EMP (Electro Magnetic Psilocybe): what the card actually records

01What EMP is

EMP is a Psilocybe cubensis line supplied as a spore syringe, catalogued in full as EMP (Electro magnetic Psilocybe). The library records the line and its name; it does not publish a parent cross, a breeder or a date for it.

02Lineage and history

The honest position on EMP is that the documented record is thin, and a guide that filled the gap with invention would be worse than useless to someone keeping a notebook.

The name itself is a useful teaching example. Evocative names are common in the hobby and carry no genetic information whatsoever. What carries information is the bracketed part of a card: a parent cross, a generation number, an ISO tag, a named breeder, a collection. Our decoder is in how to read a strain name, and the comparison of UK vendors sets out the seven questions worth asking about any listing.

03Under the microscope

Expect a standard pigmented cubensis population: subellipsoid, thick-walled spores in the 11 to 17 micrometre band, a germ pore visible at 1000x with oil, purple-brown in mass, and a dense, even print.

For a line with a thin paper record, your own measurements are the record. Take twenty spores against a calibrated graticule, note the range and the median, photograph the print, and write it all against the strain and LOT. Do that consistently and a card like this becomes as documented as any other, at least on your bench.

04Where to buy EMP in the UK

EMP is in stock now. The card is EMP spore syringe in the strain library. Every syringe is a 10 ml luer-lock, filled in a flow hood from a logged print into sterile water, capped, labelled with the strain and its LOT, and refrigerated until it is packed.

• Price: isolated lines are listed at £20 per syringe. The card shows the current price, including any sale.
• UK shipping: £3.80, and free on orders over £75. US orders ship at a flat $8.
• Dispatch: one to two working days from the UK, tracked, in a plain padded mailer with no branding on the outside.
• Every order is 18+ and confirms lawful microscopy use at checkout.

Browse the rest of the collection on the Mushrealm and A.C.S chapter, or open the strain library to filter by species, format or isolation status. If anything arrives cloudy or damaged, email a photo and the LOT number and it is replaced.