Please Tell Me What I am Doing Wrong With These Mushrooms.

[fourfinglid]

Greetings psychonauts - This may be a little long but, please bear with me. I need some feedback - Background - I'm a 51 y.o. white male, I take 60 mg methadone daily for pain and the occasional 6 mg bromazepam tablets because well, because. I smoke cannabis daily and drink an occasional Shiner Bock. That is the extent of my drug intake.

30+ years ago, I used to hunt the pastures for psilocybe cubensis, and I always harvested pounds of them. Black plastic trash bags weighing 20-30 lbs, easy. Anyway, me and my friends would throw all the stems away (we thought they contained strychnine Ha!) and we'd boil those caps for a half hour or so, sometimes twice that long, smashing the mushrooms in the pot with a potato masher. We'd mix that foul liquid directly into pre-sweetened kool-aide powder, and divide it up amongst whoever happened to be present. Now, almost every time I drank that tea, I tripped, and I tripped for real. Lots of sacred geometry, full-on hallucinations, I even experienced some existential moments that I wasn't mature or evolved enough to appreciate at the time. I enjoyed 'shrooms, acid and some other hallucinogens in my younger years, and like so many of us, just kind of "outgrew" them all. During that time of my life, I wasn't mature enough to appreciate the gifts that come with the proper use of these entheogens. Now though. Now I know I'm ready to take the journey. I'm retired, children are moved out. The wife moved out long ago - and an old girlfriend came around that doesn't endulge, but she loves me enough to babysit me and keep a couple xanax on hand in case something goes wrong. Which brings us to the now...

Fast forward about a month or so back, and I met a guy (extended family member) selling dehydrated homegrown "Cambodian" shrooms. I felt like with all the negative stuff I have going on in my life right now, it might be a good time to open my third eye and see if I can't work some things out. So, I produced currency and purchased some "boomers". Here's what happened: First time with the dehydrated home grown, I chopped up 2.5 grams fine, and ate it on toast w/peanut butter. I got a heavy body load and felt really, stupid-style goofy, laughed alot - but, that was it. Not ANY visuals, 4 hour duration. So, I go back the next week/10 days and I do 6 grams using this Lemon Tek thing I've read about here on the interwebs. I ground the 6 grams to the consistancy of talc powder and added approx. 1/2 cup of lemon juice and stirred occasionally for 20 minutes. I then added some cold cranberry juice and downed it all in one shot (blech). It came on in 18 minutes but, same thing as before - real lazy feeling, goofy as hell but no visuals to speak of. My eyes watered to the point I stoped trying to dry them and just let tears stream down my face, Was NOT crying though. Just constantly yawning which made my eyes water up. I started thinking maybe this guys shrooms are weak. I've read they can lose potency from too many harvests (flushes) - I don't know. I don't grow em. Not yet anyway. Please stay tuned. This is all leading to something important. Important to me anyway... I need your experience(s)...

I happened upon a pasture 2 weeks ago that is producing like crazy! Well hidden, and I can't walk 20 feet in any direction without running into some 'cubes. Now, I took a standard plastic grocery size bag full of fresh wild psilocybe cubensis, washed them off real good, and put them in a pot of hot water, occasionally heating to boiling for approx. 1/2 hour. Maybe a little longer. I filtered that shit and drank all 30 oz's. (Way too much liquid. Don't know how I fucked that up). Went inside and got comfortable to wait. Man, that stuff hit me way fast and way strong! Like in 5-7 minutes, I was getting those strange feelings that we all know too well. I started feeling uncomfortable, and took a hot shower to kind of mellow out. I was feeling better and getting some cool visuals in that dark shower, when, as I was drying off, without warning, I projectile vomited about 20 ounces of that tea. I had fasted prior, and I know that red kool-aide was what was left of my dose. My high consisted, once again, of a body buzz and a general goofy-ass attitude. People say I'm pretty goofy on my own, no mushies required. So I don't really need to risk climbing fences and shit to just be goofy. Damn!

