Mushroom Storage: Science Based Best Practices Plus New Dosing Formula!

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In the above video I show what to do with your cracker dry mushrooms after they come out of the dehydrator for optimal alkaloid preservation! It turns out they still sell the Osterizer blender shown in the video that works with mason jars (I checked the reviews and people specifically mention using with mason jars - a very nice feature).

I want to give a huge thank you and shout out to MagicMyco who performed the HPLC analysis on my samples to make this research possible! He can do the same for your samples anytime, and he also runs the Cultivar Cup which is a twice a year community testing event, the next deadline is coming up fast, June 1st! Every single person who entered the Cup last time received some type of prize, and the top prize is a free vacation to a Jamaican resort that looks amazing. He created a discount code "gordotek" that any of my members can use to save on their entry (very big discount and not an affiliate marketing thing, I do not personally benefit from this). There will also be a zoom call for the results & a discussion panel on June 21st.

OK, so I've been monitoring the alkaloids on TTBVI (pan cyan species) over time and previously published results after 4 months, at the time I didn't feel like there was enough data yet to draw definitive conclusions. But now I have 7 month follow up data and the picture is becoming more clear. Here is a summary of the results:

To recap, we are comparing homogenized samples from the same flush harvest of mushrooms, using four different methods of storage, using the panaeolus cyanescens species (specifically TTBVI cultivar), the four storage methods were:

• Powdered and covered by the inert gas argon. 

• Whole form (not powdered) and in argon.

• Powdered without argon

• Whole form without argon

For the argon, I used a product called "Bloxygen": https://amzn.to/4e6kz82

In comparing the 4 month results with the 7 month results, in every category the potency did continue to deteriorate over time, but the rate of potency loss can be characterized as:

All four samples remained quite potent even after 7 months in storage, with no clear change in the rate of loss (two accelerated slightly, two decelerated slightly). But of the four, a clear winner seems to have emerged, and that is the one that was powdered and protected with argon. Also powdering in general, seems to be superior to whole form, with or without argon (I believe the reason for this is that the powdering allows the mushroom material to be compacted into a smaller area which results in only the top layer having air exposure while the rest is less exposed). Here is a breakdown of the average monthly potency loss by storage type:

We now have enough data that a person who really wanted to be meticulous about their dosing, could use a formula to calculate the required dose for the level of experience they desire. For example the Johns Hopkins researchers used 25mg to 35mg psilocybin equivalent (PCBE) as the standard for a "high dose", lets just pick the middle of that range, 30mg as an example that someone may want to target (I will talk more about dosing in a future post). Next, you will have to determine the potency of your mushrooms either by sending them in for HPLC analysis, doing a home test kit, or you can estimate your potency based on data that has been collected from various community testing events (the largest single data set is here). If estimating based on published testing data, be sure to filter on your particular cultivar, not just the species, and to be more conservative you could use the highest PCBE value, or if you are less conservative, go with the median value. Next, using the numbers from the monthly potency decline table above, you can adjust the dosing as needed according to the number of months you have had your particular sample in storage since it was tested (always label your jars with the cultivar name and date it was harvested). The final steps would be any adjustments to suit your personal sensitivity level to psychedelics (some people are highly sensitive, while others need more, certain medications like SSRIs and SNRIs can also have an impact on sensitivity).

[UPDATE: It turns out, Johns Hopkins who initially insisted on the bodyweight adjusted dosing which I've always been skeptical about, actually self corrected and no longer recommends bodyweight adjustments, so the calculator no longer has a bodyweight adjustment option in case anyone was wondering about that. For what its worth, I requested the raw data from Johns Hopkins years ago to check on this recommendation, it should have been very easy to provide, I wanted to plot MEQ30 scores against bodyweight to see if there was a correlation between the two (if heavier people were consistently getting higher scores it would clearly indicate a problem with the bodyweight adjusted dosing). Hopkins ignored my request and did not send the data, but instead conducted their own internal review and apparently discovered my suspicions were correct. I don't remember them ever publicizing this discovery nor did they ever bother to follow up with me. I am a bit disappointed by the lack of research that went into their initial decision to use bodyweight adjusted dosing in the first place but at least they have corrected the error now. The nice thing about science is that it is generally self correcting over time.]

All of this results in (summon your inner math geek):

So to complete our example, lets say a person grew some TTBVI that potency tested at 3.5% PCBE but it has been in storage for 5 months (on argon), and they would like a 30mg PCBE type experience. How much dry powdered mushroom material should they put into capsules?

