The Tek Ladder: the order it goes in
A course sells order, not prose. This is that order, given away: every tek a grower needs, in sequence, with the ones not yet written marked plainly.
01 · The clean room
The first rung is deliberately not about mushrooms. Cultivating psilocybin mushrooms is a serious criminal offence in most of the world, so the honest first step is finding out where you actually stand, and the second is understanding that contamination, not skill, is what ends most first attempts. Read the law, read what it costs before you spend anything, and learn what clean work looks like. Everything above this rung assumes all three.
- The Decriminalization Map, 2026 · Gentle · Low outlay · 20 min · published
- What a First Grow Actually Costs in 2026 · Gentle · Low outlay · 25 min · published
- Cleaning down a room you also live in · Gentle · Low outlay · planned
- A still air box that actually works · Straightforward · Low outlay · planned
- The pressure cooker, honestly · Fiddly · Medium outlay · planned
02 · First culture
A culture is the thing you keep. Before any grain or any tub, it is worth seeing the whole run end to end so the vocabulary stops being noise, then learning the two ways a culture is carried: in liquid, and on agar. Agar is the slower of the two and the one most beginners skip, which is exactly why so many of them cannot say what went wrong.
- Semi-Solid Liquid Culture · Fiddly · Low outlay · 45 min · published
- Pouring agar without a lab · Fiddly · Medium outlay · planned
- Transferring on agar, wedge by wedge · Demanding · Low outlay · planned
- Keeping a culture alive for a year · Fiddly · Low outlay · planned
03 · Grain
Grain is where most runs are quietly lost, usually before anything is inoculated. Hydration, the sterilising cycle and the first shake are three small decisions with weeks of consequence, and none of them are written up here yet. This rung is the largest gap in the library and it is at the top of the queue for that reason.
- Grain and water, the part everyone rushes · Fiddly · Low outlay · planned
- A sterilising cycle you can repeat · Fiddly · Medium outlay · planned
- Inoculating a jar in a still air box · Fiddly · Low outlay · planned
- Shaking a jar, and when not to · Straightforward · Low outlay · planned
- Reading a grain jar, week by week · Straightforward · Low outlay · planned
04 · Bulk
Bulk is the first decision with a shape: a jar, or a tub. The comparison is written and it is worth reading before you buy a single thing, because the two paths need different kit and reward different temperaments. What is not written yet is the substrate itself, which is the part that decides whether the tub holds water or turns sour.
- PF Tek vs Monotub: Which First Grow? · Straightforward · Low outlay · 25 min · published
- Substrate, pasteurised not sterilised · Fiddly · Medium outlay · planned
- The monotub, built and drilled · Straightforward · Medium outlay · planned
- Spawning to bulk without wrecking it · Fiddly · Low outlay · planned
05 · Fruiting
Fruiting is where patience gets tested and where the most damage is done by fiddling. The one tek written for this rung is the important one: telling healthy growth from the thing that ends the run, at two in the morning, without a microscope. Air, humidity and pinning are still to come.
- Reading Your Grow · Straightforward · Low outlay · 20 min · published
- Fresh air exchange, in plain English · Fiddly · Low outlay · planned
- Humidity, without the hygrometer war · Fiddly · Low outlay · planned
- Pinning, and why it stalls · Fiddly · Low outlay · planned
- When contamination arrives late · Fiddly · Low outlay · planned
06 · Harvest and after
The run does not end at the harvest. Timing, drying and storage decide whether the work survives the month, and the log decides whether the next attempt is better than this one. This rung also carries the two pieces that are not horticulture at all, because a ladder that teaches the growing and skips what the thing does to a person would be a dishonest ladder.
- Harvesting at the veil · Straightforward · Low outlay · planned
- Drying, and knowing when it is done · Straightforward · Medium outlay · planned
- Storing what you dried · Gentle · Low outlay · planned
- The second flush, and when to stop · Straightforward · Low outlay · planned
- Set, Setting, and the Grow Room · Straightforward · Low outlay · 18 min · published
- What Psilocybin Does to the Brain · Straightforward · Low outlay · 22 min · published
- Keeping a log you will actually read back · Gentle · Low outlay · planned