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Liberty caps stability?

The Hypnotist

The Hypnotist

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 1, 2016
Messages
381
I'm picking some psilocybe semilanceata and would like to know how long they will last once dried. I don't have access to fridge.
Everybody around here seems to think the last year ones are as good as new, but I thought mushrooms away from the freezer will quickly lose potency.
Maybe the high concentration of psilocin in them make them more stable, but psilocin is a 4-ho tryptamine so I thought they were very unstable.
I am drying them with the help of a burner and would like to know also how bad that is. I believe temperature won't get over around 60°C, but I am guessing.
Happy hunting!
 
you should dry them at around 38° C. I read a thread on another forum where someone said they kept 1/4 oz for 3 years and they worked fine. just make sure they're in a dark, dry place and you'll minimize degradation. samples of psilocybin mushrooms have been marginally active after 100+ years
 
Whenever I dry my shrooms I just put them on a plate and leave them at room temperature for a day or so. Then store them away in a plastic container and they don't seem to lose potency even if I forget them for months at a time.
 
Without a fridge, be sure they are "cracker dry". Once they are, they'll keep forever...within reason.
 
Thanks for the answers.
I'll try to dry them a bit farther from the burner. The last ones got a bit burned, though if they can take the boiling water they might be able to take that. So I hope.
 
The initial drying of most of the water will occur spontanously, and the last bit can be done using a desiccant. It's best not to skip this step because if you do, at some point molds may come to spoil your not-quite-dry mushrooms and this can be toxic.

Yeah they can take a little heat but it is not best practice.
 
I know, when I was living in a flat I used to dry them at room temperature.
Unfortunately my logistics right now are kind of poor.
Which desiccant ( silica?), where could I buy it and how exactly will you do it if you found yourself in kind of very humid camping conditions?
Drying first and using diseccant for conservation purposes, or Could it be used to dry them with no heat inside a pot or something.
 
Solipsis said:
The initial drying of most of the water will occur spontanously, and the last bit can be done using a desiccant. It's best not to skip this step because if you do, at some point molds may come to spoil your not-quite-dry mushrooms and this can be toxic.

Yeah they can take a little heat but it is not best practice.
Click to expand...
That's interesting, I've never had mold on cubes they I dried for a few days at room temp and stored in the relevant plastic containers. Even after 12 months they were still good.

I love the taste of dried cube. And my latest mycelium has just been shown the sunshine. Whoop!
 
OP, how long are you going to be away from electricity? and could you, if you have it, use ice to delay having to dry them right away?
 
The best way without a fridge is to put them on honey. Its the traditional way of preserving them
I think there is a recipe on erowid

And don't use heat to dry them. Just put them on a plate and wait a day or two.
 
I think you just throw dried ones in honey, but honestly they would still have to be properly dry - so I don't really see the advantage.

How big the chance is that you will still get mold with not-quite-dry mushrooms is very hard to say, depending on exposure to spores + the actual moisture content etc... so it is more unpredictable compared to the certainty that at least one of the common molds will contaminate, like under normal circumstances where you have "excessive" exposure and more ideal contam conditions. So no, you can luck out with semi-dry ones but with bad luck it's not impossible for them to spoil as long as there is still moisture in there. Also, any water present will allow for more ionization and instability... so I would not skip over the desiccant personally.

Silica is suitable as desiccant, but it is not the best type. Calcium chloride (dryrite iirc) is good - I use that.. There are also sodium and magnesium sulfate, but those have issues: they are the most powerful but they also have the least capacity. Capacity meaning how much moisture can be dried out before the desiccant is hydrated and saturated itself.

A combo with vacuum or dryfreezing is also possible but not feasible for the average person. Dryfreezing mushrooms can actually allow you to preserve the size and shape of the mushroom more or less! Gotten that effect with Amanita Muscaria.
 
phuckingnutz said:
OP, how long are you going to be away from electricity? and could you, if you have it, use ice to delay having to dry them right away?
Click to expand...
9 Months? :) I am not camping, I live in a sort of very humid wood cabin in a forest.
I can get them eventually to a friends house, but if I don't dry them the day I pick they start rotting.
 
Solipsis said:
I think you just throw dried ones in honey, but honestly they would still have to be properly dry - so I don't really see the advantage.

How big the chance is that you will still get mold with not-quite-dry mushrooms is very hard to say, depending on exposure to spores + the actual moisture content etc... so it is more unpredictable compared to the certainty that at least one of the common molds will contaminate, like under normal circumstances where you have "excessive" exposure and more ideal contam conditions. So no, you can luck out with semi-dry ones but with bad luck it's not impossible for them to spoil as long as there is still moisture in there. Also, any water present will allow for more ionization and instability... so I would not skip over the desiccant personally.

Silica is suitable as desiccant, but it is not the best type. Calcium chloride (dryrite iirc) is good - I use that.. There are also sodium and magnesium sulfate, but those have issues: they are the most powerful but they also have the least capacity. Capacity meaning how much moisture can be dried out before the desiccant is hydrated and saturated itself.

A combo with vacuum or dryfreezing is also possible but not feasible for the average person. Dryfreezing mushrooms can actually allow you to preserve the size and shape of the mushroom more or less! Gotten that effect with Amanita Muscaria.
Click to expand...
Thank you Solipsis, it is always a pleasure to learn from you. I'll look into getting desiccants.

I think the advantage of putting the dry ones in honey is that the low level of water in honey will stop them from rotting. I read some story somewhere of how extremely longlasting honey is. Anyway it will make dosage even more difficult than it already is in my opinion.
 
Do not freeze fresh mushrooms by the way. If they are not dried yet this will make them really goopy because ice crystals inside the mushroom tissue destroy that tissue making a slime.

But no if you have no freezer and no fridge you wouldn't have any ice either, and of course ice can refrigerate and doesn't really freeze them anyway. So was just an fyi.

Good that you dry immediately, and if you only warm them enough for the water to want to evaporate faster that should work - but the heating did sound like overkill. If you can dry them enough to avoid the immediate spoiling and desiccant-dry them later that would be good. Otherwise you would be half-drying them and risking spoilage / rotting eventually... so indeed you might be better off with subtle warming.

Don't mention it, I hope you have sweet trips in and round your cabin - doesn't sound like you have your 'setting' to worry about. :)

(To use a desiccant, just make an air-tight box/container, spread your mushrooms over something like a net suspended in the middle, and enclose the desiccant in that same box. The desiccant dries the air in the box and the dry air dries the mushroom - so the moisture is extracted into the desiccant which absorbs it. If the box is not airtight you will saturate your desiccant as it tries to dry out all ambient air.)
 
Solipsis said:
Good that you dry immediately, and if you only warm them enough for the water to want to evaporate faster that should work - but the heating did sound like overkill. If you can dry them enough to avoid the immediate spoiling and desiccant-dry them later that would be good. Otherwise you would be half-drying them and risking spoilage / rotting eventually... so indeed you might be better off with subtle warming.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a plan :) I'll do exactly that.

Thanks for the detailed info.
 
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