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[Mushrooms] Drying of Psilocybe Cubensis

Rolandv91

Greenlighter
Joined
Mar 25, 2011
Messages
12
Hey guys,

I live in the Netherlands where you can just legally order kits to grow your own mushrooms with, so a couple of weeks ago I ordered a Psilocybin Cubensis kit for the second time (had one before 2 years ago) and started growing. Last thursday I harvested them and started drying them. Everything went smooth even though it took them a little longer to dry compared to some harvests I had in the past. Well they've all dried now but the thing is, they've pretty much all become a little darker and spotty ((dark)blue-ish) and greenier (less frequent than blue though).

So I was wondering whether I did something wrong in the drying proces. I admit I sometimes did squeeze them a little bit to feel whether they were completely dry yet or not, especially at the root *snip*.


Thanks in advance!:)
 
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Oxidation
If you don't dry them fast enough they will start to oxidize. Fan them off so about 90% of water is evaporated then use desiccant to dry completely. Don't stick them in the desiccant box too early!! Good first flush- the following flushes will have bigger ones.
 
But how long would it take for them to completely oxidize? They have dried for roughly 5 days, put them in grip bags after. That was only 20% of the first flush just to give an example of what they looked like, I had 150 wet grams in the first flush.
 
5 days is pushing it. I live in the desert and could get them fan dried within 24 hrs (depending on size) with a high velocity table fan propped in the up position with a grate to hold the mushies- in dark of course. then another 2 days max in the desiccant box. The longer it takes the more likely to get oxidation.
I had a big 20 grammer shoved in the box which started to get darker and darker so I just ate the bad boy along with another gram of dry.....am I ever glad I did...truly mystical experience.....wind was all blowing like crazy out of nowhere against my garage when I was deciding whether to eat or or not; like something was telling me to do it...damn how I wish the US was like the Netherlands with their drug policies ;)
 
Sorry Roland, but we do not allow ID threads here - I will leave this open since you are asking about the drying process but we cannot give you definitive answers on the pictures so we I have taken out that bit.

It is normal to have the mushrooms get darker and weird colored when you dry them but you have to worry about that the least when you dry them right after harvesting and use a correct drying technique.

What would be good is to suspend the mushrooms in front of a fan blowing air over them, that should dry them for a good part. Then to get them as they say 'cracker' dry, enclose a dessicant with them - not letting the mushrooms touch the dessicant. (Dessicant in dutch is droogmiddel, you can get it at hardware stores).

The longer you wait until they are well and dry the more risk you get of post-harvest contaminations. They can be hard to spot, unfortunately we cannot tell you here if you are in the safe zone or not. When in doubt throw them out or at least cut off sections that appear infected. Blue black and brown colors are pretty normal. Green is not unless you are talking about the golden-tan shine of fresh mushrooms that can get a greenish hue, but only a little.

I live in the same country as you do and have experience with growing mushrooms. You can ask me things about it any time. Though perhaps you just better do it here so that everyone can discuss.

// Also, nice try getting a subthread going ;) I made (merged) a mushrooms drying subthread, later on this thread will be merged with that: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=326524
 
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solipsis pretty much nailed it.

green on dry mushrooms is not a good sign, and another bad sign is if their smell starts to turn from a mushroomy earthy smell to something a lot more damp and sordid. if you see the green stuff expanding, that is also a bad sign, it means contaminant have spread and you should bin the whole bag that has them, including the ones not yet affected (they might be harmful to your health)

blue spots on the mushrooms can be small damage that was done to them during handling, where oxydation took place. psylocin containing mushrooms can turn blue when mechanically damaged (it is actually a sign they are this type of mushroom)

my personal way of drying shrooms is via the pc fan on the back of the case. it is usually at room temperature, clean, and discreet. drying like this takes 2 days at most, with good results. storing is done with dessicant, in glass containers if possible. like this degradation is about 30-40% over 8 months (which is the most ive kept mushrooms)
 
Alright thanks for the replies, I waited a couple of days with replyingbefore the my harvest was tested. Sadly they pretty muchost all potency so I threw all away. i guess the fact that the drying took too long and that I physically damaged them too much (touching and squeezing to feel whether they were dry enough). Oh well at least I learned from my mistakes. I have one more question though, the growing kit has a filter sack around and during the first harvest I think it caught at least 2 hours of 'direct' sunlight. I'd say it wouldnt affect the potency that much but you guys know more than I do so should I avoid direct sunlight at all costs?
 
Okay some shrooms popped up and grew very big while there were many small pins so I harvested the big ones and the bigger pins and let the rest be(60 grams wet %)). I'm going to buy desiccants tomorrow so in the meantime I left them to dry on normal towel (not paper) on a radiator. My house is very dry so I won't really have to worry about infections, also because I work very sterile.(rubber gloves, alcohol)

But is it okay to dry them on a towel, rather than something paper?
 
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