I just won the Winter '22 Cultivar Cup and I want to give you the winning spores! Merry Christmas!! [Bonus: TTBVI Origin Story] (Patreon)

Thank you everyone for making this a wonderful year for psychedelic research and progress.  Things seem to be moving at an unprecedented and exciting pace with new legislation, formal and informal research, clinical trials, senate debates, whole states decriminalizing, wow, such an amazing time to be alive.  Here's to an even better 2023!

Once again MagicMyco/Doma did an amazing job producing 305 pages of reports around this Winter Solstice Cultivar Cup.  Besides the contest itself he documented his continued extensive research around mushroom alkaloid extraction methods which is critically important to the testing world, and he developed a brand new DMT testing method which has already proven useful for quantifying DMT purity levels and helping us understand what we can do to produce even higher purity extracts.  I expect to dive into this subject matter in more detail in the future so stay tuned!

Now lets look deeper into the Cup results... I count 26 entries, which is great, but I would really like to see this grow to 100+ entries for the next one.  The more testing we conduct, the more we will all learn and benefit.



I was very excited that two different people sent in Psilocybe Azurescens (Azzies) for this Cup!  SO MANY (uninformed) people still believe this is the most potent species in the world because Paul Stamets said it was in a book that is now 26 years old, haha.  He was wrong then but I can't blame him, it was based on our limited knowledge at the time, however people who still believe this today have no real excuse because we've known for many years now that pan cyans are the champs, but it was good to go head to head here all being tested by a single lab using the same procedures with fresh samples of each one.  As you can see, one of the Azzies did come in 3rd place, but both of my TTBVI (pan cyans) soundly beat it rounding out 1st and 2nd place.  TTBVI stands for "Tamarind Tree British Virgin Islands" and I have included the "origin story" later in this post for your enjoyment.

You will note that I sent in two different TTBVI samples (A and B) I was attempting to assess the relative difference between harvesting before spore production (A) and after spore production (B).  As you can see this did not make a huge difference in the grand total psilocybin equivalent value but the earlier harvest was superior, and the more important observation is that the psilocin more than doubled in the late harvest fruit bodies, this is not a good thing, as it means the sample will lose potency faster in storage (psilocin is not as stable as psilocybin).  So the bottom line is that this test confirms that you want to harvest mushrooms before they start producing spores for optimal potency and long term storage stability.

Here is the detailed look at the winning sample:



These were grown using the TEK previously described but in a greenhouse (straw/manure based substrate). As far as I know (please correct me if you can point to any source proving otherwise),  TTBVI remains the most potent known cultivar in the world so far, so that has not changed. 

Now I know some people who have been carefully following my work are probably already thinking, "wait a minute, didn't you just post a test result last month of TTBVI that was 7%?  Why was this one "only" 4.58%?  We'll let me just start by saying I AM NEVER TOO proud to make corrections, and if you reread that prior post I have made some updates, but even in the original post I expressed my own doubts about that test result and said it would have to be confirmed by other labs.  Well it turns out the psilocin standard (certified reference material or crm) being used at the time was near its expiration date, if the crm has lost potency this results in abnormally high readings.  I don't blame MagicMyco for that, his plan has been to buy new standards just before each biannual Cultivar Cup event, but I visited his lab between cups so he did not have fresh standard at the time and neither of us were sure about how quickly the psilocin standard would deteriorate over time (psilocin is less stable than psilocybin).  This is all a learning process for both of us, Doma is slowly becoming an HPLC expert but this takes time and sometimes even errors along the way.  This is how science should work, it is self correcting.  I don't really trust any single lab report in general, and in fact I am still trying to work with other labs to see if we can come to consensus results.  Specifically I'd like to mention a new collaboration with Tryptomics who have been great so far in working with me, it will take time to see if they can successfully reproduce Doma's rather extensive extraction procedure.  If any other labs out there want to join in the fun, please contact me or MagicMyco.  From my perspective, it is not acceptable if one lab cannot reproduce the results of another lab.  Everyone is still kind of scrambling to perfect the art and science of mushroom testing, its an industry that never quite fully matured mostly due to the strict and restrictive scheduling of psilocybin around the world.  Even as recently as November 2022 some researchers have published mushroom testing results that used embarrassingly obsolete extraction methods (see: Extensive Collection of Psychotropic Mushrooms with Determination of Their Tryptamine Alkaloids ) this should NOT BE HAPPENING in 2022!  So the more collaboration and publishing of methods, the better the science will be moving forward, let's keep making progress!

At any rate, I am happy to let patrons know that I now have an abundance of TTBVI prints to share with anyone that wants one.  They are free, one person recently called me "Jonny Applespore" which I liked ;) I never got into this to make money, I do it to help people and to promote solid research, science, and education. I've sent out more than 1000 prints. People have said my work has helped them overcome depression, addictions, PTSD, and to have important, meaningful, sometimes life changing mystical experiences. That's my reward.  

If you already previously got on my "wait list" you don't need to message me, the print has already been mailed, check your mail!  If you haven't previously contacted me and you would like a print, please send your mailing address via private message (optionally use privnote.com to make it more secure and one time view and send me that link).  I am opening the floodgates now, these are going out to the world.