Okay - TL/DR - Can anybody provide any insight as to why I'm having such a hard time getting a proper trip off these damn shrooms? I really, truly need to experience the heightened awareness that comes from a serious, good trip. I need to work through some serious shit. Has anyone heard of Methadone holding psilocybin back? Could that be it? I can't find anything related on google. What about an occasional 6mg bromazepam? Everything I've read about that Lemon Tek deal has been good - with no mention of reduced visuals. Just a faster come on and more intense trip. I can vouch for the fast come on but, every lemon tek I've done has not impressed me. Not.One.Little.Bit.when it comes to the visuals. It's like the lemon fucks the visuals and leaves me acting as a laughing loony. I'm wondering if I should just dry out the caps I harvest from this field and eat them with honey. Seems like my stomach acid is breaking down the psilocybin into psilocin more effectively than the lemon juice. Either that or the lemon juice is playing fucky with the visual aspect of the tryptamines. I don't know. I'm sitting here stoned on Master Kush, trying to sound smart when I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. Help me smart people! You are my only hope!!

So - feedback would be greatly appreciated. I just joined the board today in order to post my question. I've been a LONG time lurker though. Even back when the site had an "ru" extension, I was reading and learning. Thanks in advance to anybody willing to provide some useful information regarding why I seem to be having such a hard time getting off. Hell, I may just hit up a DNM and order some of those 225ug blotters they got if something doesn't shake loose soon.

Fun Fact: I grabbed a cow-patty from that pasture I described. It was pretty dried up with one old wrinkled shroom hanging off of it. (kinda like me) - anyway, I brought it home and stuck it under my roses. This thing has been gifting me two diff. strains at the rate of 3-5 fruit a day. I plan to go back this afternoon, and get a couple really large and heavily fruiting patties to put in the cooler and they're gonna go right next to this one. If it all works out, I won't have to worry about what I'm gonna tell some dude as to why I'm stomping around his property. I'll have all I need growing right out my back door. Here's some pics of the patty beneath my roses. Couple more pics from under the roses. I swear, this patty fruits daily. The fruit is steadily getting smaller though. Any insight as to why that would be happening? I'm assuming it's running out of nutrients. I cut all the stems above the mycellium layer, so I'm damaging it by yanking the shroom right out. But they're def. getting smaller every time. Wisdom, please?

Carl Sagan - "We are all made of star stuff."

 

[Weak Sauce]

First off, they will not continue to grow out of that manure unless you put it back through a growing cycle. It will consume all available food and moisture (hence why they are getting smaller), drop it's spores and die. To do that you really need a lot more information, and if you are to do it you will want to move your grow indoors where you can control the environment or you will get mixed results at best. If you are interested start poking around shroomery.org and if you need further help PM me.

As far as your issue not getting off on these shrooms. The ones you got from your dealer could be weak for a couple reasons. Time, light, heat, storage and drying methods, improper grow conditions, long run on the same genealogical line. That being said, the way you have been preparing them should have gotten the most out of them you could. Can't help you there unfortunately. Remember to wait at least 2 weeks between doses, even if you didn't trip very hard or you will need much more to reach that place you are looking for and is really just a waste of these little gifts.

Now, for the shrooms you found out in the wild. There's really no way to tell how strong they are going to be out in the open like that. They vary strongly from pattie to pattie and even from individual shrooms. Even shrooms connected at the base can have several different strengths. I hope for harm reduction sake that you spore printed them to see if they spores stain purple. I noticed in your pics that one of the veils on the cap is wide open but the stem has no purple spore stain. It could have been windy those couple days they dropped, but no purple spores, no cubes and you need to be very careful with cube lookalikes. I recommend doing a spore print before taking any more. It's easy and instructions can also be found at shroomery.org. Print them and I may be able to help more.

I hope this helped a bit.

The Sauce

 

[Bluuberry]

Have you tried just eating them straight up or are you only fucking around with these various tea methods? I've consumed a lot of mushrooms and I found that the tea provided a very dull experience compared to just eating the entire fruitbody, no matter how I prepared the tea. I kept being disappointed by my trips until I realized that tea just sucks compared to eating the whole thing, in my opinion.

Also, yes, opiates will dull a trip, benzos do it even worse. Bromazepam is a benzo, right? Not familiar with that one but I assume from the name.

I've always thought that was part of the medicine. It will only REALLY come out to play if you aren't sedated. Something to be said there..

