Desiccant / Drying

[drgibbon]

Just wondering what people recommend. Was looking for Drierite but can't find any Aussie suppliers of this?

[drgibbon]

Oops, should have searched first.

[Chiral]

What are you trying to dry may I ask...fungus just use room temp air on paper towel and turn the fruits daily..they will done in 3 days max, then store in zip lock bags unbroken and handled gently with a little packet of desiccant and they will keep longer than Rod Marsh did for Australia.

If wanting to dry solvents use Epsom salts..tip box of salts onto some pre-laid baking paper on an oven baking tray and spread out evenly, then set oven to 200 and bake for an hour or two...get em out crunch up the white sheet of salts and place into clean dry pasta jar and store.

When u need to dry your solvent simply put some salt in the solvent through a plastic funnel with a small teaspoon at a time and shake your solvent...when the salts stop clumping there is no more water to be absorbed...shake again vigorously and leave over night ...filter the solvent through a funnel stuffed with polyfibre and more salt sprinkled on top of the fibre and slowly pour or decant your solvent through the filter into a DRY and SPOTLESSLY CLEAN collection jar or vessel...you now have dry solvent.

If you want to dry your hair I recommend a hair dryer or a towel works okay too...

[AndyAmine.]

^^^ Avoid using the finer dusty stuff as a chemhack has to filter what a chemhack puts in.^^^

[drgibbon]

What are you trying to dry may I ask...fungus just use room temp air on paper towel and turn the fruits daily..they will done in 3 days max, then store in zip lock bags unbroken and handled gently with a little packet of desiccant and they will keep longer than Rod Marsh did for Australia.

 

Mushrooms, yep Are you saying put a pack of silica gel in the ziplock bag with the dried mushrooms?

Also, I read in the PF Tek that you can put desiccant in a container, wire mesh over the top with mushrooms on the mesh. Wanted to use Drierite, but can't seem to get a hold of it. Would silica gel work OK for that? Just want to make sure it's done as fast as possible.

[Chiral]

I dunno some people seem to go to way much trouble IMO...pick whole fruits with a pair of large tweezers or use gloves, pick at base and twist gently so as not to pull have the substrate up with it...now have a tray or cardboard box what ever lined with paper or paper towels...lay your whole fruits down side by side till you have picked all the ones you are harvesting...place tray or box in a dry to warm room and leave...

next day go and gently turn them over and again on the 3rd day turn again, around the 4th day they should be up to 90% dry...if they are small fruits they will be done...pick em up gently without breaking the fruit and lay inside a big zip lock and throw a small desiccant packet in there with em..once the bag is full lay it down and gently push down to push out as much air as possible then zip lock up the bag...place bag in a drawer in darkness and you have shrooms dried potent and ready for use when ever u need them.

kiss.

[AndyAmine.]

You should never use a 2nd-hand packet of desiccant that's been taken from anything other than food because more than likely its been sprayed with fumigants etc., silica gel packs taken from imported furniture or clothing are the worst.

[drgibbon]

You should never use a 2nd-hand packet of desiccant that's been taken from anything other than food because more than likely its been sprayed with fumigants etc., silica gel packs taken from imported furniture or clothing are the worst.

 

Cool thanks, I ended up just ordering some new packets to toss into the bags for storage, as they're fairly cheap.

[Chiral]

make your own desicant sachet by putting oven dried epsom salts or damp rid into a tea bag

[PD.]

just make sure they are fully dry before baggin them up and storing them. Easiest way to tell, give the cap a lil wiggle, if its still wobbly and not cracker dry it needs more drying. This bit (where the stem meets the cap) is always the last part to dry and often overlooked, if bagged up they release the moisture and the whole lot goes from cracker dry to soft and floppy, which tends to degrade the mushies rather fast ime. Ya dont have to check every single specimen, just a few of the biggest ones. Then well wrapped and in freezer, with, as suggested a bag of desicant. Storing them in a place that has variations in temp, for example a cupboard or drawers ime also degrades the product rather rapidly, dosin on said product gives some rather unpleasant effects such as loss of balance and some motor control, back the front vision, lethargy and basically feeling 'crap', vastly different from what is to be expected from fresh or well dried/stored material. NOT recommended.

[drgibbon]

If they are stored in the freezer the bag would have to be really tightly sealed, otherwise they'd get damp, right??

[yuio]

buy a dehydrator

[Marcel]

..

Edited January 10, 2011 by Marcel

[Amazonian]

Glass jars with a tight fitting lid are the best method for storing dried mushrooms. keep them in the freezer with a date on the lid. I save Maconna coffee jars as it has a plastic seal and it sort of creates a vacuum when you push the lid on.

Edited September 6, 2010 by Amazonian

[PD.]

If they are stored in the freezer the bag would have to be really tightly sealed, otherwise they'd get damp, right??

Double bag and then wrapped in newspaper.

[strangebrew]

In winter you can get them dry in about 30hrs just by suspending them over an oil-heater for a few hrs each night.

Cutting the stems off & placing the caps face down makes all the difference. I put them on cardboard which sits on a clothes rack stretched out over the heater.

I then grind and place this over the heater to make sure all the moisture has evaporated.

[Chiral]

I would advise anyone to grind there fruits to powder...every single time people have done this and given them to try they are pissweak and sometimes almost inactive...whole fruits will stay potent much longer.

[bℓσωηG]

I would advise anyone to grind there fruits to powder

so dont grind ?

[strangebrew]

I would suggest it's down to people's storage/drying methods rather than the grinding itself.

[Chiral]

if u must grind to powder and cap then use immediately, as they oxidize so readily when turned to powder...if u powder and store for a period they will go off and be useless ...soooooo many times I've seen this time and time again.

[t st tantra]

after 4 or 5 years well stored fruit seem to have usually lost all signs of blue/blackness and at this point seem inactive or at best have mildish weird melatonin like effects.[even with vit c].

t s t .

Edited September 7, 2010 by t st tantra