Quito (Psilocybe cubensis)

Category: Psilocybe
Potency Level: Medium to high
Edibility: Hallucinogenic edible

What is Quito? A Complete Overview

The Quito mushroom strain is a Psilocybe cubensis variety named after the capital city of Ecuador. It is famous among psychonauts and cultivators for its distinct balance between visual and cerebral effects. Visually, Quito mushrooms feature medium-sized caps that range in color from golden caramel to light ochre, often turning bluish when bruised—a clear indication of their psilocybin content. The stems are generally slender and robust, with a pronounced ring and slightly thicker base. Consistent yields result from mushroom grow bags and monotub or dubtub approaches.

Quito mushrooms are known for their reliable colonization and fruiting behavior, making them popular among both novice and advanced home cultivators. In terms of psychotropic effects, they fall into the medium-to-strong category, with experiences often characterized by introspective thoughts, enhanced creativity, light tracers, and vivid iridescent visuals. This strain strikes a manageable balance between potency and accessibility, making it a favorite among those exploring spiritual or therapeutic mushroom sessions.

Due to their origin in the highland tropics of Ecuador, Quito mushrooms are believed to possess a slightly slower growth rate compared to other cubensis strains, but they compensate with consistent fruiting and robust pinset formation.

Taxonomic Classification

Kingdom:Fungi
Division:Basidiomycota
Class:Agaricomycetes
Order:Agaricales
Family:Hymenogastraceae
Genus:Psilocybe
Species:cubensis
Type:Classic
Cross:None

Origin and Traditional Use of Quito

The Quito mushroom strain, as its name suggests, originates near the region of Quito, Ecuador—a place long known for its highland biodiversity and historical use of psychoactive plants by indigenous populations. While this specific strain is a modern variant of Psilocybe cubensis and thus lacks direct mention in ancient texts, its ancestral relatives were used by Andean and Amazonian tribes for ritualistic and healing purposes for centuries.

In pre-Columbian ceremonies throughout the Andes and Orinoco basins, reports and relics suggest psychoactive fungi played a role in connecting shamans with the spirit world. Ecuadorian shamans from groups such as the Shuar and Kichwa (Quechua) utilized various entheogens in sacred contexts—most notably ayahuasca. However, mushroom use is also part of ancestral tradition, particularly in high-altitude rainforests where psilocybin species thrive.

The modern discovery and naming of the Quito strain reflect mycological exploration in the Amazon corridor during the 20th century, where bio-explorers and enthusiasts began identifying and collecting wild cubensis specimens for cultivation. Today, Quito serves as a cultural callback to a region with deep entheogenic traditions, blending historical reverence with contemporary psychedelic science and wellness trends.

How to Cultivate Quito

Difficulty Level: Beginner to Intermediate - reliable colonization and fruiting behavior makes it suitable for most cultivators.

Substrate Requirements:

Environmental Conditions:

  • Colonization Temperature: 75°F to 80°F (24°C–27°C)
  • Fruiting Temperature: 70°F to 75°F (21°C–24°C)
  • Humidity: 90–95% during fruiting
  • Air Exchange: Good air exchange essential
  • Lighting: 12/12 hour light cycles with indirect light

Timeline:

  • Colonization: 2–3 weeks at optimal temperatures
  • Pinning stage: 7–10 days post-transfer to fruiting conditions
  • Harvesting: Regular misting and monitoring required

Beginner-Friendly Options: Our all-in-one grow kits include pre-sterilized grain compartment, built-in CVG substrate, and microporous air exchange barrier. Simply inject with liquid culture or spore syringe and monitor with minimal intervention required.

Where Does Quito Typically Grow?

The Quito strain hails from Ecuador's central highlands, a biodiverse ecosystem that offers moist, tropical, and subtropical forest environments. Naturally, Psilocybe cubensis grows in humid lowland areas and tropical savannah zones, but the Quito strain has been adapted for life at slightly higher altitudes.