 

[fourfinglid]

A big thanks to all who've replied, especially Weak Sauce. Bluuberry - I'm fucking around with with various tea methods but not just for the fun of fuckery. I get nauseas AF eating the whole fruit, and I'd always read that the Lemon Tek prevented nausea. I know I posted a long-ass book but, in it I mentioned picking in the wild, and boiling tea that provided a pretty fucking strong psychedelic experience. I've also eaten them on pizza, and various other ways but here lately, I'm not getting the visuals. I'm starting to think it's the methadone toning things down more than anything else. That's a shame too since I've taken that stuff daily for many years, and cannot afford to stop taking them. Payoff vs pain makes that a no-brainer. Anyway - thanks again for all the information. Especially regarding putting that patty through another grow cycle. I'm off to shroomery to see what I need to do. Namaskar!

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I've definitely had intense full-on mushroom or LSD experiences while on 60mg of methadone (and I didn't take a higher dose than my friends who weren't on methadone or anything). However, I was tolerant to that dosage since I was on methadone maintenance. Not sure what kind of effects you get from your methadone, since you said you're taking it for pain? From what I've heard/read, people who are tolerant to opioids and just basically taking enough to keep withdrawals at bay seem to get full effects from psychedelics but people who are just recreational users/ using opioid doses that they are getting strong effects from find them to dull psychedelics a little, so YMMV. Alcohol and benzodiazepines dull mushrooms more. Were you drinking or taking bromezapam close to the times you took the mushrooms?

The thing I've always found with mushrooms is that they are very unpredictable. Who knows what their strength is or their unique character. It's possible that the first shrooms you got were just weak or not very visual and then the second time you barfed up most of your tea before it could take full effect.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I'm starting to think it's the methadone toning things down more than anything else. That's a shame too since I've taken that stuff daily for many years, and cannot afford to stop taking them.

Could you just take a lower dose than usual that day or time your mushroom trip to coincide with the time of day you are feeling the methadone least? How many times a day do you take the methadone? I'm still skeptical that it's the methadone blocking your visuals etc since you said you've been on it for years.

 

[Bluuberry]

Yeah more than anything they are just unpredictable as fuck. And I understand getting nauseous from eating the whole fruitbody. I have the same problem. I used to try and make teas to get around it, but they just made me sleepy and weird, so now I just deal with the nausea. I dont really care if I puke or walk like a freak when Im tripping. I don't ever trip around people that I have to hide it from so whatever.

 

[tokezu]

Some good points were made already, I would stress especially that growing indoors is more likely to give you a (more or less) consistent strength so you can build on your previous experience when choosing a dose.

One other thing that comes to mind. You seem awfully hung up on the lack of visuals, which IMHO are the least important part of a trip. Do you have the feeling your recent mushroom experiences were just over all weak in comparison to what you remember or could it be that you are looking so hard for visuals that you just don't pay attention to what else is happening? Although I can't really imagine this to be possible on 6 dried grams of proper strength anyway . Also sometimes psychedelics have a way of giving you what you need, not what you want. Maybe just being goofy is exactly what is good for you right now?

I think the watering eyes are pretty normal, I get that all the time.

 

[fourfinglid]

Thanks for all the good info, Mr. Sauce! I'm pretty sure you're spot on regarding the nutrients being used up in that pattie. It fruited every single day I had it, with the shrooms getting smaller each time, until today. All that's on it now are tiny little pins, they've been there for a couple days, and they're not gettin' any bigger. I plan to educate myself more regarding cultivation. When you're in your 50's, it gets really hard to come up with an excuse as to why you're trespassing on some guy's land. I plan to make one more run out there, gather as many un-opened cubes as I can get, plus a couple well colonized patties for spawn, and that's it for my field hunting. My supplier says he uses "popcorn tek" and swears by it. He claims he doesn't use any sterilization short of some brief boiling. I've seen it prepared on youtube and it looks pretty damn easy. Any comments regarding popcorn? Thanks again!

