Catch Your Spore Print

Pick a safe mushroom

To catch a spore print, you need a ripe mushroom with open gills. A grown-up can pick one from a shop or from your grow kit.

Good ones are portobello, shiitake, or oyster mushrooms. These are safe, farm-grown kinds.

Never use a wild mushroom you found outside. Wild mushrooms can be dangerous. We only use safe, shop-grown ones for this.

Wash and gather

First, wash your hands with soap and water. Then gather your things:

• One ripe mushroom

• A sheet of paper

• A small cup or bowl to cover it

• One drop of water

A grown-up removes the stem

Ask your grown-up to snip off the stem with scissors. Cutting is a grown-up job.

With the stem gone, the cap can sit flat with its gills pointing down.

Set up your print

Now the fun part. You can do these steps:

1. Lay the cap on the paper with the gills facing down.

2. Put one small drop of water on top of the cap. This helps the spores drop.

3. Gently cover the cap with the cup or bowl. This stops drafts from blowing the spores away.

Now we wait

Leave the cap alone overnight, about 6 to 12 hours. The spores need quiet time to fall.

While you wait, the mushroom is slowly raining down thousands of tiny spores onto your paper. You cannot see it happening. In the next lesson, we lift the cap for the big reveal!