Harvesting
Now What? 🍄
Your bag is alive, thriving, and ready for the next step in its magical journey. Let’s walk through the stages together!
Mycelium Colonization
Your bag is fully white and fuzzy—this is healthy mycelium, not mold!
Nothing to do—your bag is already fully colonized. High five! 🙌
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Pin Formation
Baby mushrooms (pins) are popping up—tiny white dots or mini mushrooms.
Fruiting Fun:
Little white pins = primordia = baby mushrooms.
Get ready!
Just watch in awe.
Nature’s doing its thing.
Keep Watch: Mushrooms love consistency. Think “stable and cozy.”
Initiation
Time to wake the mushrooms!
Growth Magic: That fluffy white stuff = happy mycelium. (WIN!)
Light it Up:
Place your bag on a counter, desk, or windowsill. Indirect sunlight works fine.
(No fancy grow lights needed, unless you want to.)
Give them a 12-12 light cycle (day/night).
Cool it Down:
Fruiting likes it slightly cooler—65–80°F, with 72–75°F being the sweet spot.
Room temp is fine, but they love 72–75°F
Harvest
Mushrooms are almost ready—the veil (that thin white film under the cap) is about to tear.
Carefully Twist & pull when veils are just breaking being mindful to not damage the mushroom block which will have negative impacts to later flushes.
Included in your Lumina Mushroom Lab are gloves and an alcohol wipe, wipe down your bag and wear gloves to keep things clean 🍄
Aftercare:
🍄 Second flush*: Seal the bag again—no water needed.
🍄 Third flush & beyond: Add ~30 ml water, seal, and wait for another wave.
🌎 When done: Compost your block, gift it to your garden, or feed your houseplants.
* A flush is another fruiting faze where mushrooms will grow
🛡️ Notes & Tips
Contamination Watch: If you see green, pink, yellow, or slime—or notice funky odors—stop. That’s contamination. If this happens before opening, contact us for help.
Spores Everywhere: If you wait a little too long, you might see black/purple dust. That’s just spores! Mushrooms are still great, but some people may have spore sensitivities.
🌬️ Drying & Storing
Dehydrator: Lowest heat setting = best for preserving compounds.
Sun & Fan: Low-humidity sun drying or fan with airflow also works.
Bone-Dry Test: Break a stem—if it snaps clean, you’re good.
Short-Term Storage: Fridge for up to a week (any longer and they get mushy).
Long-Term Storage: Always dehydrate after refrigeration to prevent breakdown.
Store in air tight container (mason jar)
✨ Remember: Mushrooms are resilient, and so are you. Use what you have, don’t overthink it, and enjoy the process. Your Lumina Mushroom Lab kit is built for success!
You have no green thumb, you're not a botanist, not a scientist, not a mycologist (yet), what are you even doing here?
This section carries you through what you'll need to know to go from searching the streets for a divine connection, to watching the little halo shaped sparks of divinity emerge on your table top at home.
The Research Kit
Why Research Kits?
What's available?
The mycelium in your kit is living, breathing- it is energy and feeds off of energy just like you. When you are caring for your kit, your energy is felt. Your love, your passion, your enthusiasm for the finished product is felt!
When your kit is being assembled positive vibration and energy are as critical as the substrate and the grain, YOU can keep that going. The healing journey starts long before consumption.
Find a bag that fits your desired experience. Light, airy and ethereal? Heavy, internal, and reflective? Big fruits with familiar names? or Funky hybrids you can educate your friends on? Some other considerations: Potency, Grow Time, Yield,
Storage
Your kit is not super picky. It enjoys a warm space that gets a good amount of light, and an equal amount of darkness (the darker the better during the dark time) Grow tents and lights are NOT necessary. A window sill is great...
Harvesting
Your bag looks like it's being overrun by fruits, explosion is imminent, what do you do??
Remain calm and grab the bag and some scissors... and WASH YOUR HANDS!
Click HERE for the harvesting
tutorial in action
Are your healing goals greater than yourself? Do you wish to help others find their way? Illuminate others pathways? Research kits might be the best and most cost effective way!
The Wholesaler
Why Research?
What's available?
As a wholesaler consistency and predictability are critical to your operation. You need specific strains, high yields, consistent potency, and LOW cost. The term "research kit" is part formality, but also a homage to the research that has been done to ensure all of those critical boxes are checked for you!
Find the strains that meet your demands. Choose kits based on effects, potency, harvesting time, or even simply familiarity. Here are some examples of strains with their respective characteristics.
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Fruiting
Research kits generally start producing fruits between weeks two and three after purchase. Over the next two weeks some rapid growth will be seen. There's no hard-and-fast harvest date, but some signs to look for to determine readiness are a bag full of fruited bodies, and veils that have separated from the caps.
After harvest the bag can be re-sealed and another flush can be expected following a similar timeline. Sometimes a third harvest is possible, and even an occasional fourth!
The Medicine
It's important to remember why we're here, and always be mindful to and humble of the power of the product we're cultivating. Centuries of experience and research has been dedicated to the medicinal characteristics of the mycelium and fruit you're on the verge of harvesting.
History
Healing
Check out some of these texts for information about the rich history of fungi over the centuries:
Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality
Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, The Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science
Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
Legality
First and foremost, the research kits are legal in all 50 states.
Check your states laws regarding fruit here.
Here are some peer reviewed studies that have been published reporiting the healing benefits of your bags contents:
The Future
Despite such a rich and lasting history, never has so much attention been provided the the world of mushrooms and psychedelics as a whole. We're at the precipice of a movement that could restructure how these beauties are seen and used for centuries to come
The essence of years of practice, research, trials, errors, successes, failures reside in the bag. Countless hours of a journey toward perfection quietly rest before you. In summary though:
What's in the bag?
The Grains
The Substrate
Single sourced, sterilized grain specific to the strain. A nutritious diet for that hungry specimen.
Single sourced, sterilized substrate specific to the strain. A cozy home for growing.
The Mycelium
The magic behind it all.