I know this is kind of an older thread & this is only my 2nd post here & it's pretty long, but I have spent A LOT of time & money on spore samples, heating mats, petri dishes, substrates & the like trying to grow shrooms before I found any level of success...Now this was like 15+ years ago, but my experience may prove helpful & is offered for educational purposes only.
The best bet would be to find a liquid spore solution, usually purchased in a syringe. Someone looking at this would also need Mason/Bell jars with lids, vermiculite, a pressure cooker, some duct tape, a cheap aquarium, a spray bottle & a piece of plexiglass that will fit inside the aquarium diagonally so as to make two separate areas inside the aquarium ie. a front area & a rear area. All of this can be purchased for about $100.
The next step would be to fill the Mason jars with vermiculite & a little water & then poke 2 holes in the lids using a small nail (a little larger than the size of the syringe needle), then cover the holes with a piece of duct tape. The jars now need to go into the pressure cooker to be sterilized (water needs to be added to the pressure cooker as well, but not so much as to boil into the jars). Even though in nature, some of the best shrooms will pop up out of cow pies, this is a necessary step. Now I don't remember the exact time & temp the jars need to be in the cooker, but I'm feeling 15psi for 40-45 min. be sure not to bring the temp up too fast as the jars may crack. The jars will now need to cool off to room temp., overnight would be best.
Once the jars have reached room temp, lift the tape to reveal the holes in the lid. Inject about 2-2.5ml of the liquid spore solution per hole & re-cover the holes with the duct tape. Store the jars in a relatively warm place out of direct light, I used a closet that my hot water pipes ran through (with the door open for indirect light). After 3-5 days a white cotton like substance will form, this is called mycelium, it is for my lack of a better term, the shroom's roots. Leave the jars here until the mycelium has permeated the jars & little light brown "knots" start to form (2-4 weeks).
Now the mycelium "cakes" can be taken out of the jars (they should just slide out) & placed into the aquarium, using the jar lids as a base for the cakes to sit on. The cakes need to be placed in the rear area of the aquarium & the plexiglass piece place in front of them. For this stage, the aquarium can be placed on a table or shelf so that it gets indirect light.
Using the spray bottle, spray the front area of the plexiglass a few times a day in order to keep the humidity levels up in the aquarium, making sure the excess water is dumped/drained at least once daily.
Soon actual shrooms will begin to form, & when they are fully developed (this can be determined when they bruise a purple/blue color....pinch them a little to bruise them) then they will be ready to harvest. Each cake will produce more than 1 harvest (or FLUSH), but each flush will produce less shrooms....a reasonable expectation could be 3 flushes per cake.
After harvesting a flush, the shrooms will need to be dried, some sort of desiccant can be used. Typically a desiccant will look like kitty litter & can be purchased at any hardware store & then placed in the bottom of a brownie pan (1/8th of an inch will do the job), with a screen placed on top of the desiccant & the wet shrooms placed on top of the screen. Put the brownie pan inside of a plastic garbage bag & close it tight, after 24hrs the shrooms should be dried, rock hard & ready to enjoy.
I hope this info has been educational!!
On a personal note, I never cared for the taste of shrooms, so I would put the finished product into a coffee bean grinder & turn it to dust, I would then fill empty gel-caps (purchased from a local head shop) & enjoy then that way.
