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Euphorian

Kanna's tight matrix of tiny roots

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Today I repotted two kanna plants I planted as cuttings last year. The pot was heavily rootbound mostly by a huge matrix of very tiny roots. It makes up the bulk of the mass of the root system. I seperated the cuttings and repotted them.

In the leftover potting mix was all these tiny roots. I picked alot out. Squashed them, chopped it up. Let it dry and smoked it. It was well worth it. That's where the power is that's for sure.

Those little roots are worth collecting. But how? They make the mass of the root system. The potting mix had the consistency of cork. Pulled apart like a loaf of bread.

I need some sort of frictionless potting mix. I just buy it. Know nothing about it.

I was reading a post about someone wanting river sand for potting kanna. So he could eat the roots. Can't find the post again. I don't think it answered my question. What potting mix is best for harvesting the entire root system. Outside of hydroponics.

It's terrible to have to discard such alot of the most potent part of the plant.

Kanna has a descent root ball.If only I could have all of it.

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Interesting, i had never heard anything about the roots being used.

Have you tried fine pumice in your soil mix?

It would help lossen things up, and would increase drainage.

Happy looking kanna!

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Do think I could I could just use sand? If I feed them myself.

Does cactus mix need to have 20% organic material. The stuff I'm using has bark.

I will try pumice.

Glad I tried the roots. Strongest effect so far off my kanna. Less euphoric and more synergistic. As the roots dried out I couldn't squash the roots so it became less active.

Bogfrog I like your garden. Your living my fantasy. I don't have the space. Have to make it count. Hopefully I can grow a years worth of kanna indoors. So far seems to be working.

New Zealand is having a kanna crisis. I can't get a decent extract.

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Thanks man, i just got lucky choosing a rental, im hoping i will be able to buy the place one day.

Well i really like how you respond to a kanna crisis, by growing as much as you can!

Im unsure about using sand yet, but i have always used 50/50 potting mix / pumice for cacti and succulents, my kanna gets the same.

What other sort of plants do you grow?

Limited space requires creativity! At one flat we had a secret roof-top garden on the garage, i'd climb up the neighbors fence to get up there.

Even my flatmates were oblivious to their presence!

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Just Kanna.

I was really driven for awhile. I ordered some seeds from overseas which got confiscated. It started a defiant obsession to get kanna and defeat authority.

Which I have. Successfully. I have so much material now. I can afford to experiment. Just sand I can spare a cutting just to see. I have some with rootblast and some without. I have several different plants and that means seeds.

I can understand the process of its activity much more. The bruising and blending of the whole plant and fermentation. I'm going to invest in a blender. And experiment.

Couple of years I'll figure out perfect kanna. My hunch is more roots.

My best fluke buy was a 14watt led panel. Honestly for most plants in the plant kingdom it would be a useless piece of crap. For rooting kanna it's perfect. The gateway to big healthy root systems. Plus I only have to water them once a month. So they becoming compact.

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Edited by Chasekanna
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Big healthy sceletium root systems, hey? Check out this root porn.

For a point of reference, that's a 200mm pot saucer.

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Nice Roots Psylo Dread.

Any tips. That's the roots I'm after. How old are they? Did they make awesome kanna?

That's great. You can get lot of kanna out of a pot. Must be the most efficient entheogen you could grow in a small space. If you aim for roots like that. Thanks very much for the inspiration.

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That wa from two plants that were about 18 months old. I soaked them in a bucket of water, then washed the soil off. Fairly dense soil packing too, not sand. I then spryed them with a weal iodine solution to sanitise, as I worry that soil particle may spoil the ferment

Some small, nonscientific testing was done with six people + mysef as to root potency (100& aereal vs a 30/70 mix of root/leaves) in a blind test, and there was no lean towards the roots being more potent. Scientific studies that I have read have also only speculated.

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Thanks interesting report. Yet disheartening. Makes kanna mysterious again.

In the world there is potent kanna and weak kanna. I've had both. Far too much of the later.

I hope I err on the side of potent kanna. Preferably on the first attempt.

On the otherhand 18 months. That's really good root growth. I was prepared to let them grow 3 years. If need be.

I assume you fermented ok. Because washing in a bucket is a good idea. I was worried about bacteria been washed off.

Kanna is easy to grow. Getting it to a state that makes me say yippee might be more complex.

Particularly if I use the internet as a guide.

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Here's a paper that may interest you. You will note a reference to a 1971 study that suggests that the stems are the most potent, then the roots, then the leaves. Mesembrine from plants seems to be very under studied, and I have not encountered any other statement about potency outside of the attached report.

Journal-Of-Pharmaceutical-Biology.pdf

I have grown, prepared and distributed sceletium made from only the plant matter above the soil line, and there have been many positive user reports. Personally, I'm not convinced that the root material is significanty more potent. I'm yet to do an 'all root' study, mostly because I wonder if the curing would be affected without leaf material. There's plenty of heresay and placebo effects. I might do a 70/30 preparation for the 2012/13 harvest and see if there are any marked potency shifts.

