associated with wood lovers paralysis.

8) Not associated with dysphoria, nausea, high body load, or negativity.

People are always asking me, have you grown x, y, or z?  My first question is always - do you know of some compelling reason WHY I should grow it?

Subtropicalis is one example that several people have asked me about, allegedly its quite potent although the HPLC testing I've seen puts it at around 2% PCBE, so not nearly as potent as pan cyan, and its not particularly high in any minor alkaloids.  It's much slower to grow & fruit than pan cyan.  I am actually growing it now just for research purposes, but so far I don't see any good reason to grow it.

Natalensis is one species that I've heard a lot about and also decided to pursue, and I actually DO think its a good species to grow.  It has very unusual mycelium, strong and resistant to contamination, very good user experience reports, has tested high in minor alkaloids, is generally considered more potent than most cubes (but less potent than pan cyan).  I will publish more research on this species in the future.

Bisporus is another species of interest.  It is quite potent, and actually won the last hyphae cup, but considerably less potent than a strong pan cyan, and much slower growing.  I've grown it and am still not sure its worth growing.  One interesting attribute is that once it starts fruiting it can keep fruiting for months, but not huge thick canopies.  Caps can get quite large, great for printing.

Zapotecorum: Haven't researched it too much yet but Jordan Jacobs from Tryplabs testing showed it is quite potent, but again not as potent as a strong pan cyan.  From what I've read it is quite difficult to indoor cultivate, and extremely slow.  I don't really find it very enticing to be honest.

Mexicana: Interested mostly based on anecdotes, it's not that potent but seems to be associated with very positive user experiences.  Some cultivars of this species are intended for sclerotia harvest - but I have pretty much zero interest in sclerotia (slow and dirty, what's the point?) but other cultivars of this species do produce fruit bodies.  Supposedly this species was a favorite of Maria Sabina.  Definitely worthy of further investigation.

Regarding pan cyan cultivars, Estero was once my favorite, but then I found TTBVI, which is just as aggressive on agar/grain, just as fast from spores to harvest, but is more potent than Estero and easier to print.  From my perspective TTBVI is superior so I stopped growing Estero.  As you can see above, I recently researched the pan cyan cultivars "XL" and "Weza", while they were fun to grow, both seem inferior to TTBVI, so I don't know what the point is in growing them other than the novelty of growing something different.  NVTX (another cultivar from dsernabledesigns) is of interest to me (I have not grown it, don't think it has ever been tested).

Similarly, many people ask me about hybrids (and mutant strains).  This is not something I have much interest in to be honest.  I know it's "all the rage" in some circles, and there are endless people making hybrids and posting about them on social media and on YouTube.  In the past this seemed like mostly a part of the "Cube Cult" but now I see it spreading to other species.  So far, no one has produced a hybrid that is superior to the cultivars directly found in nature as far as I know.  For example TTBVI, the most potent known cultivar in the world (for now anyway) is not a hybrid.  I have grown out many hybrids and did not find any of them worth growing for various reasons (weaker genetics, less aggressive on agar/substrate, poor printing, slower, lower potency, etc).  I just don't see the point other than the sheer entertainment value and hope of discovering something interesting.  Part of it seems to be ego driven, everyone wants to come up with their own cultivar and give it their own name so they can be "famous", hahah.  I think time is better spent elsewhere, but I'm all for people experimenting and I can see the fun in it.   It is quite possible that one day someone will produce a hybrid of significant value.

Sometimes it is easy to lose one's focus. Don't be distracted by unimportant things. Life is short. Live it well, and help someone else along the way. We are entering arguably the most important time in all of human history, you are lucky to have been born when you were, to experience the things that are coming into this world.  More on this in a future post...

Blessings to you,

Gordo

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Links to all of my TEKs, Videos, Trip music, and frequently asked questions with answers can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/22774475 (everything is made available for FREE, I do not use pay walls, support the work only if you feel like you've benefited from it and you are able to do so).  People have told me my work has helped them overcome depression, addictions, PTSD, relationship issues, direction in life, and to have important, meaningful, sometimes life changing mystical experiences.  I feel honored and blessed to play a small role in this.  That is my reward.