apothecary

hey mescalito, I'm also very interested in Phalaris spp. and it's DMT uses. Have you read the Lycaeum article on extracting smokable DMT from it? If you haven't, the link is here: http://leda.lycaeum.org/?ID=8478 The extraction process is quite involved and requires a separatory funnel (although I have a hunch you can just use a normal container and a syringe sans needle to carefully extract the top layer) which bothers me. Is it possible to do a polar/nonpolar extraction similar to the common extraction used for LSA? I'm quite lazy, and not really in the position to obtain lab tools and chemicals anyway, so an easier method of extraction would be nice. As far as your question goes about crude extractions, I have one comment, something I read on erowid a while ago. This is a recount of some Aussie guy who attempted extraction of DMT from Acacia maidenii. "Smoking the bark directly gave a mild hallucinogenic effect, on the limits of the detectable. ... That evening, I shredded the bark by hand. This was difficult and incomplete; mechanical milling would be far preferable. I placed the shreds about 3.5 litres of analytical grade methanol from Monday night until Friday afternoon. The methanol quickly took up colour from the bark and turned a deep red colour. As much as possible of the methanol was removed by filtering. I evaporated off the methanol using a fractionating column, a condenser, and a saucepan of boiling water as heating, for some hours, and recovered much of the methanol. I placed this methanol back with the bark and reextracted for some hours while evaporating the rest, then filtered the bark again and combined the extracts, and stripped as much as possible of the methanol, to leave a thick resinous brown liquid. A portion of the extract was evaporated using a hair-drier to give a thick brown resin. Attempts at smoking this using pipe and hot knife proved unpleasant and gave minimal effect. " The article goes on to say how he performed a proper a/b extraction to obtain proper, smokable DMT. Kind of disheartening, as I have resources to grow lots and lots of Phalaris spp. but not resources to process it with anything more than a simple polar/nonpolar extraction. Keep the replies coming folks, mescalito isn't the only one interested! [ 17. January 2005, 11:30: Message edited by: apothecary ]

Torsten, as far as my knowledge of plant biology/chemistry goes, cannabis varieties that regulate their blooming by light cycles (as opposed to equatorial sativas, or ruderalis strains) are classified as "short day" plants. That is to say, they require a shortening in their day length to flower and are Pr form phytochrome sensitive flowerers. If you're right and HWBWR likes long days for flowering, this discussion related to the topic is entirely moot <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_tongue.png [ 16. January 2005, 14:25: Message edited by: apothecary ]

Torsten, I know you're something of a plant genius and all, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disagree with you. In most plants, flower/fruit is regulated by Phytochrome/auxin levels at each node. There are two forms of phytochrome. Pr form and Pfr form. In "short day" plants, flowering is inhibited by Pfr form, Pr form is sensitive to light, and the plant will only flower if Pr form phytochrome levels are high enough. The opposite applies to "long day" plants. Pfr form induces flowering, if the nights are too long Pfr disappears and flowering is not induced. In this situation "night breaks" of low-intensity light will restore Pfr and flowering can occur even though the plant is growing in short days. There are some exceptions to the rule. Equatorial plants, that only experience 12/12 light cycle throughout their life will flower only when mature. Also, some plants have been bred over many generations to flower upon maturity, irrespective of light cycle. A decent example of this (I'm not sure if it's allowed to be mentioned but I'll try anyway) is Cannabis Ruderalis (the most infamous strain being LowRyder). Plant life stages dependant on light cycle is something that is given to plants by Mother Nature, and can be scientifically tested for. Thus I find it slightly hard to believe that there is no difference between an 18/6 light cycle and a 24/0 one. shroomy, one method that may help that beauty of yours into flower is to stress it a little. Have you tried varying the nutrients? (i.e. switching from high N to high K fertiliser). You can also try putting a paper bag over one of the nodes, tying it down with a twist tie for a few extra hours a day to change the light cycle.

Humanfuel, I seriously only put a pinch...maybe 1mm of soil. You reckon I should just leave it uncovered? Maybe next germination I'll try a few different techniques.

Thanks for the replies guys. I still have some seeds, I'll be trying to germinate them in a cooler spot. Torsten, the pots have holes. I did a very large amount of reading before I even germinated the seeds, I don't like rushing into things like growing plants. I did about 3 weeks of research before I planted my first mary seed, and the same applies here. <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_smile.png

I'm sorry, I'm inexperienced with growing cacti so if I sound like an idiot, bear with me :/ Yeah it's in direct sunlight I'd say for about 10 hours of the day. Long enough that the pots seem to stay warm for the night until morning if the day before was hot. I don't understand what you mean by rot? Rot of what? Do the seeds rot? Or do you mean possibly the seed has germinated and its root is rotting underneath the soil? I'll try moving it to the shade tomorrow morning, but I'm not sure if temps will be adequate...the visionary cactus guide said peyote liked 80-90F temps for germination which google tells me is 26-32 Celsius.

Hi guys, I've been reading up on peyote, how to care for it, what it's used for and the amazing properties it contains. I was so intruiged in fact, that I hit the SAB website and bought a few seed packs of various Lophs (williamsi, williamsi v decipens, diffusa). Using the little yellow rectangle of paper that came with the seeds, along with Erowid's "Visionary Cactus Guide" I attempted germinating 6 of the seeds. I got a tupperware container, and 6 small clay pots, and some sterilised cactus mix. I put some rainwater (about 1cm deep) into the bottom of the pot, and put the pots in the container. I put 1 seed in each pot, then sprinkled the tiniest amount of soil over each seed. I then closed the lid and the container has been in the sun for about 2 weeks now. I check on it every day to see if anything has sprouted and allow some air in, but still no luck! Attached are some photos. I'm sure humidity must be high because there is lots of condensation on the roof and the side of the container. Any advice guys? Am I just being impatient, do the seeds still have a chance to sprout? Any help is appreciated. /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://members.optusnet.com.au/sina.s/000_0295.JPG&key=bfe7c9161378bbd1f7fec51b75a89604f55d6324e5a1b4a315797d6f35093219 /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://members.optusnet.com.au/sina.s/000_0296.JPG&key=0db4761800bf058c11b794df34bd4ac816fb4aaa0bd78902b39093bb72641c52 [ 08. January 2005, 18:27: Message edited by: apothecary ]