Hi all!

I was originally going to post this over at the shroomery, but for some reason the entire board seems to have been deleted. Maybe it's just me, I don't know.
Anyway, I am planning on starting my exciting journey of growing mushrooms. They have been the entheogen of choice for me so far, and it has been a dream of mine to start growing my own. Not just purely for the harvest, but also to witness the life cycle first-hand, to have the satisfaction of growing my own, and perhaps have more personal experiences (if you believe in that sort of thing). Another benefit would be maintaining my own humble collection of spore prints and syringes over the years, so I don't have to rely on other sources anymore. With natural psychedelics in a precarious grey area, it's all the more reason for me to start a self-sustaining grow.
I have been reading on the topic for a long long time, and I feel like the time is about right to dive in. The most informative source has been the "Let's Grow Mushrooms!" video, which details the PF tek, along with a host of other great info. As a beginner the PF tek is an obvious place to start, and the "shotgun terrarium" fruit chamber seems like a great extension to make the technique even more viable.

Before growing any cubensis, I was thinking of growing some regular gourmet mushrooms (since I love my non-magical mushrooms as well!). I realise that growing regular mushrooms on PF cakes isn't the most cost-effective or efficient way, so I'm not going to do that. I would like to make use of the shotgun terrarium, but does anyone have any suggestions on gourmet mushrooms that are easy to grow in this fashion? Shiitake would be my prime choice, but since they grow on wood logs, I don't know if they would thrive in the terrarium. Anyone that could provide any insight? Thanks a million

Oyster mushrooms are supposed to be really forgiving.

I've heard "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms" by Paul Stamets as a highly-recommended book on the subject.

Mycotopia would be a good place to ask around as well. There is a ton of information there, even though their organization system is comparable to your crazy uncle who has anything and everything "somewhere" in his garage.

That's what rumors say; I have tried growing a variety of edibles (pleurotii, shiitake, lion's mane, and flammulinas) quite a few times and they all went either disastrous or with very poor results. Pleurotii usually grew in thin strings, nothing like the *oysters* you see in the pictures.

On the other hand, cubensis, cyanscens, mexicana have been no problem at all. For some reason, the interesting ones tend to do better (maybe because the prospect of a good, potent harvest subconsciously drives paying more attention and paying more care?). There are also very few threads/posts/videos in general that show success with edibles. Most show you substrate preparation, mycelium colonisation, but rarely if ever fruiting. Stamet's books also show prolific fruiting of edibles but these are in commercial grow houses, not home settings.

I also think that most cultures/spores of edibles that can be found on the cheap are not good for home growing. Commercial growers have hundreds of $ worth of cultures selected for optimal traits (which is a fair investment if you plan to make a living but unfordable for home growers) and not ones that you can get from a free spore ring or for 10-20$ rfom a vendor.

To the OP, if you want to grow mushrooms in general, then the interesting ones are maybe the best ones to start from.

One wold agree.
If you have any Q's about mushrooms then shoot me a PM.
Are you going to be doing agar work? b/c if your are going to do edibles then one would HIGHLY recomend agar to get consistency in floavor, size, textire. If you have a pressure cooker then you are in the gold and everthing is a lot easier than it sounds.

Honestly you can't get much easier than growing cubes. I've never had a batch fail on me with the PF Tek. I've got a 1 hour video that will explain everything in great detail if your interested I could send it to you.
My advice would be call up Ralphsters and get some GT spores and start their you won't be disappointed.