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 VHalek
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 What type of desiccant should I use? 
#26544606 - 03/19/20 02:21 PM (11 months, 3 days ago) |
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Hello,
I know I want to use a non toxic substance and have decided on a silica gel. I found packets online for cheap, and they say they do not use calcium cobalt or other toxic substances, but the gel beads do have an indicator.
The brand is Wisedry, and the beads go from orange to a green colour. If they do not use calcium salt, how do they change colour? Would these be safe to use as described?
Thanks,
VH
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oldest hippie
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 Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26544668 - 03/19/20 03:02 PM (11 months, 3 days ago) |
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Silica gel may work, I have never tried it.
This is what I did:
Dri-Rite available at the hardware store. I bought a plastic shoe box with a tight fitting lid, and
I put 2" of Dri-Rite in the bottom, cut a piece of wire screen so that it is tight in the box.
I cover the screen with paper towel and lay the fruit out and put the lid on. Or you could buy a food dehydrator.
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Nweird
Line Cook
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: oldest hippie]
#26544682 - 03/19/20 03:09 PM (11 months, 3 days ago) |
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Are you trying to dry the fruits out or keep them cracker dry?
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VHalek
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: Nweird]
#26546082 - 03/20/20 10:15 AM (11 months, 2 days ago) |
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I am trying to dry the fruits out, get them cracker dry.
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 The_Brown_Wizard
what?
Registered: 12/27/19
Posts: 188
Loc: Southeastern Carpathians 
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26546120 - 03/20/20 10:37 AM (11 months, 2 days ago) |
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I don't usually use any desiccant at all but I tried silica gel a few times and it worked pretty great.
Would recommend it since it's so widely available
--------------------
 There's a weird fuck lurking in these woods
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DJ Ed
Mushroom Engineer
Registered: 09/04/16
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Loc: UK 
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26546121 - 03/20/20 10:37 AM (11 months, 2 days ago) |
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OR.......... I dry some of my harvest, to work out water content. Then a make a lemon tea with the rest of the harvest, and freeze in ice cube trays. When you know the water content you can then work out the exact dose in each ice cube; total weight of fresh mushrooms used in tea multiplied by the water ratio (so for 95%bwater, you’d multiply by 0.05) divided by number of (equal) ice cubes equals individual dose.
Lasts indefinitely in the freezer (I have been told at least a year) 👍🏻
A sure fire way to long term store fresh mushrooms 👊🏻
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“It’s like when you see a mountain lion,” he suggested. “If you run, it will chase you. So you must stand your ground.”
Michael Pollan: How To Change Your Mind
“The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.”
Terence McKenna
  
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VHalek
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Do you remember what brand you used?
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VHalek
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: DJ Ed]
#26546277 - 03/20/20 11:55 AM (11 months, 2 days ago) |
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😳
That sounds like a lot of extra work and math.
This is my first grow/harvest, and I havent even actually
harvested just yet. I'm trying to plan what material I will
purchase. That does sound interesting and easy to dose out,
along with long term storage. I was thinking put silica packets
in the bottom of a bin with a screen on top and fruits on the screen.
I like what old hippie said
Edited by VHalek (03/20/20 11:56 AM)
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Maffmaff
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26546388 - 03/20/20 12:47 PM (11 months, 2 days ago) |
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Quote:
VHalek said:
I was thinking put silica packets
in the bottom of a bin with a screen on top and fruits on the screen.
I like what old hippie said
I use the same bin/screen tek (cover with a cotton pad) but with CaCl2 salt instead of silica.
its powerful, cheaper and no significantly toxic if you know how tu use it.
CaCl2 crystals not so volatile at least u dont smash them.
It doesnt contaminate taste, power, or safe-to-eatily.
Found it on amazon! It does a great job in barely a week.
