Growing Shrooms Through the Ages: 1990 - Now

A History of Clandestine Psychedelic Mushroom Cultivation from the early internet to legalization and psychedelic therapy

This is Part 2 of a two article series. Part 2 covers ancient use of psilocybin mushrooms to the 1990s to present day. For ancient times to the 1980s check out Part 1

The 1990s: High-Tech, Low-Profile Mushroom Growing

During the 1990s, clandestine psychedelic mushroom cultivation evolved from a fringe hobby into a more accessible underground practice, marked by constant innovation in methods and a tight-knit, countercultural community ethos.

Home growers built on earlier techniques (from 1970s/80s guides) and eagerly experimented with new substrates and simple indoor setups to avoid detection. A watershed breakthrough was the PF Tek (Psilocybe Fanaticus Technique), introduced around 1991 by an enthusiast known as Psilocybe Fanaticus (Robert McPherson). The PF Tek involved injecting Psilocybe cubensis spores suspended in water into jars filled with a sterile mixture of brown rice flour and vermiculite, allowing the mycelium to colonize and eventually fruit mushrooms directly from the “cakes”, all without the elaborate lab gear that earlier methods required.

This fail-proof DIY approach dramatically lowered the bar for cultivation; it quickly gained a following after McPherson shared it via small underground newsletters and ads in counterculture magazines like High Times, selling spore-inoculated kits through the mail. At the time, psilocybin was (and remains) a Schedule I controlled substance, so cultivators operated covertly. Law enforcement generally treated mushroom growing as illicit drug manufacture, with severe penalties for those caught. Yet a legal gray area continued to fuel the movement: mushroom spores contain no psilocybin, making them legal to possess or sell in most U.S. states (aside from a few outliers like California and Georgia that banned spores outright). Exploiting this loophole, a cottage industry of mail-order spore vendors emerged, often advertising “for microscopy purposes only” and omitting any explicit mention of illicit use. These vendors, including McPherson’s operation, largely avoided scrutiny in the early ’90s, but authorities took notice as the decade progressed.

By 1999, for example, Psilocybe Fanaticus had come under federal investigation after parents complained about spore syringes (complete with grow instructions) arriving in the mail; his openly advertised kits had skirted the letter of the law, but the included instructions showed intent to produce an illegal drug, leading to his eventual arrest on conspiracy charges. Apart from such cases, information about mushroom growing spread through relatively limited yet growing channels in this pre-Internet or early-Internet era. Enthusiasts relied on marginal media and community networks: self-published zines and newsletters (e.g. the Entheogen Review), guidebooks stocked in head shops, and local mycology clubs where curious growers quietly exchanged tips. By the mid-to-late ’90s, the first online bulletin boards and forums (such as the Shroomery, founded in 1997, and earlier Usenet groups) provided new platforms for pseudonymous cultivators to swap knowledge. In these early digital communities, as in the underground scene at large, growers embraced a do-it-yourself, open-source ethos. They freely shared “teks” (techniques), troubleshooting advice, and novel tricks, reflecting a countercultural ethos of the time that blended 1960s hippie ideals with a hacker-like commitment to communal knowledge and self-sufficiency. Psychedelic mushrooms during the ’90s thus inhabited a unique cultural niche: their cultivation was underground and illegal, yet propelled by inventive amateurs working in cooperative spirit, disseminating their discoveries through clandestine print and fledgling online networks, all while navigating legal loopholes and sustaining the alternative spiritual and lifestyle values that defined the decade’s psychedelic counterculture.

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