Bear in mind that a few years ago there were suggestions that the non-hybridised Sceletium tortuosum was endangered due to cross breeding of inferior species, and that people ave been distributing hybrids, unaware of doing so. Your specimen may be one of those, hence the 'weak' medicinal value.

Journal-Of-Pharmaceutical-Biology.pdf

Journal-Of-Pharmaceutical-Biology.pdf

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I'm not talking about my plants. Of those I'm yet to know. Atleast in a whole plant. I've sampled the roots in a bruised but unfermented way. It had all the power. In a Cannabiniod way.

I don't know about a full plant ferment yet. My hunch is the order of potency is roots stems leaves. I still go with internet consensus. Kanna made from trimmings is weak. Kanna made from whole plant is strong. If your right. I'll get Sceletium Emarcidum.

I'll know in a few months. Hopefully successfully.

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I still go with internet consensus. Kanna made from trimmings is weak. Kanna made from whole plant is strong.

 

Im sorry, actual first hand evidence is contrary to that statement, and has been repeated over several years.

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i think hydroponics is worth a try areoponics or a N.F.T or even clay balls you would be able to get a clean root and you could continually harvest it

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sorry to but in, but it reminded me.. i got a plant recently i was told was some other kind of Sceletium, but similar to kanna, does anyone know what the name of this is? thanks.

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Okay, today I saw the healthiest Kanna plant I've ever seen. It was nuts, and he'd only been growing it for about a year. The guy said that he NEVERRRRR uses pumice (he said it like that). And he said that he thinks pumice promotes root mealies, and that he had never had root mealies in 40 years of growing, except when he used pumice. Well, the thing he said that formed the bulk of his mixture was something called 'Dalton's propagating sand', and that he gets it from Palmers, and that it's $11 for a big bag. I will have a look for it, as I could tell by looking that whatever he was doing was working really well. Especially for succulents, which traditionally give me grief.

I just checked and this might be what he meant: http://www.daltons.c...ropagating-sand

He gave me a cutting of his plant, which was almost certainly the legitimate plant shown in the photos. He said it came from the Brand river, but I guess it was actually the Brak or the Sand river (fortunately these are in the same area too) - as I can't find mention of the Brand river. My first Sceletium Tortuosum has really narrow leaves, spreading out quite wide, while this new one is tight with short fat leaves. It could just be growth habit, but I don't think so. Either way - I hope this cutting strikes and grows well. :]

My first plant looks like this roughly:

kanna2.jpg

New cutting looked like:

sceletium_main_1.jpg?1337556044

Edited by CβL

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To the OP, I'm all for growing your own but you mentioned you couldn't find decent extract in NZ.

Medico Herbs have a Kanna spray I would recommend.

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Dud hybrids sounds like the reason extracts in New Zealand been dud. Someones grown a whole paddock of dud kanna. Their still selling it dispite complaints.

The plants I'm growing are active of the trimmings. I just have to eat it. Up untill that point my relationship with kanna was smoking.

Some of the plants I got are suspect. One hasn't flowered. I definitely have sceletium Tortuosum as the cuttings came with a developing seed pod.

I'm still for big roots at the very least it increases the volume of the harvest.

Carbon Being that's a great difference in form for the same plant. I wonder if that's an increase in potency. Since the latter looks like it grows like it does in Africa.

Edited by Chasekanna

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Well that's why I'm not so sure it is the same plant. The new plant originated from South Africa, and has a paper-trail too. The old one came from TradeMe, and seems suspect. :P

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Guys, don't dismiss things that easily, based on a hunch that there are 'duds'. This year for the first time in almost 10 years I have changed the location of my crops, and I'm noticing a few things already. They now get about 2 hours extra sun a day, and the leaf-forms appear more chunky. Whether environmental conditions also alter alkaloid content, I can't say. But there have been a lot of visual variations posted online over the years by people who I am quite certain have the genuine species. Not knowing anythig but S.tortuosum, it's not for me to say how similar the others are, althouh it has been stated that ID is a tricky task (due to aformentioned growth variations driven by environmental setting). I'll see if I can find some photos from previous years, and make a comparison to this years. Same source, cloned from the original, not grown from seed.

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New cutting looked like:

a>

 

I have seen countless pictures that look like your photos. While mine have never appeared this way, a lot of people beleive that this is S.Tortuosum. Wait and see how it grows out, and post some more pics please

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Speaking of environmental conditions.

I was reading an article about scientists wanting to increase the alkaloid content of Madagascar Periwinkle. Because it's full of valuable anti cancer compounds.

Through the use of trace amounts of heavy metals they were able to increase the alkaloid content of the stems 4 fold and the alkaloid content of the roots 5 fold.

Moral of the story for me. Better make sure I include all the minerals and elements in the potting mix.

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Hey I will happily trade for one or two small rooted cuttings of Sceletium. I will happily pay too. PM me please.

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