Calea zacatachichi

[Gollum]

Hi all

Today i decided to make up some Calea zacatachichi caps.

I dried a sizable quantity of leaf then ground it all up in a coffee bean grinder and put into gel caps (should have seen the looks i got down at the chemist when buying those )

Anyway it all ground down to nothing, about 8 caps worth.

So they are ready to go. I plan on having 2 about 20mins before bed.

I'll let you all know how they go!

[mescalito]

Have a go at smoking some too it's yummy!

[apothecary]

I will be posting 3 or 4 nights (depending if I have some tonight) smoking bioassays tomorrow mesc

Here if you don't mind a little hijacking Gollum

[elzar]

does anyone have a rough idea of the quantity required to somke or swallow? there seems to be minimal info on this plant

[apothecary]

60g in tea is the traditional Chontal Indian dose and I have gone as high as 7 cones before bed. More info tomorrow.

[planthelper]

i once had some dream herb tea and didn't feel like eating for a long part of the next day.

so could you people look out for appetite depressing action? thx.

[Gollum]

Hi guys

Hyjack away :ph34r:

I had 2 caps last night and had some pretty vivid dreams, like running around spaceships getting chased by aliens.

Im not sure if this was the caps though. I have been smoking MJ very regularly for the last 10 years and now that i have stopped, or slowed down should i say, i have been experiencing some strong re-bound dreaming.

I have given some of these caps to my mum and a friend to see if they have get any effect from it.

Will keep you posted.

You guys have any recipes for calea tea? I imagine it would be extremely bitter?

[prier]

I haven't yet been game enough to try the tea, I remember reading in numerous places it is one of the most bitter things imaginable.

I've had a tincture of calea before that I found pretty effective. Allthough when I was taking the tincture I also had about an ounce of Mugwort stashed under my pillow, which surprisingly is really effective for more vivid dreams.

I also tried smoking Calea in joints too but that didn't prove too effective, I'll have to dust off the old billy and try smoking a few cones, sounds like a good way to do it.

[apothecary]

Calea bioassays (inspired by posts from mesc, planthelper and tantra):

Approx 40g dry leaf obtained from Smogs plant (I believe Gomaos stock).

The process was as follows, chop up an amount of Calea leaf, turn off all the lights, get ready for bed, smoke all the leaf I could handle then go to bed immediately.

Night #1:

6 cones chopped leaf - No rememberable dreams. Usually I can't sleep past 10am, even on nights where I've been out on MDMA (where legal) and gone to bed an hour after sunrise I still wake up in the morning. This day I slept until midday, and woke up feeling refreshed and happy.

Night #2:

4 cones chopped leaf - Recollection of dreams was easy as I drifted off to sleep, at one point I was thinking of dreams in general and immediately scenes from four or five dreams came back to me in the space of a few seconds with vividity.

I saw a tunnel of colour forming behind my eyes which jolted me back to full awakeness, shortly afterwards I drifted off into a good deep sleep.

Some interesting dreams (kind of personal so I won't say too much).

Night #3:

bioassay interrupted to experiment with a different herb.

Night #4:

5 cones of chopped leaf + 2/3 of a Datura flower - Had some trouble drifting off due to the power of the datura smoke keeping me up for a while. Vivid and adventurous dreaming. Woke up in the morning for a short period and went back to bed, only to discover I could pick up the dream exactly where I left off and continued to dream for another few hours.

Woke up feeling very very good for the whole day, energised and content.

So that's about it for now. Some more data I guess. Nothing too spectacular but I will probably be smoking this herb every night from now until I run out. If anything it's good aid to sleeping deeply, and there is a definite afterglow effect the day after.

To confirm some points that the people who came before me commented on:

There is a definite cumulative effect, even though I skipped a night. The smoke is mildly intoxicating even before you hit the pillow, you feel altered somehow, but lack proper perception I think to appreciate it until you go to bed. (if that make sense)

and lastly sorry planthelper my friend, I can't confirm the appetite suppression stuff, it may very well be true as I haven't eaten a lot over the time I was experimenting but this could be easily attributed to a few different sources.

I think a good smoking mix containing Calea would be a 3:1:2 ratio of Calea leaf:Datura flower:Ashwaghanda leaf (yes Datura is probably better in this case than Brugmansia if you ask me).

[elzar]

I have failed to sustain major dream recall in my tests. as many of you have mentioned there may be a cumulative effect as by the second night i was able to recall a dream. (i havnt dreamed for over 2 years due to smoking mj) however since then i seem to be having dreams increasingly. there is an extract from the herb garden for $8. there is a definant posative outlook for at least the following day which helped as i was feeling somewhat down leading up to that point (possible anti depressant qualities).

I dont recall any apetite supression however i never consumed a tea. caps seem like a good idea. you can get the gel caps at all alternative food stores as they are used to make up your own vitamins and a pack of 100 costs under $10 i think.

sorry bout the hijack gollum. but very useful info thanks guys.

[Hagakure]

i smoked two badly rolled calea joints and drank a cup of the tea two nights ago with no remarkable effects.

last night though i almost got lucid. i was like - wait this is a dream i can go downstairs an absolutely trash that room (im not a violent person but hey, thats the way the dream went). i get down there and i thought "whoah i almost trashed that room cause i thought i was dreaming but im not" arrrrrrgh so close to lucidity. FLICK THE LIGHTSWITCH DAMMIT FLICK IT.

i did meet this attractive darkhaired tanend skinned lassie though and was thinking "man im glad this is not a dream" GRRRRRRR

but yeah anyway. that was the night after i had it. - any idea how long active compunds stay in the system?

ill try having a few cones worth on the weekend. i couldnt sleep very well the night i had it but that is probably part my out of sync with society sleep patterns as well.

also cheers for putting the effort in to write some bioassays apoth

[mescalito]

Apoth:I'm glad to see peeps getting interested in the milder psychoactives thanks for the posts and your further research.

