Cambodian Growkit – 1200 cc

1. Cambodian Growkit — 1200 cc

A 1200 cc all-in-one kit of Psilocybe cubensis (Cambodian) — the fastest coloniser in our range, and one of the few cubensis lineages with a documented collection history behind it.

The ethnomycologist John W. Allen, known in the field as “Mushroom John”, collected the ancestral wild specimens near the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap around 1994, isolating them from herbivore dung in the surrounding grassland. Everything sold as Cambodian today descends from that collection.

In the box: the colonised substrate container, a micro-filter grow bag and two paperclips. That is the complete list, and it is all you need. No syringes, no sterilising equipment, nothing to buy separately.

2. Specifications

3. Speed

Home cultivation is a race between the organism you want and the ones you do not. The Cambodian strain wins that race more often than most, and understanding why tells you how to get the best from it.

1. Contamination is a competition for substrate. Mould spores and bacteria are in every room. Whether they take hold depends on whether the mycelium claims the food first.
2. Fast colonisation is therefore a defence, not just a convenience. An aggressive strain closes the window in which a competitor can establish.
3. Cambodian is among the fastest cubensis lineages there is, with correspondingly high viability. It is the reason this strain is recommended to people who have lost a kit to mould before.
4. Speed does not replace hygiene. It shortens the vulnerable window; it does not remove it. Clean hands, a wiped surface and a closed window still matter.

3.1 What speed costs

There is a trade-off, and it is worth naming: fast strains want warmth, and this one colonises best at 24 to 28 °C. That is at the upper end of the range where bacterial contamination also thrives, so air exchange becomes more important rather than less. Warm and stagnant is the worst combination for any kit; with a fast, warmth-loving strain it is the one failure mode to watch.

The other practical note: because it moves quickly, check it daily rather than every few days. Pins appear sooner than people expect, and a flush left too long past the veil is a wasted one.

4. Setting it up

1. Set up somewhere still and clean. Alcohol wipe on the surface, hands washed, window shut.
2. Twelve hours in cold water. Lid off to fill, lid on to soak.
3. Then drain it out entirely, because water left standing in the base is a bacterial culture waiting to happen.
4. Slide it into the filter bag upright, roll the top down twice and clip.
5. Warm, shaded, indirect light. Direct sun cooks the box; darkness gives the mycelium no cue.
6. Daily air exchange. Open the bag briefly each day and close it again.

4.1 Harvesting and later flushes

• Do not wait for the caps to open flat. Once the veil tears the mushroom is spending its energy on spores rather than on mass.
• Twist gently from the base.
• Harvest the whole flush together so the next cycle starts cleanly.
• Re-soak immediately — cold water, twelve hours, then drain it out fully.

4.2 If something goes wrong

• Any colour that is not white or mushroom-coloured is bad news. Green and grey patches are mould and the kit is finished; seal it and bin it rather than opening it indoors.
• Trust your nose. A sour, ammonia-like or generally wrong smell means bacteria have taken the substrate.
• Fine grey cobwebbing spreading over the fruits is cobweb mould. More air exchange, immediately.
• Bluing where you have touched a mushroom is not a problem. It is oxidation and it is expected.

5. Before you use them

5.1 Preparation

• A sober sitter, in the room. Not next door, not on the phone — present, sober, and told what you have taken.
• Get down before you start. Sitting or lying. Never standing, never mid-task.
• Strip the room. Nothing burning, nothing breakable, no stairs and no open windows within reach.
• Trip stopper within arm’s reach. The reassurance is worth more than the capsules.
• On its own. No drink, no cannabis, nothing else in the mix.

5.2 Do not use these if

• Strictly 18+.
• Not during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
• Avoid entirely if you or anyone in your immediate family has a history of psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or another serious psychiatric condition — psychedelics can trigger episodes in people who are predisposed.
• No alcohol, no cannabis, and nothing prescribed — SSRIs and MAOIs in particular — without medical advice.
• No driving and no machinery for the remainder of the day.
• Legality differs by country and changes over time. Confirm your own before ordering.

Fast colonisation is a defence, not a convenience. The less time the substrate spends uncolonised, the less chance a mould has to claim it.