Solving for X above, you get 910mg which is 0.91g, so this person would need to measure out approximately 0.91g of their mushroom powder on a gem scale to get the desired experience level.

To explain that equation more, the 30mg is the desired level the person wanted, 0.035=3.5% potency that was either measured by the person or guessed based on published test data, 5 is the months their powder has been in storage with argon, 1.16 is the monthly deterioration rate in potency while in storage, you subtract from 1 and divide by 100 because you want the percentage factor to account for the loss of potency starting from 100%.

MAJOR UPDATE: A patron here has turned the above into a simple easy to use online calculator! Check it out, please post any suggestions/feedback, see: https://www.patreon.com/posts/108308909

Below is a description of psilocybin "experience levels" to help you determine what type of experience you would like to have (the level descriptions are an Erowid classic but as far as I am aware I am the first to put specific PCBE value ranges to these levels and I also expanded the descriptions a bit adding some science based explanations for what is happening in the brain at various levels).

To help a person determine their personal sensitivity it is strongly recommended that you start at the lower levels and work your way up from there as desired, one level at a time with at least 2 weeks between experiences. Also note that researchers found no particular value to going above the highest level range described. Excessive doses can cause elevated fear, anxiety, panic, sweating, paranoia, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. It is not "cool" to brag about taking insanely high doses, its the psychedelic equivalent to the morons who drink an entire case of beer in one night. Also some people taking very high doses simply have very low sensitivity (or high tolerance) for numerous possible reasons (medications they take, past receptor damage, or genetic factors) and they cannot achieve the described levels without taking much higher doses than indicated below. You will figure out your sensitivity as you work your way up the levels, check to see if what you experienced matches the descriptions. You can also use the MEQ-30 questionnaire to confirm what level you have achieved.

[3 to 6mg PCBE]:

This level produces mild effects, with some visual enhancement like brighter or more vibrant colors and sometimes an elevated mood. Some short term memory anomalies. Left/right brain communication changes causing music to sound 'wider'.

 [6 to 12mg PCBE]:

Bright colors, and visuals (ie. things start to move and breathe) some 2-dimensional patterns become apparent upon shutting eyes. Confused or reminiscent thoughts. The natural brain filter (salience network) begins to deactivate, thoughts may be distracted, creativity may feel enhanced, fixation on objects within your view or parts of your body can happen (for example staring at your hand or a flower or tree).  The salience network or midcingulo-insular network or ventral attention network, is a group of regions in your brain that work together to filter out unimportant information and decide what deserves your attention.

[12 to 18mg PCBE]:

Very obvious visuals, everything looking curved and/or warped patterns and kaleidoscopes seen on walls, faces, etc. Some mild hallucinations such as rivers flowing in wood grained or 'mother of pearl' surfaces. Closed eye hallucinations become 3 dimensional. Open eyed visuals everywhere with no effort. There could be some confusing of the senses (ie. seeing sounds as colors etc.) Time distortions and `moments of eternity`. Movement at times becomes extremely difficult (too much effort required).

[18 to 30mg PCBE]:

Strong hallucinations, objects morphing into other objects. The brain’s default mode network becomes less active or inactive resulting in loss of ego or splitting of the ego. Things may start talking to you, or you find that you are feeling contradictory things simultaneously. Some loss of reality. Time becomes meaningless. Out of body experiences and perceived esp type phenomena are possible. Different parts of the brain become “hyper-connected” resulting in full blending of the senses (synesthesia). You may experience colors when listening to music, see shapes when smelling certain scents, or perceive tastes when looking at words.

[30 to 40mg PCBE]:

Total loss of visual connection with reality. The senses cease to function in the normal way. Total loss of ego. Merging with space, other objects or the universe. The loss of reality becomes so severe that it defies explanation. The earlier levels are relatively easy to explain in terms of measurable changes in perception and thought patterns. This level is different in that the actual universe within which things are normally perceived, ceases to exist. You may experience momentary periods of absolute peace and calm while the ego is suppressed and your brain is unencumbered by its usual worries or passions.

Someone asked in the community chat - can you use oxygen absorbers instead of argon? Argon is superior as it completely blocks all oxygen from touching your mushroom powder, it works instantly, and no matter how many times you open the jar, as long as you keep it upright, the argon will stay in the jar protecting your powder (be careful to always keep the jar upright). An oxygen absorber can take many days if not weeks to absorb all the oxygen in the jar, and every time you open the jar new oxygen comes in. Sometimes oxygen absorbers are unreliable as well, they may expire and unless you have a way of testing them, you won't know they are depleted. Also oxygen absorbers contain water which could potentially contribute to the dephosphorylation of psilocybin, a study by Altitude Consulting found that oxygen absorbers were a net negative to mushroom storage.

