• Psychedelic Drugs Welcome Guest
    View threads about
    Posting RulesBluelight Rules
    PD's Best Threads Index
    Social ThreadSupport Bluelight
    Psychedelic Beginner's FAQ
  • PD Moderators: Esperighanto | JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat

Continuing problems drying san pedro

P

pieeyedpiper

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 27, 2009
Messages
43
My 3 ft of cactus has spent a total of 10 hrs in the oven at temps ranging from 145 - 250. In addition to that it spent all dat today roasting in the sun and it is still not anywhere near dry. I think the culprit is the fact that I did not remove the outer skin before cutting it up. I stripped off the skins of about 20 or so shriveled cactus pieces today after air drying and I found that most of them although somewhat dry in the remaining white portions contained a sopping wet dark greenish brown rotten smelling sludge under the outer skin. I know that is where the bulk of the mesc. is and it appears that while the plant matter shriveled and dried at the end, the moisture has built up and concentrated in the green flesh. Some of the pieces contain a lighter green dryer flesh under the outer skin which I gather is what i want. My question is: Should I abort a lost cause A. Strip all the skins off the shriveled cactus (extremely time consuming) and continue drying B. Or do something else. C. help please.:(
 
I cut my cactus into slices about 1/2" thick and put them on a sheet of tin foil in the oven on 200F. My cactus fully dried within 6 hours on the middle rack of the oven.
 
Yeah, the outer skin of cactus is surely designed to regulate water evaporation, if the thing is standing in the middle of the desert in the baking sun it must have a way to retain the water stored inside right?
Even peeling the skin off would not be that effective because you still have a pretty limited surface of evaporation. You would bake the outside before the inside is even dry.

I've heard of slicing before like baltiland describes and it's pretty logical because it exposes the wet cactus flesh inside as well as increasing the surface area a whole lot. The more slices the better says logic, though it means you'd have to limit drying time a bit.

What to do with the cactus you have now is up to you, it depends on how messed up it is on the outside now, though mescaline is a pretty stable substance. If you try and salvage it chances are the taste is even more horrid than when you don't bake the shit out of it. But if the cactus is in all right state I would slice it still.
You're saying it's like brownish and rotten at some points now, maybe because of that you'd be best throwing it away.

It seems your question is answered but I'm gonna give you a chance to reply before closing this thread. :)
 
there's no need to dry it unless you're looking at long term storage.

I'd just take everything you have, boil it, apply some teks and freeze the juice.
 
the goal was alchohol extraction

i was drying it to produce powder for an alchohol extraction,ive been at it for days and much of it is still covered in slime. It is currently on foil in my room and smells horrible. I did cut it into small pieces but like i said all the moisture concentrated under the skin which i did not peel. I can't put it back into the oven 2nite. If I ground it now it would surely be rotten slop, but if i could extract from that it would be better then a total loss. I have 99% isopropyl and mason jars. everything would have been easy if i could have just dried this stuff out in a reasonable time frame. next time im starting with powder or not at all.
 
Last edited:
pieeyedpiper said:
i was drying it to produce powder for an alchohol extraction,ive been at it for days and much of it is still covered in slime. It is currently on foil in my room and smells horrible. I did cut it into small pieces but like i said all the moisture concentrated under the skin which i did not peel. I can't put it back into the oven 2nite. If I ground it now it would surely be rotten slop, but if i could extract from that it would be better then a total loss. I have 99% isopropyl and mason jars. everything would have been easy if i could have just dried this stuff out in a reasonable time frame. next time im starting with powder or not at all.
Click to expand...

just alcohol extract the tea!
 
in alchohol

I came to that conclusion last night. i ground the soggy shriveled cactus pieces into a sticky mash. Then I steeped it in a mason jar with 99% isopropyl 2 inches over the mash. it almost immediately turned green like the color of absinthe. I went to bed and when I woke up it was a dark greenish brown. I don't know what I've lost by drying it incorrectly and letting it begin to rot, but it would appear that Im going to get something from it. The little pieces of mash have clumped together into bigger pieces. I have been swishing it around periodically and I'll transfer the extract to another container and re-steep when it turns a darker brown.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top