Tryptamines [Mushrooms Subthread] Drying

[mr.buffnstuff]

All iv ever done is spread em on a sheet of news paper and put them in the airing cupboard... But those were skinny lib caps... Not sure what to do if they were some big fat 'penis envys'

 

[kingme]

air drying works best. lay them out and put a blowing fan over them at room temperature. they will get cracker dry. simplest method and quite effective, even for larger mushies.

 

[Ds]

ive always used my snakes spotlamp to dry mushies, he doesnt seem to mind.

 

[DwayneHoover]

It's faster to use a dessicant, which you can get at a hobby store, used to dry flowers or whatever. It comes in fairly large granules/pellets. You put the shrooms in a container with holes in it that are smaller than the dessicant granules, then bury that in a larger container containing the dessicant and cover with an airtight lid for a few days. The dessicant can be indefinitely reused... by baking it to drive off the moisture it has absorbed.

 

[ongos]

wouldn't the desiccant's ingredients get on the mushrooms? Wouldn't this be toxic when eating the mushrooms that was smeared with desiccant particles?

It's faster to use a dessicant, which you can get at a hobby store, used to dry flowers or whatever. It comes in fairly large granules/pellets. You put the shrooms in a container with holes in it that are smaller than the dessicant granules, then bury that in a larger container containing the dessicant and cover with an airtight lid for a few days. The dessicant can be indefinitely reused... by baking it to drive off the moisture it has absorbed.

 

[DwayneHoover]

There are ways such as I tried to describe you can make a multilayer chamber using screens or a second container with a gauze cover etc. that you can put the desicant and the shrooms in the same airspace without contamination. And even if a tiny little amount of dust gets on them its not going to hurt you as dessicants are usually non-toxic.

 

[porkstock]

i don't know about desiccants being non-toxic. they'd absorb water from your body so...

admittedly, trace amounts aren't gonna do much. now i'm getting myself paranoid. i've used desiccant to dry some shrooms, and store all my psychedelics in mason jars with desiccant (not touching directly tho)

 

[DwayneHoover]

They can only absorb a certain amount then they're "full". They're not going to trigger some comic book chain reaction that turns your body into sand. I think actually they make one most commonly used ones out of a processed peletized mineral that has been baked at ultra high temps to make it very spongelike. That way it does in fact absorb lots of moisture but it does get full and you need to bake it to reuse. Pearlite I think is the mineral. Probably passes totally inertly thru your system.

Look here's what you do to avoid contact with the shrooms: You get some big coffee filters and fold up your shrooms in them real good and then tape the packet up real nice, be carefull not to rip it, then you bury that in a coffee can full of dessicant and put on the lid real good. Next day dig out the packet of shrooms and Voila! instant desert-dry crunchy shrooms.

 

[mesial]

Use a food dehydrator on low heat until cracker dry. The low heat doesn't affect potency.

 

[cryptix420]

I'd agree that air drying is the best way to go. Place em in front of a fan for a couple days, then get the remaining moisture out with some damprid, found at homedepot for $3.

Don't start out with the dessicant method; putting fresh shrooms in a closed box with dessicant before they're at least 90% dry is gonna overwhelm the dessicant and make em rot.

Also, I tried a dehydrator before. It crisped and subsequently sapped all my 2oz of mushrooms of their magical alkaloids. It was just too hot. Granted it was a cheap $40 model with no thermostat.

 

[Black Octagon MK 2]

Some dessicants are definitely toxic because their main active substance is dimethylfumarate (DMFu), a biocide used to control mold. Hence I would agree with DwayneHoover's advice (i.e., put the mushrooms in a smaller container with air holes and then put that in a larger container containing the dessicant pellets - thereby avoiding direct contact between the mushrooms and the DMFu

 

[porkstock]

^^what about Calcium Sulfate desiccant? i try not to let it touch anything,but...
lemme google that actually

from wiki:
Calcium sulfate (or calcium sulphate) is a common laboratory and industrial chemical. In the form of γ-anhydrite (the nearly anhydrous form), it is used as a desiccant. It is also used as a coagulant in products like tofu.

guess it's safe (enough)

 

[ongos]

I'm just wondering how they dry "edible" mushrooms you'd see being sold at supermarkets. If using the same method for psilocybin mushrooms, would this kill the alkaloids? Would sun-drying be another option? Or the "heat" from light (lightbulbs) a good option? My mushroom cultivating kit called hydroshroom comes with a light so I guess this also dries the mushrooms. This thing is being marketed as all-in-one. It does have a thermometer. How hot/warm should it be so the alkaloids won't "die"?

