So, I've got a brief bit of writing on each page about how you store your magic mushroom spores that you buy, so that you can wait for a change in the law or until you move to a country where it's legal to grow magic mushrooms (sounds great!), but I suppose this is one of those things where a bit more detail might be useful, even if just to stop me having to write it multiple times in emails! Best thing is to start off with a very brief explainer about spores, because then the rest of it will make more sense:

What spores are:

Super-basic level science here: spores, any kind of spores, are essentially like a little suit of armour around the living material inside. The purpose of this is so that they can float about to an area where they're likely to be able to multiply; spores can handle a fair bit of heat or cold, and the little astronaut inside is gonna be just fine. However, even a fancy spacesuit has got limitations. You are, I would hope, very unlikely to be placing your spores into an oven for safe keeping, as that would wreck them, but a warm room? Unlikely to cause any issues for literally months. Freezing is more likely to destroy them (especially in a spore syringe) as the water (even in the cell walls) will freeze and shred all the genetic material to hell. Spores are fuckin' hardcore but still can't cope with that kind of existential murder.

Thankfully spores don't need eyes to see

Where to store your spore syringes:

Straight to it: you should store them in a fridge, at the temperature that your fridge is (hopefully) normally at, which should be 5°C (or lower). Now really, this is probably going to be overkill for most of you - spore syringes will stay good for at least six months at ambient temperatures, but if you're aiming for the industry-standard storage option then a fridge is best, because you could keep them for literal years there. What's the science behind this? Simple: you use distilled water to make a spore syringe (Golden Teacher, for example), but although distilled water is 99.9% clean, it's still going to have absorbed some minerals and compounds from the air during the process of being distilled, and of making the spore syringe. Whilst that isn't enough for anything untoward to start growing in the short term, it can be enough over a longer timeframe, so a fridge will keep everything in a kind of stasis for as long as possible.

This does come with a few caveats -  keep them off the back of the fridge, because they're more likely to freeze there, and like I said up top, if you freeze them they're knackered. The other main thing to keep an eye out for is all the other stuff going manky in your fridge. We've all done it, you whack a cucumber in the bottom drawer, and then when you remember that it was there it's gone and turned itself into a fuzzy puddle of smoothie. All these random bits of contaminant can land on the outside of your syringe, and you don't really want that, so probably keep it in the bag in comes in, or whack it in one of those little plastic takeaway boxes, and don't forget to give the whole thing a really good wipe down with some 70% ISO alcohol before you use it again.

Where to store your spore prints:

Keeping spore prints is a whole load easier, and they'll last a lot longer - just follow the standard golden rule for most things! Keep it somewhere cool and dark, and they'll last for a decade, if you've kept them sealed up nicely. The main thing that'll cause you issues here would be moisture: moisture can invite any contaminants to start germinating. This wouldn't have been a problem if your spores were all split up in multiple syringes, as the contamination would be segregated, but on the print it means your whole print will likely fail. It's really easy to avoid this situation though - just use an airtight plastic box, and ensure there isn't a massive amount of temperature fluctuation where you keep your prints (that would up the chances of condensation). We send out our spore prints in a little sealable plastic bag, so seal that up, pop the bag into another box, and keep it in a cupboard somewhere.

yeah this is what the spore fridges would look like if I were rich as fuck 

Where to store your spore swabs:

Spore swabs are an odd middle ground between a spore syringe and a spore print, just because of the nature of the medium. Spore swabs are used to harvest spores from the types of mushrooms that don't drop enough of them to make a decent print, by getting the sterile swab up in the gills and giving it a good spin. This will get enough off to be viable for storage, but also means that you may have any contaminants that've floated there, all stored on a nice squishy bit of cotton. Because of this, the need to keep them dry and cool is even more important than with a spore print, so just follow the same rules, and you'll be fine for several years. 

Cool and dark all the time, yeah?

Cool and dark, man. Just keep everything as cool, without freezing, and as dark, without you having to extinguish the sun, as you are able, and you'll be fine for years, which is plenty of time for some cool kind of societal change to occur, I'm sure.

I said cool and dark son, do I need to repeat myself?

Anything else going on lately Mr. Orangutan?

Yes, actually! I've got a competition finishing on July 31st, where you can win one of five tickets to All Things Fungi Festival 2026, courtesy of Orangutan Trading Co! I realise this is pretty short notice at this point, but it's been running for a week(ish) now, and if you're looking to enter, just hop on over to my Instagram page and check my posts.

Anyway, that's it for now, all very educational this time around, can't promise that's gonna stick as I prefer writing nonsense. All the best, hope you're all enjoying the heatwave!