You'll find that tantra,PH and myself are hypersensitive to substances amongst a few other members IME so if more than one of us are getting something then further investigation and subsequent extracts are worth pursuing for the 'norms'

Keep up the good work mate.

[apothecary]

No worries, I think the more interest we can drum up the better anyway :D

I'd just like to emphasise the power of the afterglow, I think teo mentioned it as well, it is really damn good, I don't remember feeling that good (while sober) since the summer of 2001 lol!

[Gollum]

Hi all

The last two nights i upped the dose with the caps from 2 before bed to 5 with some noticible effects.

I had some really vivid dreams too.

Like i was in a shop at went to reach for a bag of sultanas or berries of some sort and actually felt the crumpleing and texture of the bag when i picked it up in the dream.

I cant remember ever having the ability to feel something in a dream before. Also the dreams felt "different" in some way and can recall them more clearly.

And i agree there is a noticble hangover/ afterglow in the morning. It wasnt unpleasnt though.

[elzar]

i also recall the ability to feel and interact with objects. even on one instance i felt pain almost contradicting the whole pinch me am i dreaming idea. so far it seems a good way to make use of the time sleeping.

[Benzito]

I've got a Calea plant that is going nuts at the moment.

Anyone want some fresh leaves?

Send me a PM.

[Advanc3d]

Ok, i don't want to make a new thread but, i bought 2 Calea plants from SAB a few days ago and its getting pretty cold in sydney, should i leave them outside or take them indoors?

also, would the addition of fertillzers be any good for the plant such as Potassium Nitrate?

[Torsten]

calea are tropicals, so in sydney they will go somewhat dormant over winter. you never feed dormant plants.

if you have a space indoors with good natural light or some grow lights, then they will love you for it. just don't change your mind half way through winter.

[Advanc3d]

calea are tropicals, so in sydney they will go somewhat dormant over winter. you never feed dormant plants.

if you have a space indoors with good natural light or some grow lights, then they will love you for it. just don't change your mind half way through winter.

ok well im just going to leave it outside..

i noticed that some of the leaves gets darker and is drying up and the small buds comming out are also getting dry. is that normal for the plant in such climate?

[occidentalis]

ok well im just going to leave it outside..

i noticed that some of the leaves gets darker and is drying up and the small buds comming out are also getting dry. is that normal for the plant in such climate?

In Perth Calea often loses all its leaves over winter but it always comes back in spring.

[MORG]

In Perth Calea often loses all its leaves over winter but it always comes back in spring.

The leaves on mine are turning brown now too. I thought it might have been root-rot, but I shouldn't worry?

Could you strip all the leaves and save them rather than let them fall away? Or would this stress the plant? Any ideas?

[SaBReT00tH]

my leaves were turning brown too, so I moved it indoors. It's receiving some fragments of artificial light in addition to dim windowsill light also and it seems to be loving it a lot more compared to outside in winter. Seems to be still slowly growing too, some shades of red on the green but new growth doesn't seem to be curling up, going brown and dropping off, whichseems to be a very positive sign. I just miss the soil occasionally with a spray bottle.

Edited June 1, 2006 by SaBReT00tH

[Rev]

I disegree wholehartedly T

Calea are most definitley subtropicals

The grow summer and spring and have a distinct autumn flowering state (daylength sensitive)

they dont mind the cold - a bit purple

Frost kills them to ground level but they reshoot in spring

this brings them in line with Heimia, S@lvia, anadenathera and several others

definitely subtropical

and this the secrest o overwintering is mainly keeping them dry in winter

if you want to avoid top death then void frost damage then do as T says

ie same as tropicals

o/wise overwintering just means keeping roots dry and day time temps higher for subtropicals

Edited June 5, 2006 by Rev

[Advanc3d]

so what, dont water them in winter?

[Rev]

in short - yeah

sunny spot under cover

restrict watering

increase watering once frost danger is over and night time temps rise above 5c. Get a max/min themometer they are great value for researching climate effects on plant cycles

theyre ok - theyere designed to go through a drier dormant state at cooler temps or dying back to rootstocks with frost and subzero temps. The term i read is 'root hardy'.

some dont even give a shit about frost above ground - Anadenathera colubrina, Stevia, Leonotis,Trichocereus spp. and heimia are immediate examples in my USDA zone 9A garden

its been -2C several times here already and not a spot of damage on any of them - excpet the leonotis where full morning sun hits the frozen tips causing rapid thaw and so damage

the difference between subtropical and temperate vegetation here is the tolerances to both extreme dry Heat and the acceptance of hot humid late summers - which is a real killer even more so than the early extreme heat due to fungus. Just 25 km away up the slopes a bit is a more temperate town and the differences in vegetation native and exotic is noticeable.

Tropical plants like Kratty, yohimbe, Peyote, Kava, Capi, Novo or Iboga

would never like this and when they start losing leaves or looking different colours it means they really are dying. none like it ever below 1 and do best above 8C as a minimum night time temp