Strain
P. natalensis
- Species
- Psilocybe natalensis
- Also called
- natalensis, Natal, Natal Super Strength, Psilocybe natalensis
- Read with
- P. ochraceocentrata
Most cultures sold and grown as natalensis are almost certainly P. ochraceocentrata. Reports here keep the label the grower used; read this page together with the ochraceocentrata page.
A South African species. The fast, overlay-prone cultures in the hobby that carry this name are mostly P. ochraceocentrata; the true species is reported as slow and sparse.
Photos
Psilocybe natalensis, wild (identification as recorded on Mushroom Observer). Not a hobby culture.Photo: Liz Popich, CC BY-SA 3.0 (listed by Mushroom Observer as "Creative Commons Wikipedia Compatible v3.0"), via Mushroom Observer Add a note
Summary
Suggest an editWhat growers agree on
- Fast colonizer; overlay is the signature problem and is mostly genetic. Isolate and clone lines that don't overlay.
- Needs more fresh air than cubensis.
- A thin, non-nutritive casing is the most-cited pinning trigger.
- The partial veil tears within about 24 hours of pinning.
- Pins 6 to 12 days into fruiting conditions.
Where they disagree
- Overlay cause
- Genetics versus pseudo-casing or climate.
- Bags or tubs
- Both have supporters; neither side has much data.
- Temperature
- A claimed 77 to 86 °F optimum is unverified; logged grows ran 72 to 73 °F, and ochraceocentrata fruits at 63 to 65 °F.
- True natalensis
- The one clearly true-species record was slow and sparse, which supports the naming caveat.
Summarized from public grow logs, paraphrased. Sources:
Growing P. natalensis
Member reports come first, then public grow-log threads, then catalog suggestions. Each line says which.
At a glance
- Difficulty
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- Grows on
- Dung (manure-loving, like cubensis)
- Lineage and origin
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- Traits
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- Similar strains
- No data yet. Add your grow report
Timeline
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- Days to
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- To harvest
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- Flushes
- No data yet. Add your grow report
Climate
- Colonizing
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- Fresh air ()
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- Light
- No data yet. Add your grow report
Substrate and casing
- Substrate
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- No data yet. Add your grow report
What it looks like
- Phenotype
- No data yet. Add your grow report
- When to pick ()
- No data yet. Add your grow report
Common problems
- Reported
- No data yet. Add your grow report
From public grow logs
How a P. natalensis grow tends to run
Medians of what growers wrote down. Some count days from spawn, some from the start of fruiting, so treat these as rough guides.
Spawn
Day 0
Grain goes into bulk
Colonized
14 d
1 report
First pins
6 d
range 2–13 d, 5 reports
First flush
117 g wet
1 report
Grow reports (0)
Add your grow to the guideNo member reports on P. natalensis yet. Yours would be the first, and the numbers above start from it.
Three fields is enough: setup, days to pins, and how it went.
Recipes growers used
Add the recipe you usedNo substrate, grain or agar recipes tied to P. natalensis yet. See all grow recipes.
Notes from growers
Tips, corrections and “same thing happened to me” for P. natalensis as a whole.