As soon as you start growing mushrooms with a growkit, or in a bin, you might know the struggle of side pinning. These annoying side pins can be easily be avoided, because it is easier then you think!

What are magic mushroom side pins?

Firstly, it is important to know what these side pins are. Magic mushrooms grow on a substrate which is the fertile ground for magic mushrooms. Mushrooms can theoretically grow on every place of the substrate. In most cases does the substrate shrink during the growing process, This space is then used by the mycelium to grow magic mushrooms on them. This means that you actually can eat these psilocybin magic mushrooms.

But why are these side pins a bad thing?

Side pins are mushrooms that grow on the sides of the growkit. At first sight can the side pins just look like bacteria. However, these are just magic mushrooms. The area where these psilocybin mushrooms grow is very moist. If these side pins continue to grow then this could be an area where bacteria continue to grow and endanger the substrate, which means that the mycelium, and thus your growkit, dies.

How to prevent psilocybin side pins

You can easily prevent the growth of psilocybin side pins. The tips below are examples on what you should do as soon as you notice side pins

Control the humidity

Firstly, you have to make sure that the humidity is right. If you notice that the substrate is too dry you can befog the substrate with water. This is because the mushrooms are stimulated to grow up because the upper surface has the right humidity and helps thus to prevent side pins. You can spray the upper surface. You have sprayed enough water as soon as you notice small waterdrops on the mycelium.

Use a liner for your growkit

A liner helps to control the growth of the magic mushrooms. The bottom and sides of the substrate should be covered with, for example, a black garbage bag. The liner shrinks with the substrate and prevents side pins to grow. This also helps that light doesn’t touch the sides.

Prevent that light touches the bottom and the sides.

As soon as light touches the sides of the substrate then it’ll stimulate side pins to grow. A liner can help to prevent light to touch the sides, which is a handy secondary purpose for the liner. If you have ready to grow psilocybin growkits, then you can use the box to stop light hitting the sides.

What to do with growing side pins?

If you already have some side pins growing, then you can best harvest them. You can eat these side pins just like the other magic mushrooms. Please do make sure that you touch the substrate/ mycelium only with gloves to prevent contamination. These side pins are just magic mushrooms and can be consumed as long as they don’t have any mould growing on them.