In the wild, Psilocybe cubensis such as Quito often colonize the dung of grazing animals, thriving in nitrogen-rich soils with organic decomposition. They are most commonly found in cattle pastures, open fields, and forest edges where there is light and moisture but also ample airflow. Moisture is essential—regions that receive regular rainfall or experience periodic misting provide ideal microclimates for wild fruiting.

Key environmental conditions include:

  • Altitude: 500 to 2000 meters (1,640 to 6,560 feet)
  • Temperature: 70°F–85°F (21°C–29°C)
  • Volcanic soil rich in organic matter
  • Shaded areas with tropical tree cover
  • Protection from direct sun during hottest parts of day

Today, the habitat for wild Quito cubensis has expanded globally through cultivation, but its wild profile remains linked to the fertile greenery and cloud forest edge zones surrounding the Andes.

When is Quito in Season?

March through November

Is Quito Edible or Toxic?

Status: Hallucinogenic edible

Toxicity Information:

As with all psilocybin-containing mushrooms, the Quito strain is considered non-toxic in traditional dosing ranges but poses psychological risks under certain conditions. The primary concern is not physiological toxicity—psilocybin is among the safest known psychoactive substances in terms of lethal dosage—but rather the potential for adverse mental, emotional, or physical reactions.

Physical Risks:
  • Possible side effects: anxiety, nausea during onset, dizziness, confusion
  • Rare cases: panic attacks or paranoia
  • High doses may lead to overwhelming visuals and emotional responses
Risk of Misidentification:

Psilocybe cubensis species—including Quito—have toxic lookalikes in the wild, such as Galerina marginata and some Cortinarius species, which can cause serious liver failure and death. Proper identification or cultivation from known spore sources is essential to ensure safety.

Individuals with a known history or family predisposition to psychoses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder should avoid consuming psilocybin. Users should be cautious with dosage and avoid combining mushrooms with stimulants, alcohol, or other psychoactive substances.

What are the Medicinal Uses for Quito?

The Quito strain, like many Psilocybe cubensis varieties, is renowned for its rich content of psychoactive compounds psilocybin and psilocin—substances currently under extensive research for their vast range of mental health benefits. Although not medically approved in most jurisdictions, the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms such as Quito continues to build significant interest in academic and clinical settings.

Potential Benefits:

  • Depression Treatment: Clinical trials reveal psilocybin helps reduce symptoms of major depressive disorder, particularly treatment-resistant forms
  • Anxiety and PTSD: Shows promise in reducing anxiety, PTSD, and OCD symptoms under supervised conditions
  • Neuroplasticity Enhancement: Research indicates psilocybin enhances neuroplasticity, supporting learning, behavior change, and cognitive rehabilitation
  • Addiction Treatment: May help break deeply rooted neural pathways associated with addictive thinking habits
  • Microdosing Applications: Enhanced focus, creativity, emotional balance, and improved sociability

Neuroscientific research indicates that psilocybin enhances neuroplasticity and increases serotonin receptor activity, contributing to elevated mood and reduced anxiety. Long-term microdosing of strains like Quito is emerging as a tool for treating cluster headaches, enhancing spiritual wellbeing, and improving mindfulness-based practices.

Important: Medical applications are still under study. Quito's moderate-to-strong potency allows it to be considered versatile for supportive interventions when supervised and legally permitted. Always consult healthcare professionals before considering therapeutic use.

What Drugs Interact with Quito?