 

[XiC]

Use a food dehydrator on low heat until cracker dry. The low heat doesn't affect potency.

This is the absolute best way to do it, all other ways are piss poor versions of this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[kingme]

I'm just wondering how they dry "edible" mushrooms you'd see being sold at supermarkets. If using the same method for psilocybin mushrooms, would this kill the alkaloids? Would sun-drying be another option? Or the "heat" from light (lightbulbs) a good option? My mushroom cultivating kit called hydroshroom comes with a light so I guess this also dries the mushrooms. This thing is being marketed as all-in-one. It does have a thermometer. How hot/warm should it be so the alkaloids won't "die"?

i have no idea how they dry supermarket mushrooms there, but im going to guess they are using high heat to do it.
generally, with tryptamines, and mushies in particular, heat is your enemy. anything above 50-60C will damage the alkaloids. this is why when making mushroom tea you dont boil it. this is why drying with heat lamps is a bad idea.
also bad is direct sunlight. UV rays can damage the compounds and you will lose potency.

remember they must be stored in a cool dry place. this is also how you should be drying them, at low temperatures and away from sunlight.

the light that your box comes with is probably one used for the growth phase of the mushies. they need light while they are growing, but i doubt it is used for drying.

try to keep things as cool as possible. probably under 50C is best.

good luck

 

[DwayneHoover]

A food dehyhdrator is also a great idea. But the dessicant worked pretty damn fast too, been too long for me to recall how long exactly, and they ended up powder-dry with ZERO heat entering then equation in at most a couple days. Wrapping them inside coffee filters let all the moisture through (permeable to H2O by design) and kept the shrooms 100% clean.

 

[ongos]

I think I'll try using paper towels then have a fan blow at it. Does a shroom ever go bad? How would you know if it's expired? It's not exactly a veggie, so how do you know it's bad? I worked at a pizza place and the manager told me once that mushroom (toppings) should not be covered when putting it in a fridge (i.e. storing it away). It must be in an "open" environment so that it would not get molds or go bad. Same for shrooms?

 

[Solipsis]

You don't need to have a fan blow hard over it, just hard enough to recycle the air which is not necessarily hard at all. The mushrooms will go bad if the drying is not fast enough plus there are lots of germs in the air and its just humid, dirty, moldy right there. That's a bad recipe. If you dry fast enough you are not giving those a chance.
I'd avoid paper towels, they stick to the mushrooms when they dry and they are simply not necessary. Instead use gauze like material to allow air to reach the mushrooms from all sides. Alternatively you can turn them over every so often but it's not recommended.

What I do recommend is starting with some air drying for the most moisture to get out, then finishing to cracker dry with the desiccant. The desiccant should not touch the mushrooms, they only have to be in the same enclosed airspace. This is then a desiccator. The dessicant dries out the air and the dry air dries out the mushrooms so to speak, it's an indirect system. The reason you need to recycle air with a fan with air drying is to use new air that is relatively dry again. You cannot dry something with air that has already taken up water from that something.

If you cover fresh mushrooms in the fridge maybe the problem is condensation that can drip onto them and get them to spoil. On the other hand when you were able to buy fresh psychedelic mushrooms from smart shops in my country before they were banned they were in an air-tight plastic package so whatever.
You should not try to preserve mushrooms in a fridge anyway unless you plan on consuming them within a few days tops. Otherwise dry them!

What does the mushroom growing kit have to do with preserving or drying them? The growing kit is for growing only, what you do with them after harvesting is the next chapter.

Anyway you should start learning how to use a search engine. Almost all questions you ask are very basic and answered very well in tons of places. Google is your friend.