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NOW HERE IS NO WHERE
NOW HERE IS NOWHERE
NOWHERE IS NO WHERE
NOWHERE IS NOWHERE
NOWHEREIS NO WHERE
NOW HERE ISNO WHERE
NOW HEREISNOWHERE
NOWHEREISNOWHERE
NOWHEREISNOWHERE
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DJ Ed
Mushroom Engineer
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26546400 - 03/20/20 12:57 PM (11 months, 2 days ago) |
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It’s the same amount of effort of making, admittedly, a large tea. But the key is....it’s stores as fresh.and fter months of “dry” trips, I had a trip from fresh Mazatapec tea last week. The trips are so much nicer and easier. It’s my way forward, and so relatively easy. Props to @PrimalSoup, who got me onto this. One of those ideas where you think; why did I never think of that?
❤️
DJ Ed
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“It’s like when you see a mountain lion,” he suggested. “If you run, it will chase you. So you must stand your ground.”
Michael Pollan: How To Change Your Mind
“The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.”
Terence McKenna
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MadMyc
Spores control my mind
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Loc: I see a tree, maybe a pat...
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: DJ Ed]
#26546541 - 03/20/20 02:06 PM (11 months, 2 days ago) |
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That's very intriguing! You find the tea made from fresh shrooms gives a different trip from tea made from dry? Do you think this would be preserved over time with the ice cube method?
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DJ Ed
Mushroom Engineer
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: MadMyc]
#26548360 - 03/21/20 10:33 AM (11 months, 1 day ago) |
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Yes, it’s all related to the psilocybin and the psilocin content of fresh mushrooms. When you dry your mushrooms, no matter how efficiently, you can expect to lose 50% of the original psilocin, and about 20% of the original psilocybin.
Now if you consider that psilocybin first has to be “dephosphoralised” (don’t know the spelling!) to convert it into the psychoactive psilocin.
So probably why fresh are so much different; they have retained most of their psilocin, whereas dried have lost at least half. So the come up from dry is slower, and the aesthetic qualities of the trip are different.
What I noticed last week from fresh (been wondering about this for ages, so put effort in during the trip to be conscious of the differences), was the come up was almost instant. Felt them at 20 minutes, by 40 minutes the first big waves were rolling in, and by 60 minutes I was having a floating through clouds out of body experience, totally transcended from both space, and time, which had completely stopped. The trip was welcoming and gentle, while at the same time hugely intense. I never felt threatened. The open and closed eye visuals were stunning, the musical experience was heavenly, and then the come down was really quick. I would overall describe the differences by describing the fresh mushroom trip as feeling “very clean”.
Mush love,
DJ Ed
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“It’s like when you see a mountain lion,” he suggested. “If you run, it will chase you. So you must stand your ground.”
Michael Pollan: How To Change Your Mind
“The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.”
Terence McKenna
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Qave
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26549090 - 03/21/20 05:07 PM (11 months, 1 day ago) |
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Quote:
VHalek said:
The brand is Wisedry, and the beads go from orange to a green colour. If they do not use calcium salt, how do they change colour? Would these be safe to use as described?
The orange-->green indicator is an organic dye called methyl violet, it's orange orange when completely dry and green when a few water molecules adsorb onto it. Methyl violet is thought to be safeer than the blue cobalt chloride, but methyl violet is an irritant and can have other health effects in large amounts.
I would recommend using a dehydrator to get them most of the way there. desiccant is great at keeping things dry, but when it comes to actually drying things out it is slllloooowww. We're talking nearly a week to accomplish the same thing a dehydrator can do in two hours. The indicators also change color at about 10% water content, so you'd need about 1 kg to dry 100 g of fresh shrooms.
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DJ Ed
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: Qave]
#26550116 - 03/22/20 04:33 AM (11 months, 15 hours ago) |
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Yeah I used to air dry for 4 or 5 days first to get the mushrooms down to about 30% water content then finish off in a desiccant chamber for 2 or 3 more days to get them down to 10-15% water.
