Origin
The name is believed to reference the American sitcom Alf, which aired from 1986 to 1990, following the friendly extraterrestrial Gordon Shumway from the planet Melmac who crash-landed onto Earth and is taken into an American household.
As for the mushroom strain's origin, Melmac is a lab-bred variant of the famous Penis Envy mushroom. You might also find this strain named Melmac Penis Envy or Homestead Penis Envy.
There are even some stories floating around that Melmac shrooms are closer to the original Penis Envy that was on the market in the 1970s than the Penis Envy cultivars sold today.
Regarding physical characteristics, Melmac mushrooms have a similar phallic shape and a strong psilocybin potency, like the more famous Penis Envy.
What really distinguishes them from Penis Envy are their deep golden wavy caps and warped stems.
The History Of Melmac Mushroom Strain
The history of Melmac mushrooms is closely tied to Terence Mckenna's discovery of the Penis Envy strain in his adventures in the Amazon Rainforest in the early 1970s.
One story goes that Mckenna collected the wild spore sample to send to mycologist Steven Pollock. Pollock isolated the genetics that led to the Penis Envy strain as we know it today.
Another story exists of another mycologist, Richard Guiterrez (Rich Gee), isolating and stabilizing the genetics from Mckenna's spores, which would eventually become Penis Envy.
The Melmac mushroom strain emerged throughout the iterations of breeding techniques to produce high potency and stable Penis Envy shroom genetics.
Some mycologists argue that Melmac is just another name for Penis Envy, which is why it also goes by the name Homestead Penis Envy. It was given an original name, separate from Penis Envy, because of its unique physical features the deep golden cap colour with its wavy texture and gnarled stems.
It's believed that the Melmac might be the closest sub-variant of the strain among other popular variants such as Albino Penis Envy, Penis Envy Uncut, and Penis Envy #6, which came about through mutations.
The defining characteristics of Melmac from other Penis Envy subs-variants are its deeper golden cap with slight waves and gnarled stem.
Potency
Melmac mushrooms generally have a higher-than-average potency so a smaller dose can go a long way in comparsion to milder strains like Golden Teachers
Taking between 2-4 grams is considered a moderate dose that will provide a full psychoactive mushroom experience with heavy visuals and auditory hallucinations, feelings of euphoria, and an altered thought pattern.
Anything higher than this is considered a "heroic dose" which should be reserved for those with experience and who are ready for a more profound mind-bending trip.
Some people may choose to microdose this strain to improve mood, concentration, relaxation, and overall well-being without experiencing a high. In this case aim for 0.2- 0.5 grams.
The Melmac strain has been entered into the Psilocybin Cup six times so far. The Psilocybin Cup is an event where cultivators and psilocybin mushroom breeders can enter their shroom strains to compete for potency, appearance, and taste, attaining recognition and awards.
The strongest submission to date was entered in the Spring 2022 competition by Chad's Mycology NPB. This sample tested 1.45% total tryptamine levels (psilocybin, psilocin, baeocystin, and other tryptamine derivatives combined).
The average potency for this strain is much lower, at around 0.98%. This places it in the above-average category when talking about potency. Consider a strain with above average potency ranging from approximately 1% to 1.8% of total tryptamines.
Effects
What Does Melmac Feel Like?
The effects of Melmac are generally similar to other Psilocybe cubensis strains, which typically uplifts the user's mood. Due to it's relation to Penis Envy the effects of Melmac are also visual with deep thoughts and slight body high and an altered perception of time.
Experiences with Melmac shrooms can vary from one person to the next based on the dose taken, unique body chemistry, experience with psychedelics, mindset, and setting.
On a full psychoactive dose of Melmac shrooms, people report intense visual and auditory hallucinations with vivid colors, patterns, distorted sounds, and an altered perception of time, with effects lasting up to six hours.
The Melmac strain is rarer than other Penis Envy sub-variants listed because these shrooms are known to release very few spores from their fruiting bodies.
How to Grow Melmac Mushrooms
Melmac shrooms are more of a novelty strain as the genetics are challenging to come by, and they tend to produce a low fruiting body count with smaller subsequent flushes.
Nonetheless, Melmac shrooms are still a highly sought-after strain due to their faster-than-normal colonization speed and their ability to produce exceptionally potent mushrooms under the best growing conditions.
We recommend a quick read-through of our guide on cultivating magic mushrooms to get started using the PK-Tek method, which in our opinion, is the most straightforward and reliable way to grow magic mushrooms.
Compared to the Golden Teacher strain, Melmac can be a little more challenging and requires more patience for its slow fruiting time but it's still possible to grow Melmac as long as you carefully follow instructions.
This method involves inoculating sterile jars with your Melmac spores, allowing them to colonize, and transferring them into a fruiting chamber where you'll harvest your crop.
The whole process, from inoculation to reaping the fruit of your efforts, takes anywhere from five to seven weeks.
The ideal environment for most cubensis strains, including Melamac, is as follows:
- Humidity: High (>80%)
- Substrate: rye grain, wild bird seed, brown rice flour, vermiculite
Melmac shrooms, like most Penis Envy offshoots, are fairly resistant to contaminants. Ensure you're setting yourself up for success by being extremely attentive to the cleanliness of your working station and tools.
The most notable difference with Melmac is that it's faster to colonize, but it does tend to have a longer growing cycle with the fruits reaching full maturity around the six to seven-week mark, so patience is key with this strain.
After the first flush, don't throw out the cakes. You can expect a few more flushes from your cakes, though each flush will be sparser and sparser as Melmac isn't known for its impressive yields.
Melmac magic mushrooms are a variation of the Penis Envy mushroom strain. This strain and variants of Penis Envy are known for their exceptional potency and are fairly easy to cultivate with a bit of care.
Of course, if you want something similar that's much easier to source, go for the Penis Envy strain, but if you're looking for a high potency that's a bit more unique, here are some fun shrooms for you:
1. Albino Penis Envy
Albino Penis Envy (APE) is a genetic mutation of the famous Penis Envy strain with one main difference the lack of pigmentation resulting in pure white fruiting bodies, which makes for a visually impressive mushroom.
Just like the original Penis Envy, Albino Penis Envy is easy to cultivate but tends to produce lower fruit yields.
2. Tidal Wave
Tidal Wave is a hybrid of the Penis Envy and B+ strains, which won the 2021 Psilocybin Cup for the highest potency strain.
These mushrooms are characterized by their wavy caps, which is where they get their name.