 

[phuckingnutz]

If you do do a grow, instead of drying them all put some in a blender when first picked and frappe them to liquid pour into an ice cube tray and pop a cube(pun intended) or two while still frozen or freshly thawed...fresh shrooms are an entirely different animal IMO/E and frappe'ing them is the most readily absorbable form.
And fresh shrooms weigh ten times...exactly...what cracker dry ones do. So dosage is easy to calculate.

 

[Weak Sauce]

My supplier says he uses "popcorn tek" and swears by it. He claims he doesn't use any sterilization short of some brief boiling. I've seen it prepared on youtube and it looks pretty damn easy. Any comments regarding popcorn? Thanks again!

Well, I suppose that depends on how far you would like to go down the rabbit hole that is growing these little darlings. If they are just for you and maybe a couple friends then I would recommend the PF Tek. It is the "most foolproof" way to get boomers (read that as: "growing mushies is hard at first while you figure out all the conditions and sterilization procedures, but this is the fastest and best way I have found to learn the basics and get a solid few grows under your belt before you move up to a bulk grow like the popcorn tek. In fact this is where I started and I was lucky enough to get 2 ounces my first grow!). In PF Tek you use several small jars to create cakes of organic brown rice flour and vermiculite (both are cheap and easy to source) from which your mushies will colonize and fruit. It's great as a learning tool, because if you fuck one up the others may remain uninfected and you can still get a decent yield. The beauty is if you don't have a pressure cooker, you can still sterilize these bad boys in a large lidded pot, something that is near impossible with bulk grain grows. Growing like this can get you a couple ounces every couple months. If you need more you can then scale up to bulk grows where yield is super high, but if it's just for one person you may find yourself swimming in caps and stems and nothing to do with them. You also will need some different equipment. Probably the most important thing to do is tons of research before hand.

If you are the type of person who throws caution and common sense to the wind and just says "fuck it, go for big air" and jump into bulk substrate growing without learning the fundamentals, then just go for it. I recommend the birdseed tech as it is much easier to sterilize, but popcorn works fine. There is a very steep learning curve so expect your first couple grows in bulk substrate to go south on you, or give bad yields. Just keep trying and I can't stress this enough - GO BY THE TEK! Once you are more knowledgeable you can see some of the art in it and play around with different setups and techniques. Different grow theories can be a blast, but often don't workout. The TEK is already worked out for you. You don't go building IKEA furniture by feel. Good Luck! Let me know if you need any help.

 

[fourfinglid]

I agree with you 100% Sauce. Thanks for everything. I appreciate your "to the point" way of communication, without sounding like a dick. I've been spending some time looking at pf tek since I read your post earlier. Certainly nothing I can't do. I learned how to grow some pretty good pot via the intertubes, I'm sure I can work this out as well. Thanks again, man. I really appreciate you. Peace...

 

[chemicaldiscovery]

How much time passed between the 2.5g dose and 6g dose. This could be an issue. Also some people are hard heads with tryptamines. I don't know if you knew the dosage of the trips you took as a youngster but it doesn't seem like it. Could be that you need more and in the old days were taking much higher doses than you are now. I personally get the same trip off of 5g of shrooms as my buddies, and most people, get from 1.75g. I react the with the same tolerance to all tryptamines. With 4-HO-MET for example I need to insufflate ~35 mg to get the same experience that my fiance gets from 8mg and my buddy gets from 15mg. The first oral dose i took was 37mg which should have been an intense trip for the average person but was mild for me. I'm not saying just take a lot. I figured out my sweet spot by gradually increasing my dose and also maintaining appropriate periods (at least 1-2 weeks) of tryptamine tolerance. Also it's important, again, to consider tolerance if there was only a week or so (or less) between those two trips you described.

 

[fourfinglid]

Thanks again to everyone for their wisdom and encouragement. I've spent the last few days learning what I could regarding PF Tek and a few others. I'll be working on producing my own cubes and perhaps I'll have a new hobby soon. I'd mentioned before that I learned everything I ever needed to know about growing good herb on the old Overgrow site so, I think I can make this work as well. Looking forward to success in the future of mycology! One Love.

 

[TimTim1993]

There are shrooms that give more of a body high and head high than a visual high. It's not a bad thing but if you are looking for visuals maybe you should try Penis Envy shrooms

 

[TimTim1993]

Cambodian cubensis I heard is weaker in potency