Speaking of the community chat, if you haven't seen this feature yet, I HIGHLY recommend you check it out! It is now working on BOTH the app and the website versions of patreon, the icon looks like this:

It has been very active, our community has an awesome, helpful vibe and a positive spirit. You can often get questions answered there faster than I can respond via private message, and most of the advice and answers I've seen have been excellent. I chime in there too as much as I can. The chat also makes it very easy to share pictures. Some excellent discussions have been happening, as well as inspirational pictures and messages. I will be highlighting some of these community topics and adding commentary in a future post here.

For anyone wondering why the minor alkaloids rise over time in storage, it is similar to how psilocin rises as psilocybin deteriorates, essentially, as the major alkaloids are damaged, they can turn into other molecules including the minor alkaloids that were in the pathway of biosynthesis:

(Source: Enzymatic Synthesis of Psilocybin Janis Fricke, Felix Blei, Dirk Hoffmeister)

Someone also asked about storing at room temp vs. fridge or freezer. In general, storing things in a fridge or freezer tends to be beneficial, but according to one published paper I know of, that is not the case with psychedelic mushrooms. I would like to further research this subject myself and do not fully trust these results, but here is the reference: Gotvaldová K, Hájková K, Borovička J, Jurok R, Cihlářová P, Kuchař M. Stability of psilocybin and its four analogs in the biomass of the psychotropic mushroom Psilocybe cubensis. Drug Test Anal. 2021 Feb;13(2):439-446. doi: 10.1002/dta.2950. Epub 2020 Nov 4. PMID: 33119971.

Several people asked about using carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of argon, I talk about that in the above video around the 3 minute mark. I would love to do further testing with CO2 to see how it compares, but in general argon is superior for several reasons, but mainly because it is less reactive than CO2 and also heavier which might be a very small advantage in displacing the oxygen.

Several people asked about vacuum sealing as an alternative. Vacuum sealing is probably a decent choice, this is one more option that should be tested scientifically, but the common problems with vacuum sealing solutions are that they can sometimes lose vacuum over time and you may not even realize it, also they don't completely remove all gas (i.e. never a "perfect vacuum"). It seems much simpler and fool proof to just squirt a little argon over your powder - this completely and instantly blocks all air from touching your mushroom powder. That said, there are some inexpensive mason jar vacuum sealers out there that have excellent reviews and would possibly work well.

Someone asked about using desiccants (silica gel packets). They may not be necessary, another one of the nice benefits of using argon. Argon is a noble gas with a relatively high atomic mass (around 40) for a single atom. Water vapor is a molecule (H2O) with a lower molar mass (around 18). So even though it contains 3 atoms, the water vapor molecule is lighter than a single argon atom. This makes argon denser than water vapor under the same conditions of temperature and pressure which means the water vapor is forced away from your mushroom material by the argon. If you were not using an inert gas, desiccant would likely be beneficial. If your mushrooms were not fully cracker dry the desiccant could also be beneficial, we need more scientific data on using desiccant with and without inert gasses.

Someone asked about putting them into capsules first before long term storage. This is still a question in need of scientific research. I can see pre-encapsulating as possibly being good or bad. You will always "lock in" a little bit of air in the capsule because it's impossible to completely fill them, so that is a possible negative. HOWEVER with capsules you are really PACKING that powder down, pushing out all air from the powder in the process, that should in theory be a plus for preservation. My guess is that putting them into capsules for storage might be net beneficial but I have not seen any data on this yet.

Someone asked about consistency when it comes to potency levels. Potency variability is still something that needs further research. I was happy to see the scientific evidence that powdered mushroom material stores better, as that means people storing it that way will automatically get good homogenization which should contribute towards reducing potency variation at least within that single stored batch. There are certain factors that people just need to be aware of if they are aiming for consistency, for example harvesting too late can reduce potency, letting them sit around before dehydrating can reduce potency, not properly drying or drying for too long or too short of a time impacts potency (set alarms for yourself and check on the progress). I believe once a person learns all of the best practices and perfectly repeats everything including same substrate ingredients, same harvest timing and proper dehydration, the potency levels should be fairly consistent especially in a big homogenized batch.

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