Drying mushrooms

[Joeandjoeindustries]

I've recently acquired a restaurant heat lamp used for french fries and was curious if it could be used to dry my mushrooms in bulk. I figured it would be harmless, but alas, it's my first grow and I'm fairly unexperienced. I'd just hate to ruin all of my hard work with some foolish mistake. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by Joeandjoeindustries

I've recently acquired a restaurant heat lamp used for french fries and was curious if it could be used to dry my mushrooms in bulk. I figured it would be harmless, but alas, it's my first grow and I'm fairly unexperienced. I'd just hate to ruin all of my hard work with some foolish mistake. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Might be too hot for the actives. I'd put them on window screens and use a dehumidifier and a fan blowing on them for a few days (more or less depending on ambient rH) to mostly dry them up, then make 'em crispy by putting into a bin with a tray of silica gel sitting next to them for a night or so.

[Mycorama]

Heat is bad.
Fans will be your new best friends.

[Golden Teacher]

Heat breaks down the active alkaloids in your shrooms. If it gets too hot you will notice a LOSS of potency. I would probably steer away from that.

I would take heed to TvCasualty's advice. Two days under a $10 box fan, with your shrooms on screens will be very effective. Then use some sort of dessicant, i.e. DampRid or Silica get, in a rubbermaid type container. Cracker dry shrooms will store for long periods of time without loosing much potency.

You can use this method effectivly with bulk type grows....

Vaccuum seal and store away from heat and sunlight for long term storage. I've had some for over a year without much loss of potency. IMO, fresh shrooms will always be more potent due to high levels of psylocin.

Best of luck to your future grows.



GT

[RugRat5288]

i use a small honeywell electric heater with a screen over it to dry. was always a beleiver that heat is bad but after tring this method and having people give opinions on the heat dried potency seems that if any difference it would be that the heat dried are more potent. probably depends on how hot your heat lamp is and how far from the shrooms you have it. give it a try vs. the fan method and see what you get. one thing for sure when its humid the heat method is much faster.

[Red Monk]

That's right....you have to weigh your options . If you're in a humid basement (like me ) , I think your best bet is a dehydrator , then the dessicant chamber . I set my dehydrator on the lowest setting (95 degrees ) . Pretty much done in 24 hours . It's either that or set them in front of a fan (or dehydrator with no heat) for 3 days . So you can say that heat isn't the best thing for them.....bur neither is letting them sit out in the open air for three days ! Paul Stamets doesn't seem to have a problem with a heated dehydrator , but I wouldn't go over 100 degrees , imo .

[tenjin]

My buddy dries with a fan then in a dessicant chamber. He took a big card board box and cut off top flaps and opened the four bottom flaps and placed box over a fan laying flat on the floor pointing upwards. The box encloses the fan everywhere but the top of box is left open where fan bows air out. Then stretched a very porous t-shirt (or any porous material) over the open hole ontop of box where flaps were cut off. T-shirt can be stapled to box if stretched and will not stay stretched over box. The more stretched the more porous. Then lays shrooms ontop of stretched t-shirt and turns on fan. It blows upwards through the box and through the t-shirt stretched ontop where shrooms sit, thus drying them from underneath. He tapes or wraps towels around bottom of box near fan if air is escaping anywhere. He then throws a big blanket ontop of box to hide or leaves it open.

After drying on fan, outside of shroom is dry but when bending is soft. Then puts in a tupperware bowl with a lid. On the bottom of bowl is full of silica gel and powder taken from packets or get DampRid. Then a square nylon net is placed over bowl which overlaps around entire bowl and shrooms lay on net while tupperware lid is placed on- holding net up and shrooms above silica on bottom of bowl. They are stored in there until you can bend shroom and it cracks and breaks.

[Umbo]

Ive read here somewhere, (and
I don't know how tested/proven
this is) that psilocybin doesn't break
down until the temp reaches 200+
degrees I think it was. I have always
used my dehydrator on 90F and
my mushies have always worked
very well.

[TVCasualty]

You know, I just remembered that a dehumidifier in an enclosed small space (like a closet or even a small bedroom) heats the whole space up to about 85-88 degrees when the rest of my house is at 65, so I guess it acts like a room-sized heated dehydrator.