In this article, we will go through all the tips and tricks for improving the harvest on your Copelandia kit.
What is in the box?
You will see the following items in your box:
- Panaeolus Cyanescens Hawaiian Copelandia grow kit.
- 2 small cups with topsoil
- grow bag
- 2 paperclips
What else do I need?
- Spray bottle
- Disinfectant (surface and hands)
- Clean tap water or bottled water (not distilled water)
- bright clean spot away from direct sunlight
- Heatmat (in colder places/months; the kit should be between 21-26 degrees)
The looks:
First things first, the Copelandia kit will probably look a little different from what you are expecting normally from our Cubensis grow kits. Please see looks on arrival, is this normal?
Now that we established that your Copelandia is ready to go let's get started.
The process:
It is important to work very clean while handling a grow kit so make sure that your hands and arms are thoroughly clean and disinfected. Preferably you work with one-time use gloves and a mouth mask to prevent contamination. Also, make sure that all the windows are closed and the airflow in the room is minimized and settled.
Disinfect the working surface properly and place the grow kit from the cardboard box in the clean working area. Take off the lid and discard it. You will not be needing this anymore. Open up the two cups with the top layer and spread them out evenly on the substrate without squishing it down. Then take the spray bottle and moisten up the topsoil well, but make sure that you do not make it too wet. Then put the grow kit in the grow bag and spray another 2 sprays inside of the bag and close it up as high on the bag as possible (above the air filter strips) with the paper clips.
Give the kit everyday fresh air by opening the grow bag, pushing the sides of the bag together and pulling them apart again. This will push the old air (deoxygenated) out and new air in (oxygenated). After doing this a couple of times you can spray a couple of sprays of water on the side of the bag to keep the humidity up (until the pins show up).
The Set-up:
Make sure that you place the kit on a well-lit place outside of direct sunlight. The best place would be somewhere higher-up like on the top of a wardrobe. At a higher place, the temperature will be a bit warmer, it will be away from people/air movements, is cleaner and so, less prone to contaminants.
The Bad Set-up
Here you can find more information on where to put your kit, and where not to put it.
In short; NEVER put your grow kit:
- on the ground
- in the kitchen
- in the bathroom
- near a heater
- inside another box
Temperature
The Copelandia likes a steady temperature ideally around 22-24 degrees. To accomplish this you can use a heatmat during the colder months. If you have a heatmat please make sure to set it up like this.
Spraying and venting
The kit should be aired out once or twice a day as instructed above, and you should spray a little water in the bag every day. The venting protocol is the same every day but the water protocol is not:
Watering the kit phase 1:
In the first week or two the kit will start to create a lot of white mycelium and during this time the kit should get water every day to keep the humidity up, a couple of sprays a day on the side of the bag (not directly on the substrate). You can keep doing this until the kit looks like in picture 1.
Pic.1 Copelandia Mycelium
Watering the kit phase 2:
After the mycelium has formed at some point you will see a lot of tiny white dots appearing. Congratulations! These are the mushrooms that start to pin. When this happens you have to make sure that there are no water droplets on the mycelium or the substrate. Copelandia mushrooms really do not like water and if there is any contact with direct water at this point it can ruin the flush. So now please only water the kit every 3 days. When you do this, first take the kit out of the bag and place it on a disinfected surface. Then push out all the old air and suck fresh air into the bag. After this spray 2 or 3 times into the bag and place the kit back into the bag. When this is done you can place the kit back on your growing spot. Your mushrooms should be ready for harvesting within a week and a half.
Harvesting:
If your mushrooms look like this you are ready for harvesting:
There are some other outcomes depending on the conditions you have been growing the mushrooms in:
1. The mushrooms will be brown and stop growing and these are called aborts (see here)
2. The mushrooms turned black on top (see here)
How do I harvest the mushrooms?
When you are ready to harvest your Copelandia simply take the grow box out of the bag and place it on a well-sterilized surface. Now all you have to do is gently knock the mushrooms over and they will detach from the box. Then you can pick them from the box and let them dry. Please see: how to dry.
Make sure to pick out all of the mushrooms when the first flush is finished, also the smaller ones.
Starting the next flush.
The Copelandia kit does not need to go into the fridge after the first flush. To restart the Copelandia kit you simply remoisten the top layer like in the first step. Moisten the substrate, but make sure you don’t make it too wet. You can now put the kit back on your grow spot and start the process over again.
If you see that after restarting the next flush water has accumulated on the bottom of the grow box you can drain this out after three days.
Don’t forget to air it out every day!