Interactions with Prescription Medications:

  • Serotonergic Drugs: SSRIs (fluoxetine, sertraline), SNRIs, and especially MAOIs can interact dangerously with psilocybin, potentially causing serotonin syndrome
  • Anti-anxiety Medications: Benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium) may blunt or unpredictably intensify effects. Sometimes used clinically to abort experiences but concurrent recreational use is discouraged
  • Antidepressants: May interfere with psilocybin's therapeutic effects due to receptor competition

Other Substances:

  • Stimulants: Amphetamines, cocaine, and large doses of caffeine may heighten anxiety, heart rate, or paranoia
  • Alcohol: Can dull introspection and increase chance of disinhibited or erratic behavior during trips
  • Cannabis: Often enhances psychedelic effects and can push mild trips to full-blown visionary states
  • Herbal Supplements: St. John's Wort or 5-HTP can affect serotonergic activity and should be discontinued before psilocybin use

Important: Anyone considering using psychedelic mushrooms while on medication should always consult a healthcare provider to avoid physiological or psychological risks.

What Mushrooms Look Like Quito?

The Quito strain is a Psilocybe cubensis and shares visual characteristics with other cubensis strains and some dangerous non-psychedelic fungi. Successful identification requires close observation of physical features and growth conditions.

  • Gymnopilus species: Such as Gymnopilus luteofolius, which also bruise blue and grow on wood but do not contain psilocybin. Bitter taste and can cause gastrointestinal discomfort
  • Galerina marginata (Deadly Galerina): Extremely dangerous - contains deadly amatoxins harmful to the liver. Usually grows on decaying wood rather than dung, but can be mistaken based on color alone
  • Cortinarius species: Share similar brown and orange caps, grow in comparable environments, but have rusty-colored spores and webbed veils distinct from cubensis
  • Other Psilocybe cubensis strains: Golden Teacher, B+, Ecuador - similar cap shapes and colonization patterns but with slight differences in hue, bruising reaction, and stem density

Safety Note: Using verified spores or purchasing from reputable grow kit providers ensures safety and correctness for cultivation and study. Proper identification is crucial to avoid potentially fatal mistakes.

Disclaimer: This information is for educational, taxonomy, and research purposes only. Always consult a trained professional before attempting to identify any mushroom. Always consult a trained healthcare professional before attempting to ingest any mushroom. Do not message asking if we sell cultures or spores, all requests will be ignored. Always respect your local laws.

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We have a human support team that will assist with any question that we are able to answer.

Shipping Questions

Our fulfillment team is fast! In most cases your order will ship the same day if the order was placed before 1pm or within 1 business day.

Even sterilized grains and all in one bags we can fulfill quickly because we run our autoclaves daily.

Custom orders, or large orders may need extra time to cook.

It depends on weight of the package.

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As of now we do not offer internal shipping.

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General Questions

Yes! You do not need previous experience to enjoy our products.

Each product has been crafted to save you time, and ensure success regardless of your experience level.

Yes. Just a brown box.

We are very fair.

Just email us and we will discuss options.

Google

Mushroom Grow Bag Instructions Zombie Mushrooms

for more detailed instruction.

Well, this could get quite lengthy. To recap:

We cook products fresh daily.

  • Some companies cook extremely large batches once a month. The first guy gets a fresh bag. The last get gets a stale bag.

We ship our own products daily.

  • Some companies use warehousing services which require the vendor to store 10,000 units there. Our products generally don't sit on shelves for more than 1 business day.

We implement batch testing.

  • Every autoclave cycle is tested and tagged. It doesn't pass unless a physical test strip reads, "sterile".

We like to experiment.

  • We constantly change up formulas when we realize there is a better way. This ensures you are getting the best of the best.

We do things the "hard way".

  • Some vendors like to take shortcuts. We like to as well, however it will never be at the cost of the product quality. We don't employ a "no soak" or "no simmer" method because while it does work, its just not as good. We soak our grains, and simmer our grains to get optimal grain moisture content every day.

Generally speaking, you should try to work with mushroom liquid cultures when possible, however there are many things to consider.

Mushroom spores and Mushroom liquid cultures are very different and have different pros, cons, and restrictions.

Mushroom Spores: Spores that have not germinated yet, and are collected in open air environments.

Mushroom Liquid Cultures: Mycelium that is suspended in a liquid broth, and was created in sterile environments.

