Why are hygienic precautions important when growing your Magic mushrooms?

Whether you are going to start your magic mushroom kit, harvest your Cubensis mushrooms, make spore prints or make your own substrate cakes,  the most important element that will determine the success of your new venture is a clean work environment. Building your own in-house lab room would be the ideal scenario, but it is not an option for the most of us. Nevertheless, if you work as hygienically as possible, you will reduce the probability of contamination or bacterial infection. 

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Clean Workspace

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Keeping a tidy house is not always easy and hard to keep up, especially the kitchen. But whenever you want to start a magic mushroom grow kit or want to prepare your own substrate CLEAN IS NOT AN OPTION.  This is not a mere esthetical precaution, but a fundamental one to avoid micro-bacterial contamination.

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The first thing you need to do is to choose your workspace carefully.  Make sure it is not an area that has strong air drafts. A draft can drag in all kinds of unwanted bacteria and unwanted spores. Closing windows and doors would be a good idea.

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You also need to get rid of all trash in the room, whether leftover food or any other unwanted elements you might have lying around your work surface. If you do not need it get rid of it. Wash your hands after you have done this.

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Give the work surface a good scrub and wash with regular or antibacterial cleaning soap. Always use a new sponge or brush (or a very very clean one).  Let the surface dry or dry it with a clean towel (cloth or paper)
If you do not have antibacterial soap and only used a regular cleaning soap, you can spray the surface with a disinfectant spray for surfaces against micro bacteria,  Be Thorough!

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Always Wash up!

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If you are working with grow kits, washing your hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap or disinfectant gel, will do the job.  Here is a list of contexts where washing up as mentioned above will be sufficient:

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• Soaking the mushroom grow kit
• Harvesting you magic mushrooms
• Misting the grow kits substrate
• Airing the grow bag

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As a general rule when as soon as you think about manipulating a grow kit or preparing anything that has to do with cultivating mushrooms, wash your hands!

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As an extra precaution, you can use latex examination gloves that are packed under sterile conditions or clean latex gloves that you can disinfect with Lysol. 
Wearing a face mask will prevent bacteria from getting inside the kit, substrate or on other materials by the way of the airflow produced by your breathing.

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Products for disinfection and cleaning your workspace.

• Hand disinfection softa-man 100/500 ml (against micro-bacteria)
• Workspace disinfection Eco-clin D Des 740 ml
• Lysol or Dettol

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If you are going for the real mycology experiment, that is, making your own substrate cakes and inoculating them with spores, it is important to sterilize most of the materials you are going to use. Read the related post about how to use a pressure cooker and on sterilization of mushroom grow materials.

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Work clean at al times!

All you need to desinfect

Disinfectant Hand Sanitizer | Softa-Man Handgel

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Surface Disinfectant Spray

A strong disinfectant spray to clean surfaces of mictro organisms. Based on alcohol. The desin...

Sterile Latex Gloves | Pair

Keep bacteria out!
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Face Mask

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