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vele
Stranger

Registered: 04/21/18
Posts: 9
Last seen: 1 year, 6 months
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My drying setup
#25161579 - 04/24/18 04:29 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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I wanted to share my drying setup I made a few days ago. I made a cylinder out of cardboard with a small plastic window, put a perforated plastic bottom to let the air out, and installed a fan in the top cover. On the bottom I put gauze and mushrooms on them, and also I put 4 small bags of silica gel wrapped in gauze. The fan makes a decent flow of air which I can feel on the botton - the cylinder is not on the ground, it has 4 wine corks as legs.
I put it to work for 24 hours now but it didn't dry the mushrooms completely yet, so I'll let it work for some more. The fan is quite loud and I sleep in this room so during the night it's off.
The other thing I wanted to try with some smaller mushrooms it's just a small cardboard box with silica gel on the bottom and mushrooms on it, with gauze in between.
Here are some pictures:





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Ama420
Thickems



Registered: 04/12/17
Posts: 1,159
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
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Re: My drying setup [Re: vele]
#25161653 - 04/24/18 05:57 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Very creative!! I advise to look into a dehydrator. Walmart has presto for $30. You want to get them dryer faster.
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Ama420
Thickems



Registered: 04/12/17
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Re: My drying setup [Re: Ama420]
#25161656 - 04/24/18 06:02 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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This is a 4 tray one from walmart, $30. It runs at 165F. Oxidation kills potency. You want them as dry as possible as fast as possible. I used the silica gel beads and different fans and all. If moisture is left in them when stored they can rot and all. Invest in a dehydrator, check internet, local thrift stores... you will not be dissapointed
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lacaigicungdc
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Registered: 04/22/18
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Re: My drying setup [Re: Ama420]
#25161709 - 04/24/18 06:42 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Ama420 said:

This is a 4 tray one from walmart, $30. It runs at 165F. Oxidation kills potency. You want them as dry as possible as fast as possible. I used the silica gel beads and different fans and all. If moisture is left in them when stored they can rot and all. Invest in a dehydrator, check internet, local thrift stores... you will not be dissapointed
I had this one at home for drying fruits. But it does not have temp controller. How long is it necessary for shroom?
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harmal
passenger



Registered: 04/19/17
Posts: 302
Last seen: 1 day, 7 hours
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No need to control temp, it should be on highest setting anyway.
OP i constructed a similar setup with a plastic bucket and a cpu fan but with a 100w incandescent light bulb after the fan to heat the air, it takes around 24 hrs for them to get cracker dry. Without a heating element it will take longer and the shrooms might lose some potency
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Ama420
Thickems



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Re: My drying setup [Re: harmal]
#25161726 - 04/24/18 07:01 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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A temp under 200F isnt going to cause anything. There is an oven drying method that works too. I highly suggest dehydrator
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vele
Stranger

Registered: 04/21/18
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Last seen: 1 year, 6 months
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Re: My drying setup [Re: Ama420]
#25162018 - 04/24/18 10:28 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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My total investment in this dryer was 1.5€ since I bought most things on the flea market. So I should add a heating element to it? And the heat won't do any harm?
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Ama420
Thickems



Registered: 04/12/17
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Re: My drying setup [Re: vele]
#25162031 - 04/24/18 10:37 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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A heating element will help a lot on cutting down time, as long as its not like burning hot, your good. You can dry in the ovenand it dont harm. Im not sure exact temperature to stay under but i know under 300F is fine. And being cardboard you dont want anything that hot anyways. My dehdrator has no settings but it runs at 165F and i have never lost potency, at least anything noticable
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harmal
passenger



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Re: My drying setup [Re: vele]
#25162050 - 04/24/18 10:46 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yes heat is better than no heat, first of all it won't destroy the actives on the contrary it denatures the enzymes that destroy the actives so it preserves potency.. and they will be drying faster and better. A dehydrator is definitely the best setup but for me i couldn't find one in my country and i only bought the fan and assembled the rest from things i had at home and it worked well I had to line the inside of the bucket with foil so thay the output air had a temp around 40C(temp needed to denature enzymes) But yeah be carefull with the heat a d cardboard
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vele
Stranger

Registered: 04/21/18
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Re: My drying setup [Re: Ama420]
#25162060 - 04/24/18 10:49 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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OK I'll look into it. Now I weighted the mushrooms and when they were fresh it was 128,83g, now they're 37g so they dropped to 28.7% of their original mass. That seems OK to me, even though they're not cracker dry. What do you think?
Also, I heard of the possibility of losing potency if not dried fastly, but how true is that? What amount of loss are we talking about? Is there a read about it here on the forum?
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,915
Loc: Milky way
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Re: My drying setup [Re: vele]
#25162082 - 04/24/18 10:56 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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128 wet should give you like 9-10 dry grams If you got them to 37 they might seem pretty dry but they'll go t shit fast
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vele
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Registered: 04/21/18
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Last seen: 1 year, 6 months
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So you're saying that they should drop to around 7-8% of their original mass? Are mushrooms made so much of water?
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harmal
passenger



Registered: 04/19/17
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Re: My drying setup [Re: vele]
#25162099 - 04/24/18 11:04 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Here's how it looks like, it sits vertically and the metallic mesh fits horizontally in it and the shrooms go on them, it's small but good enough for my needs.

They should go down to 12g or less, and yeah the longer it takes the more they are prone to potency loss, some people dry them all the way with just a fan and the mushrooms are ok.. maybe you can finish it up in oven, there's a thread where someone just dries them on a table under a light bulb
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,915
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Re: My drying setup [Re: vele]
#25162107 - 04/24/18 11:06 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yes about 90-93% water usually sometimes more sometimes less.
100grams almost always gives under 10g dried usually 7-8g.
If you dry 100g to 7g they're 93% water. Say you took 93% shrooms to only 20g from 100wet Then you would need to take over twice as much to achieve the same effect. And they would go bad much faster
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vele
Stranger

Registered: 04/21/18
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Last seen: 1 year, 6 months
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Re: My drying setup [Re: harmal]
#25162129 - 04/24/18 11:20 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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It's quite good, not so cumbersome as mine and also cheap to make - I think I'll install a lightbulb like this for the next flush and for now I cut the bigger mushrooms along the stem because I felt that they're wet inside, and put them under the fan for a bit more.
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Ama420
Thickems



Registered: 04/12/17
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Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
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Re: My drying setup [Re: vele]
#25162443 - 04/24/18 01:48 PM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
vele said: It's quite good, not so cumbersome as mine and also cheap to make - I think I'll install a lightbulb like this for the next flush and for now I cut the bigger mushrooms along the stem because I felt that they're wet inside, and put them under the fan for a bit more.
Cutting like that to thin them will help dry easier, good thinking!!
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mushboy
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Registered: 04/24/05
Posts: 35,378
Loc: eating the cats
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Re: My drying setup [Re: Ama420]
#25162454 - 04/24/18 01:52 PM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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good thinking would be ...
Quote:
why bother with this silly stuff? lets go purchase technology!
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Ama420
Thickems



Registered: 04/12/17
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Re: My drying setup [Re: mushboy]
#25163005 - 04/24/18 06:28 PM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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I agree mushboy, hands down a dehydrator is what is best
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