Without going to deep, Mushroom Liquid Cultures are:

  • faster to colonize vs spores.
  • contain less contamination (when created properly).
  • perform more consistently vs spores.

You can still use a spore syringe, however results may not be guaranteed as spores are collected in open air environments, and may have some other contaminants present.

Mushroom grow bags are much easier to use, however Monotub's will yield heavier flushes.

If you are new to mycology, stick to the all in one mushroom grow bags for your first few grows. They perform very reliably and still output alot of mushrooms.

After a few grows, you can attempt to do a Monotub grow by using mushroom grain spawn, and mixing manually with CVG.

Mushroom Grow Bag Questions

Our all in one mushroom grow bags include everything except the spore/lc syringe.

There are so many varieties to choose from, we focus on the bags, and let you guys choose what you want to grow.

We can recommend vendors that that sell spores for gourmets and medicinal mushrooms. Sometimes we even get discount codes for you guys, but we never get compensated for these referrals. It is strictly from the feedback of our purchasers.

No, you never want to open your all in one mushroom grow bag until the final stage or after 100% colonization.

Opening a bag too early can cause any uncolonized grain to contaminate.

This is why we have an injection port and filter patch.

It is a self contained ecosystem until the final stage.

When you want to mix your bag, you may find it hard to mix without any air in the bag.

Knowing you can't open the bag, you can use gravity to help pull in some air through the filter patch.

Use a coat rack (or just manually hold). Hang for 3 min. Gravity will pull clean air through the filter. Then you take it down. It is simply a useful trick to get clean air into the bag.

We do not operate with the "No Soak" Tek as it provides inferior results to soaking grains. This allows even the toughest endospores to germinate.

We do not operate with the "No Simmer" Tek as it provides inferior results to cooking grains. This ensures the proper moisture content is nailed before it hits the autoclave.

Mushroom grow bags can be safely stored on a shelf without refrigeration for 2 weeks without significant performance declines. However, you should use your mushroom grow bags immediately upon arrival, as this is when the moisture content will be ideal.

If you cannot use your mushroom grow bag immediately, it is recommended to store in the fridge to help preserve its freshness.

The simplified answer is 3-5cc's per bag.

However, if you have access to more Liquid Culture, you can inject up to 10cc or a full syringe per bag. This will give even faster colonization and save you up to 3-7 days to full colonization.

No, you should never mix the bag after injecting mushroom spores because it could reduce mushroom germination success.

If you are injecting mushroom liquid culture instead of spores, you want to make sure to rotate the bag to spread the liquid culture across the grain as best as you can.

Make sure the bag is left "grain side down" for the first day to let the solution be in contact with the grain. After that you can flip the bag grain side up to allow any remaining inoculant to get absorbed.

You will see mycelium growth within 3-21 days after injecting into your mushroom grow bag. There are many factors that can influence this time including:

  • Mushroom genetics used
  • Liquid Culture vs Spores
  • Temperature
  • How clean your inoculant was.

Keep in mind, Liquid cultures may show signs of growth the first week, however some spore syringes may take up to 3 weeks (sometimes longer) to show any signs of growth.

Mushroom Fruiting Questions

  • 5lb mushroom grow bags can yield 3oz of dried mushrooms per bag.
  • 3lb mushroom grow bags can yield well over 1.5oz of dried mushrooms per bag.

There are many factors that can influence your results including:

  • What genetics were used.
  • How clean the genetics were.
  • If sterile procedures were followed.
  • What conditions was the bags kept at.

Scientifically speaking, the amount of mushrooms you get out is capped to the amount of nutrients (grain) in your mushroom grow bag. Mushrooms can never grow more output than what was given as an input. If contamination or stressors were present, your yields will be far less.

Your mushroom grow bags are likely to support multiple flushes, or sometimes will yield 1 single large flush.

This is highly dependent on the genetics of what type of mushroom you are trying to grow. Try not to focus on the yield of each individual flush, but calculate all flushes in total.

