GrowGuides
A collection of open-source cultivation science guides for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms — written to be scientifically honest, beginner-accessible, and freely shared.
Each guide covers the biology, ecology, colonization, fruiting, and harvest of its species in depth. The goal is that you understand not just what to do, but why every parameter matters — because cultivation is not a checklist. It is an act of biological collaboration.
Guides
- The Fifth Kingdom at Home: Oysters — Pleurotus ostreatus, P. djamor, P. citrinopileatus, P. eryngii
- The Fifth Kingdom at Home: Hericium — Hericium erinaceus (Lion's Mane), H. coralloides (Coral Tooth), H. americanum (Bear's Head)
- The Fifth Kingdom at Home: Psilocybe — Psilocybe cubensis, P. tampanensis, P. cyanescens, P. azurescens, Panaeolus cyanescens — Please read the legal and informational disclaimers at the top of this guide before proceeding.
More guides are in progress.
License
These guides are published under the MIT License.
In plain terms: do whatever you want with them. Print them. Share them. Adapt them for your grow operation, your classroom, your community garden, your mushroom club, your zine, your farm stand handout. Translate them. Build on them. Sell a printed copy at your farmers market if you like.
The only thing we ask — and the only requirement of the MIT License — is that you include the license text and attribution when you distribute them or any derivative. That means keeping the LICENSE file alongside the guides, or printing the license text with any physical copies you make. That's it.
You do not need to ask permission. You do not need to notify anyone. You just need to keep the license attached.
The spirit behind this: cultivation knowledge has historically been gatekept by geography, cost, and access. Good science shouldn't be. These guides exist to be used.
Contributing
Found an error? Have a strain note, a substrate trial result, or a species you think belongs in the collection? Open an issue or submit a pull request. The guides improve when growers and scientists push back on them.
Grow well.