If you are not a patron or you want a spore syringe instead of a print, you can buy them from a US vendor, SonoranSpores (they have both BVI syringes and BVI swab packs) 

But I also want to mention again that the person who originally collected this world record strain still sells wild prints from the British Virgin Islands and he would be more than happy to sell you some interesting new strains from the island including gormet/edible prints as well.  I have no idea how similar various wild prints from around the island will turn out to be, it would make for an interesting research project but I can tell you that some vendors selling "BVI" have weak genetics compared to mine.  If you'd like to contact this man in the British Virgin Islands (again this is NOT me) use: tamarindtreebvi@protonmail.com or Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/user/TamarindTreeBVI/ ).

[UPDATED TO MAKE THIS MORE CLEAR: I, Gordo, am NOT this person in the British Virgin Islands, some people have contacted him thinking they were contacting me.  If you want to contact me just click or tap "Messages" on the patreon site or app and enter GordoTEK in the box, I do not sell prints, I give them out FOR FREE to any and all patrons who ask for prints, it's as little as $2 to join my patreon and it costs me more than that to make and mail the prints so please don't abuse me 🙏😇 but I'm not in it to make money, I want to send these spores all over the world and that's what I've been doing]

Without further ado, HERE IS THE STORY behind "TTBVI" and how this cultivar came to the world, in his own words:

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"As a content creator you may be interested to know that there is a beginning to this story...  It all started in my local college library in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) where I, a mycophobe, saw a copy of Mushrooms Demystified by David Aurora



"Being a book lover, I read it in full and transformed spontaneously into an amateur mycologist.  Either on the same shelf, or one shelf over there was a copy of The Psychedelic Experience, being really into lucid dreaming at the the time I thought that was an interesting book as well.  

"After that I was dreaming about mushrooms...



"Wanting to find such out of reach & exotic northern gourmets such as candy caps, and the red wine mushroom.  Eventually I found reishi, and one year from the start of this adventure & much searching I found my first wild cubensis, it was a tiny single mushroom lol.  After a bit more learning I stopped throwing out the pans due to doubt, and started taking prints of the few I'd find as well. Usually I like to find mushrooms several times before feeling OK about my identification.  Back then anything "active" I found was very scarce in quantity.  

"It was just at that time that I got a bag of dung from one of the fields which i had permission to take cow dung from:



"I brought it home and left it in the bag under my tamarind tree:



"The next time I opened it, there were these two large totally white & blue mushrooms growing between the dung and the bag.  I took them in to ID as I was only confident at identifying reishi by sight at the time.  With the remainder of the dung I mixed it with some local coconut husks placed it in an amateurishly dug hole under the tamarind tree which I covered with natural debris.  

"Shortly after to my utter surprise I found there were these huge white Panaeolus mushrooms that had grown out of the same spot. From then I've referred to them personally as the Tamarind Tree pan cyans.  As far as identification goes the only thing confirmed is that they are of the Panaeolus cyanescens grouping.  Macroscopically they looked different than the tiny pans in most pictures and their almond like smell was to me fantastic.  But of course I also realize that the environment has a lot to do with how large a mushroom will grow.  Taxonomic certainty aside, & working with what I had available, I found that I was able to get really good prints from this species.  And it seemed I could make people happy just by the visual appearance of larger than average prints.  

"Some time after that and with a bit more learning, I started to trade & sell prints as visually appealing souvenirs (all mushrooms are legal to possess in the BVI). I am actually a local from the BVI.  I've lived here all my life, I have an associates degree and license for farming:



"Currently I am working towards starting an edible gourmet mushroom farm.  More like currently looking for a temporary job to get funding haha, but I don't need that much to get going so this new interest in the prints really means a lot to me financially. Seriously every sale is a lot to me at the moment.  The reddit spore trading scene has really taken a hit.  It's good to have a history & help people avoid scammers.   I currently feel more secure about my email tamarindtreebvi@protonmail.com for sales including gourmet species.  

"As far as ancedotes go... I personally am not particularly fond of experiences with the wild local cubensis on island.  While the local Pans experience is usually very very beautiful, if it's good it is a lifelong memory of beauty, which can hardly be accurately conveyed by words.  I've heard it described as usurping that feeling of nothing will ever be that good again, from someone that thought they had previously reached the pinnacle of human pleasure."

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So there you have it, hope you enjoyed the story behind the cultivar! TamarindTreeBVI likes to remain anonymous, I don't even know his name, but I feel just a little bit like Hamilton Morris after tracking him down and getting his firsthand story, this was a lot of fun and I feel enriched for having done it.  It would be even better if I could go visit him, maybe some day?  I wish him all the best and hope he is able to achieve his dreams of starting his own gourmet mushroom farm on the island. I also want to acknowledge that it was legendary mycologist and collector "VL" from France that acquired these spores first before generously sending them (along with many others) to me - love this community!  VL had been keeping the genetic line alive for years as part of what he does to preserve specimens of interest.  VL also likes to keep a low profile, and did not want me to post his contact info.


(a patron who wants to remain anonymous made me this super cool laser etched LED color changing night light, wow!)

Regards, Merry Christmas & HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

-Gordo


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Links to all of my TEKs, Videos, Trip music, and frequently asked questions with answers can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/22774475 (everything is made available for FREE, I do not use pay walls, support the work only if you feel like you've benefited from it and you are able to do so).