After your first flush, you can try for a 2nd flush if you came up short on your yield goals. There should be enough water already inside the bag for a second flush, however you may gently mist the cake to get it ready for another flush, and place a paperclip over the top of the bag to keep the moisture in and create a "humidity dome" out of the bag.

There are alternate methods for "dunking" or "re-soaking" your cake overnight, however that may not be necessary and may add extra stress and contamination vectors.

Remember, if your first flush was large, and within 30% of your target, it may not be worthwhile to attempt a second flush. If contamination was present at all, then surely do not attempt another flush as it will not be successful.

Mushroom fruiting conditions are the ideal conditions to recreate for the specific mushroom you trying to cultivate. Each mushroom variety has different temperatures, humidity levels, gas exchange requirements, ambient light needs.

Refer to your instruction card to confirm you are dialing in your bag properly.

Generally speaking, for most dung loving mushrooms, you want to find a cool place around 60-75 degrees, and you want to start introducing light only after you see mushroom pinning (baby mushrooms). You do not need a lot of light, but you should try to find a light source in the 5000-6000k spectrum, but don't over think it, a simple florescent bulb, or indirect light from a window is most of the time totally fine.

Keep in mind, mushrooms don't need alot of light (sometimes, they grow just fine with no light at all). Mushrooms are not like plants where they photosynthesize, they mainly use light as a sense of direction. So don't fry them!

Mushroom Liquid Culture Questions

Mushroom liquid cultures can last quite a long time if stored properly and are contamination free. Some people have reported using mushroom liquid cultures over 2 years old, however this is not recommended.

As a rule of thumb, try to use mushroom liquid culture jars within 2-3 months of inoculation, and store in a cool dark place.

If contamination is ever detected, throw out the jar immediately. Do not open the jar unless you know what you are doing.

Sometimes the mycelium grows on the surface layer of the liquid culture that is exposed to air, which is not ideal and could effect how much gas exchange the liquid culture broth will get going forward.

If this happens just mix the jar rapidly to try to break up the floating mycelium cake.

You need to agitate the liquid culture solution regularly to avoid this from happening.

You may inject a mushroom spore syringe or mushroom liquid culture syringe into your jar by using the included injection port.

This allows you to expand your existing mushroom spore syringe and turn them into hundreds of liquid culture syringes.

You must follow the sterile instructions provided to ensure success including flame sterilizing your needle tip, and sanitizing your workstation. Working behind a HEPA flow hood is ideal, however is not required.

Your liquid culture jar comes with a stirring utensil which will help you agitate the broth.

Green Cap jars come with a marble which allows you to just hand shake the jar.

Blue Cap jars come with a stir bar allowing you to use the jar on a magnetic stir plate.

Mushroom Agar Plate Questions

Mushroom agar plates can last months when sealed properly and stored correctly. If your genetics will survive in the refrigerator, we recommend storing used and unused cups in the refrigerator inside of a large ziplock bag to ensure freshness.

Don't worry, this is completely normal.

The agar is just breaking down the food coloring. This does not mean anything is wrong.

No, you will not be successful opening agar in normal open air environments. You might get lucky once, but this will cause many problems going down the road as some contaminants may not present themselves immediately.

Agar cultures are only reliable when using sterile procedures behind a HEPA flow hood or FFU that is capable of filtering out ≥99.99% @ ≥0.3μm.

If you don't have access to a HEPA Flow Hood, you may want to build a "still air box" which should increase your success rates, however is still not a reliable practice long term.

We think Mushroom Agar Cups are the best because they don't require Parafilm to seal the cup. This provides significant cost and time savings, and are very easy to use.

Bulk Mushroom Wholesale Account

Yes we do. Please reach out using our contact form and the appropriate team will reach out.

Bags:

  • Any single order size over 1000lb may qualify for extra discounts.

Liquid Culture:

  • Any single order size over 250 Jars may qualify for extra discounts.

Other:

  • If your order size is substantially larger than the quantity listed in the listing, we can discuss bulk orders.

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