Last harvest using a food dehydrator, I dried almost a kilo uncut in the dehydrator in under 4 hours, absolutely cracker dry - you can crumble them to powder just with fingers. So much easier, more reliable, and quicker than using desiccant. And the re-charging the desiccant was a proper hassle, as I had about a kilo......
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“It’s like when you see a mountain lion,” he suggested. “If you run, it will chase you. So you must stand your ground.”
Michael Pollan: How To Change Your Mind
“The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.”
Terence McKenna
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VHalek
Stranger
Registered: 03/06/20
Posts: 26
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: DJ Ed]
#26550181 - 03/22/20 06:39 AM (11 months, 13 hours ago) |
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Thank you for that, and to DJ as well, those were the exact answers
I was looking for. Straight to the point, you named the indicator, gave
me advice, and for that I thank you.
I won't have anywhere near a kilo, I don't think I will get an oz! This
is my first grow, I used spiderman tek and spawned (g2g?) to jars of
rice. I think I will get closer to a half, ~maybe~. Even if I only get a quarter, it will be a huge success in my eyes.
I have two other rice pouches going, they weren't brick-y enough, imo. I
plan to spawn those to coco coir in an eight quart tub. That run will be
a bigger yield, and I will probably do what Old Hippie recommended. I do
not have the funds to purchase a dehydrator, but that sounds like a good
investment.
Can you give me advice for coco? I read that a good ratio water:coco is
8:1, does that sound accurate? How far will the coco expand? I doubt I
will use the whole brick, how much should I use for an 8qt tub? I was
thinking like 200g or even 100g. Should I mix it up directly in the tub I
will use, since I only need such a small amount?
If people would like another update or something, please let me know. The
jars are going nice, I believe, and none have diseases, afaik. There is
no stink, they all just smell wet, reminiscent of mushrooms. Go figure.
Thank you again to all who answered, and thank you to those reading or
just browsing.
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migraineur
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26550205 - 03/22/20 06:53 AM (11 months, 13 hours ago) |
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Buy a food dehydrator to dry your mushrooms.Buy a Cap M Quik capsule filling kit and use that.
Look up Damion5050's coir tek. https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/11916595
I use 4.5 quarts of water instead for of 4 for extra heat and so that there is less chance of having dry and improperly pasteurised bits of coir.
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VHalek
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: migraineur]
#26550267 - 03/22/20 08:19 AM (11 months, 12 hours ago) |
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Thank you for the response and the link. Again, I have limited funds,
read that as $0.
The coco and verm I bought were basically gifts from my brother, and I
don't like asking for money. A quick search on Amazon shows me that a
good model would cost upwards of $100, and I'm not comfortable asking
(Begging) for that much money.
The spores were purchased ~6 months ago when I had an income. I've been
applying, but jobs are scarce here due to recent events. Even if I
was hired tomorrow, that would be two weeks for a check, assuming they
don't hold my first paycheck back.
This first batch I plan to eat fresh. I doubt that I will harvest a lot,
but if I did, I do plan to use the capsule machine I have.
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migraineur
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26550664 - 03/22/20 12:33 PM (11 months, 7 hours ago) |
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Maybe you could sell or trade some of this edible mushroom batch that you're growing. Oyster mushrooms, are they? 
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VHalek
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: migraineur]
#26550753 - 03/22/20 01:16 PM (11 months, 7 hours ago) |
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I would rather eat the cakes than sell the fruits. Certainly where I live
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Qave
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Re: What type of desiccant should I use? [Re: VHalek]
#26551345 - 03/22/20 06:36 PM (11 months, 1 hour ago) |
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You don't need an expensive dehydrator, especially if you're just going to use it for shrooms. I got a really nice one used for $30 and you can probably find them for under $20 at a yard sale.
In a pinch you can use your oven. Put 'em on a tray with some wax paper underneath. Then let the oven preheat until it reads 150-160, turn it off and put the tray in, leave for ~4 hours.
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