Lastly - I don't mean to be a partypooper - just for info, HydroShrooms is not as innovative as it seems... in my opinion. Normal shotgun growing chambers often involve Perlite, which I used as well. It is a sort of porous mineral that can contain a lot of water, just like the hydroponics beads. So in the end it's just all a nice way of gradually regulating a constant high air humidity.
I do think it's pretty sweet that it includes air filtration. If you can afford it, I guess this is a nice solution and it allows you to grow without really understanding what you're doing. No offense again, but you just sound more result-oriented and in a hurry than wanting to become a growing craftsman.

I wish you the best of luck with the grow: hope you get a satisfying result and a good trip.

 

[ongos]

i still don't know the role of a dessicant in drying mushrooms, but I do see something like a dessicant (or silica?) inside my mushroom supplement pill's bottle, generally packed in small paper thing. I guess to remove moisture? There's a mushroom drying kit being sold online for $12, the kit includes:

Clear 6.5 Quart Container
3 mesh screens
8 oz of Silica Gel Desiccant with color changing crystals
8 oz of Calcium Chloride Desiccant

Good setup? The kit is re-usable with this method I read:

To re-use the kit simply bake the desiccant at 250 degrees for 60 minutes in the oven and let cool briefly and they will be ready for use again! Really?

why 3 mesh screens? I think 2 would be enough right? place mushroom in the middle of both mesh, and top and bottom of the mesh screen are the dessicants. It should not touch mushrooms. Correct? are dessicants drying agents then?

 

[ongos]

Would white printing paper (bond paper) be better than paper towels to let the shrooms dry on?

Yeah I agree about HydroShroom not being as innovative as its being marketed to be. It's not exactly built for mushroom growing, but it's a combination of "necessary" tools to grow mushrooms into. The chamber is nothing more than a reptile aquarium and so is the separate humidifier that came with it. This whole thing is just assembled from products that already existed then marketed as a "shroom" growing kit (not sure about other kits, but I think they're all the same). I can't believe I payed $170 for the whole thing! If I only knew, it would have only cost me $50 to buy my own plastics at a Walmart and get a humidifier at Petsmart and perhaps assemble my own "shroom" growing kit.

You don't need to have a fan blow hard over it, just hard enough to recycle the air which is not necessarily hard at all. The mushrooms will go bad if the drying is not fast enough plus there are lots of germs in the air and its just humid, dirty, moldy right there. That's a bad recipe. If you dry fast enough you are not giving those a chance.
I'd avoid paper towels, they stick to the mushrooms when they dry and they are simply not necessary. Instead use gauze like material to allow air to reach the mushrooms from all sides. Alternatively you can turn them over every so often but it's not recommended.

What I do recommend is starting with some air drying for the most moisture to get out, then finishing to cracker dry with the desiccant. The desiccant should not touch the mushrooms, they only have to be in the same enclosed airspace. This is then a desiccator. The dessicant dries out the air and the dry air dries out the mushrooms so to speak, it's an indirect system. The reason you need to recycle air with a fan with air drying is to use new air that is relatively dry again. You cannot dry something with air that has already taken up water from that something.

If you cover fresh mushrooms in the fridge maybe the problem is condensation that can drip onto them and get them to spoil. On the other hand when you were able to buy fresh psychedelic mushrooms from smart shops in my country before they were banned they were in an air-tight plastic package so whatever.
You should not try to preserve mushrooms in a fridge anyway unless you plan on consuming them within a few days tops. Otherwise dry them!

What does the mushroom growing kit have to do with preserving or drying them? The growing kit is for growing only, what you do with them after harvesting is the next chapter.

Anyway you should start learning how to use a search engine. Almost all questions you ask are very basic and answered very well in tons of places. Google is your friend.

Lastly - I don't mean to be a partypooper - just for info, HydroShrooms is not as innovative as it seems... in my opinion. Normal shotgun growing chambers often involve Perlite, which I used as well. It is a sort of porous mineral that can contain a lot of water, just like the hydroponics beads. So in the end it's just all a nice way of gradually regulating a constant high air humidity.
I do think it's pretty sweet that it includes air filtration. If you can afford it, I guess this is a nice solution and it allows you to grow without really understanding what you're doing. No offense again, but you just sound more result-oriented and in a hurry than wanting to become a growing craftsman.

I wish you the best of luck with the grow: hope you get a satisfying result and a good trip.