san pedro ID/drying question

[famousness]

hello all,
I have a couple of questions, i am currently in southern california for about a month and a half and i happened to notice a large columnar catci growing in the yard(actually 2 of em[on a side note: real pretty/its placed in between large barrell catci])
The large one is about 15 ft high, the other is about 4 ft.(im just gonna consider the large one since it has so much that needs to be "pruned" off anyway). from what i have read i think it is a san pedro cacti. the tops of the cacti look very similar to a pic on this board
http://www.psychonaut.com/index.php?opt ... 97&lang=nl

the colums are pretty huge(almost half a foot in diamete/ the base is probably a foot in diameter, so this looks like a very old specimen)

I have been looking at alot of pics and trying to decide if it is indeed a san pedro, but i am a little confused when i also see cereus peruvianus.
i dont believe the cacti in the yard has ever produced a fruit on it (just white flowers)

so my question is: Is this a san pedro or a cereus peruvianus that doesnt produce fruit (sorry no pics, if i can find a camera in a couple of days ill post)?

Also, if it is a san pedro what would be the best way to dry it out?
( i am currently despining, deskinning, cuutin out the core, and laying on a rack in a dark place).
i only have a month and a half left in this area so i am trying to start drying now, unless someone has a better method of alkaloid storage
I am going to TRY to get about 50 dry pounds(will prolly be less) and ship it across the US and do extraction with it when i get back home(volume and weight are a big factor when trying to ship)

.....i think thats it.......thanks for help in advance

 

[Brewmaster]

A cereus peruvianus has very FLAT ribs. A pedro has FAT ribs.
They look nothing like one another.


Was this in your yard or did you steal it?

 

[famousness]

cool.......this thing has VERY fat ribs

and well its not exactly MY yard but it is in my parents, and i told them i was going to do some yardwork and prune some of the cacti and they said it was ok

 

[skoeip]

as for the drying of the cactus, in peru the shamans slice the cactus in too stars and then lay them in the sun to dry. the core is not that important it contains some alkloids but not that much, the skin (or the part beneath the skin) is wat contains most of the mescalin.

 

[famousness]

i heard somewhere that light degrades the mescaline....is that true, or is it insignificant?

 

[skoeip]

I think that if you cut the catus in slices of one cm and put them in the sun to dry, and then when they are dry put them in a refrigerator then the potency loss is insignificant.

 

[Brewmaster]

Mescaline is one of the most stable compounds around. Dried cactus will never lose it's potency.

 

[famousness]

heres pics

san pedro?

 

[skoeip]

Damn sic basterd! Im so f*** jealous of you! I wish I could have such a beuty in my garden damn that realy looks sweet!

 

[famousness]

alright, as you can see there is a s#$ton of cacti............however the sun hasnt shined(shone?) here for a couple of days.

i am instead drying strips and cubes in a 170(F) oven, but this is a real long process.

i was wondering if the cacti can be chopped really fine (puree almmost ) and be layed flat on a baking dish, possibly making the drying faster(by time to dry/ or vollume being dried)? would this affect the shelf life of the dried alkaloids?

 

[skoeip]

mescalin is prety stable, but a powder isnt as durable as the bigger pieces. air is a bigger problem with powder than with pieces. perhaps if you freeze the powder and keep it frozen it wont be a problem. how long do you plan to keep the dry cactus? a few months should be no problem but do not expect it to be potent after years.

 

[famousness]

werd, i plan on keeping it for 3 or 4 months max in some tupperware(trying to save it and share with friends)
....the only problem i could think of is that it isnt going to be frozen for a while
(a month maybe)

btw, thanks for all your help

 

[skoeip]

I think that as long you dont put it on a very warm spot a month isnt realy going to harm it. I once had a dry cactus (peruvianus) that I stored for a month in a couple of news papers in a closet and I dont know how the guy i got it from stored it, but I dont think he put it in a freezer. in a freezer you can keep it good for years, but one or two months outside a freezer should not be a big problem.

 

[MindAstronaut]

Crazy Heaven Dude!! may i congrate you with that beautyfull San Pedro..
I bet you can let a whole village Trip on that Cacti

 

[Brewmaster]

Fossilized peyote as old as 10,000 years has shown to still contain traces of mescaline. If your cactus has been dried out, it will last long after you're gone.

However, that doesn't look like any san pedro I've ever seen. They're generally much more columnar without as many branches. Branches on a pedro are actually pretty rare; pups almost always sprout from the bottom.

 

[famousness]

funny you say that......i posted those pics on another forum and they said it didnt look like a SP.

Ive been scouring the net trying to find what it is exactly and i havnt found anything
the tops look like cereus peruvianus(flat ribs) but the rest of it doesnt.

in the back of my mind im hoping its some type of trichocereus hybrid.
ive tried some of it before and felt kinda spacey for a couple hrs, but i dont think it was even a large enough dose....even if it was SP(and i kinda burned the "soup" a lil).....or it coulda just been my mind.

i guess the only way to know for sure is to actually try a substantial dose.
ill report back here soon/ or not so soon......(going on a subvacation) about the effects, if any, it has on me

 

[famousness]

And the final conclusion after eating 30 grams dry (those dry chips really poked into my gums harsh)...........NOT SAN PEDRO

.....musta been a some type of cereus, because it did nothing at all to me


....at least i gained knowledge in how to prepare a cactus well, including drying

TY for everyones support even though it didnt turn out well

 

[skoeip]

too bad it wasnt san pedro...

 

[Brewmaster]

How bad did it taste?

 

[skoeip]

I hope it didnt taste as bad as dry pedro chips damn I still can recal the taste of those! :vom: