Mitragyna Potentcy

[tuamai]

For starters, sorry to hear mitragyna is now illegal in Australia.

Here in the states, it's a booming business and live plants are

being sold on web sites like Ebay by the hundreds if not thousands.

This past June I bought what was said to be a rifat clone on Ebay for $25.00.

The seller lives in N. Carolina on the east coast and I live in Hawaii. Quite a

distance and even sent express mail, it took six days to get to Hawaii. As

soon as I received it, I stuck in a pot of Miracle Grow potting soil, watered

and misted it liberally and hoped for the best.

Within several days, new leaves were sprouting and the plant looked nice

and healthy. After about two or three weeks, I put her in the ground and hooked

up a sprinkler to come on for 20 minutes every 8 hrs. She really took off at

this point and is at present as a wee bit under 2 meters tall! Sorry, no pictures.

My wife is in Thailand visiting family and took the camera with her.

The only problem I'm having is the leaves have no potency at all. Last week-end

I picked 30 leaves and made tea with them. Kept the water on a slow simmer for

about an hour, strained the leaf fragments out and drank the whole lot. Nothing!

No reaction at all!

Now I'm positive this is a kratom plant and it looks like every picture of a rifat clone

I've seen on the internet. I'm wondering if this is a rifat clone, maybe it's been cloned

too much. I mean taking cuttings from cuttings from cuttings etc. may have weakened

the alkaloid content of the plant so much that the cookie jar is empty.

Or, wishfully thinking, it just needs to age some more.

Any wise botanical insight would be most welcome.

[AndyAmine.]

I have read that the most potent leaves come from old, mature, stressed tree's.

For instance, when kratom was legal I bought some imported from malaysia (apparently from old tree's) and it was easily x5 stronger than any other leaf I have tried since. SSSSOOOO BITTER!

So I think growing conditions and age are a major factor and it sounds like you have given it plenty of extra care, so it makes sence that it would be of low potency. how do the leaves taste, very bitter?

[tuamai]

I have read that the most potent leaves come from old, mature, stressed tree's.

For instance, when kratom was legal I bought some imported from malaysia (apparently from old tree's) and it was easily x5 stronger than any other leaf I have tried since. SSSSOOOO BITTER!

So I think growing conditions and age are a major factor and it sounds like you have given it plenty of extra care, so it makes sence that it would be of low potency. how do the leaves taste, very bitter?

Hmmm... Maybe that's it- I'm taking too good care of it! No the leaves aren't very bitter at all.

A few weeks ago, I ate a ten leaf quid and then another ten leaf quid and they really were not

bad tasting at all. May be I'll cut back on the watering a bit.

[planthelper]

i support andy's view!

use late season leaves, aswell it has been found that leaves which have been stored for months are much stronger, somehow some metabolism must take place.

[Himdumb]

From a post in Yahoos Kratom Group:

"Several months ago, I reported on an experiment with dried leaves

collected from my then two-year old kratom tree. Unfortunately, even

after taking 17 g of leaf powder, I could feel (except for the strong

motion sickness) only very weak effects. I should mention that my

tree lived its first two years as an indoor potted plant.

This year, a few days before the summer solstice, I repotted the tree

and moved it outdoors. It stayed outside for the entire summer with

minimal care on my part. Basically, I just added water regularly.

Summer 2006 here in the Midwest was unusually rainy and windy. When

October came and the weather started cooling down, I took it again

indoors, where it has stayed ever since.

Notwithstanding the ravages of predators and fungi on a few leaves,

my tree has quite visibly flourished in its more challenging new

environment. It almost doubled its height and now stands at nearly

four feet. Its leaves appear a lot greener and more robust than

before.

Yesterday, a large leaf--about 4-5 inches long--fell from one of the

upper branches. I washed it well and proceeded to quid it in my

mouth. Although I had read that stressing (e.g., with wind) the plant

increases the potency of its leaves, I didn't expect much given my

previous experiment.

To my complete surprise, the single leaf I took was very potent.

Certainly, this was a 360-degree turn from the useless dried leaves I

had taken in my previous experiment. Even taking into account that

fresh leaves are more potent than dried, I had never had good effects

from fewer than three large fresh leaves in the past.

With that single leaf, it seemed that I had already had my usual

dose of powdered kratom (about 10 g). Still, I ended up taking about

half of my normal dose in addition to the quid. Needless to say, the

kratom effects were very strong and unspeakably nice.

I believe that the best use of home-grown kratom is not as dried

leaves or as raw material for extract, but as fresh-leaf quids.

Place the trees for as long as you can in the warm outdoors and

stress them out a bit. Then harvest the reward"

Info about taking cuttings:

"It may be that older trees produce stronger leaves than younger ones.

Since the tree was 3 rather than 2 years old this might make a

difference.

Apparently something else important to home growers happens to trees

between their 2nd and 3rd year, they loose the ability to form viable

cutings!

So perhaps the best use for 1-2 year old trees is to serve as a

source of viable cuttings and then for the older trees to serve as a

source of fresh leaves."

himdumb

Edited December 15, 2006 by Himdumb