The coldest phase of winter is here and plant growth has "frozen."

Probably the best that could be done would be to have a greenhouse with a heater for heating at these times so that continual growth is maintained throughout the life cycle.

And last but not least, permaculture says it is best to sow annual seeds during the waxing moon...

All these principles learned could leading to something for producing phalaris in the coming years.

Temperatures here are in the average 15°-10° between day and night these past few days. It's got slightly warmer.

All New clones have survived started shooting new leaves from the top and new stems from under the soil shooting new blades. One longue thin leaf each clone still not fully mature and not fully spread up. It took 10 days to reach this growth since translating.

Three more months to go before end of spring beginning of July. Wonder if they'll make it to flower. I know by spring they'll explode in growth (second peak after autumn). It's just a game of patience so as to not stunk their growth momentum till the perfect timing for harvest when growth rate is at its peak. At that peak a week regrowth will be highly yielding if fertilized after first harvest. This was my experience last year.

Flowering is a critical stage necessary to accomplish full dormancy so they can switch to saving on moisture. If they don't get to flower in spring I will become a slave to watering them during summer so they don't die off from the heat and they'll barely produce any biomass in summer when irrigated.

I checked an Australian trial with this phalaris accession it found that this cultivar has 90% summer survival rate in dry southern Australia left compared to 30% for CV Australian at 8 inches distance between each plant. Fully spaced out CV Australian had 60% survival versus 100% for the north Africa accession.

A conclusion was reached that size of the plant highly increases its survival rate through summer. So the more spaced out plants are the bigger root system they develop the larger they get. It's called bulbous canary grass for those bulbs underneath the soul like onion has which preserves moisture through summer..

A new seedling emerged since last month that exhibit yet another very different morphology. Blades are heavily serrated at the edges and feels quiet thick and leathery. Cutting a blade it leaks dark red violet sap it looks almost like blood droplets. (Other specimens are dark pink sap). Stem sheath conforms with aquatica, also stem base colour. Darker green blades with a tinge of dark shiny purple. It never shoots straight sharp edged blades like other seedlings upwards. It just creeps on the ground in a floret shape in wiggly pattern.

Want to leave it to grow to extract it on its own for analysis.

A new issue is stray cats will jump walls to get to the grass to wallow in it and chew and pee on it yikes! Now I understand why I notice blade yellowing! It's also male pee can tell from the foul heavy pheromone smell. Tried to scare them off several times still they come back. Like fuck you human

Counted all the clones I made today from one single year old plant to 50 clones!

In summary most of my observations conform with the literature on phalaris as a crop.

I find crop science literature on phalaris is more accurate than the Entheogen literature on the species. More resources have been directed towards crop science than ever will be towards Entheogens.

CSIRO publications saved from sci-hub are the richest collection of data on the species.

Most north african wild accessions of aquatica that were trialed in southern Australia were 5-meo-dmt dominant. Several of which had comparable tryptamine concentrations as cv Australian and few Higher yeilding.

There's some annoying aphids infestation on the blades. They don't seem to leave any scars or any noticeable puncture sights. Ants are attending to these aphids religiously for what it seems their sugary sap waste. Interesting how they're not bothered by the grass alkaloids. Other insects will take a couple bites and shy away.

Your dedication here is admirable, and a great contribution to the cause

That freak variant looks rather interesting, and definitely warrants its own separate analysis for alkaloid content. Were your plants open-pollinated, that gave rise to these seeds?


Sounds like you might have to invest in some netting to keep the felines away - unless you happen to like smoking cat pee It does remind me of a cat-proof fence top that I saw recently - it's a roller that stops the cats from getting a footing. A simple search for "cat proof fence roller" provides lots of hits, including these DIY plans.


Maybe the ants are onto something - their queen could be vaping aphid honeydew in her underground lair for all we know...

Presumably you'll have a bunch more seeds from your plants come late summer - will you be expanding your plot yet more?

I have really enjoyed seeing the progress of this thread.

For keeping cats away used coffee grounds work well and should act as a fertilizer too. Most coffee shops will give it away for free. Just another alternative to try.

New insights.

The soil is not just dead matter, to be healthy it needs to have a good, rich microbiome (Just like a good microbiome is central for human health, so is it with plants!). That's why compost tea is fermented and not just used as an infusion with nutrients. Having used forest soil last time was a great move without knowing it. Planted in field soil this time and will try to compensate it with plenty of fermented compost tea. Not sure if the microbiome can get a hold in this cold (these days it is below 0 C at night here); in the worst case it should work in spring.

Secondly, now I believe that the yellowing has been happening from plain old dehydration and the soil being moist is not enough because of such crowded planting. Now I am watering with river water all days that it does not rain.

For me this has turned into a course in natural farming...

The soil I had used last time (from under an oak) had produced such a vibrant cover along with very healthy phalaris grass. This soil now is poor or comparatively dead. Started adding fermented compost tea today. I also had the idea of spreading a little forest soil inside the greenhouse to see if the bacteria/fungi community from there can multiply and spread, feeding from all the fermented compost tea fertilizer I will be adding regularly. This assignment is due mid Spring. Let's see how the results turn out...

Great to hear how this is inspiring you in the direction of soil science (or soil spirituality, if you prefer )

Have you looked into the principles of biodynamic horticulture? I think they might prove to be a useful addition to your skillset at this point.

Thank you for your interest.

Speaking of that seedling. It's been raining these past three days and look what happens!
It's stood off the ground all a sudden. I swear rainwater is like steroids for these grasses. I never get such dramatic change from tap water even in the sunniest days. Last three days also been so grey and windy. I even thought the new prostrate form is due to wind interlocking blades in a mess but I was wrong.

Felines are are away at the moment from the rainy windy weather. Hopefully they forget out this place and find new entertainment by the time nice weather comes back.

I am planning to propagate more on a friend's farm next time since I ran out of space. The soil on this farm is very fertile (virgin soil).

The brachies are happy inside the greenhouse, getting river water everyday and compost tea every now and then. They are growing noticeably despite the winter freeze.

I noticed river water has a different kind of nourishing effect than rainwater. Rainwater might be the ultimate sky god fertilizer for plants, but river water has nutrients, especially minerals like calcium. Also, it has its own microbial collection (apparently the water source used for drinking water affects the gut microbiome of humans also). There are some proven reasons why tap water is dead water... And chlorinating the soil, killing off the bacteria in there... Nope.

Clovers and vetch are two other plants İ have laid my eyes upon for compost tea. This is either unexplored or not officially studied territory. I've discovered a whole new dimension, one that I will need in the future as I will be growing natural food and medicine in large quantities. Thank you phalaris for being a doorway to this.

I even thought of dissolving earth from a certain forest of a very magical, endangered tree in water to inoculate my greenhouse with it's microbes. This tree species, this forest, and it's soil have very striking healing and spiritual effects on me. I am waking up to the microbial foundation of well being, spiritual experiences, and the state of interconnection.

Sorry if this material is not what you expect to read on a DMT forum (But I mean, this stuff is what you can expect just one step beyond confining everything into an insulated inner experience. Entheogens are there to facilitate practical living connection with the universe. Not for merely altering brain chemistry and alleviating certain psychological disorders seen as plain brain malfunction. The "psyche" in the word "psychedelic" originally means "soul" in Greek, but everybody takes it as meaning mind, and psychedelic is understood as "mind manifesting." I think I prefer the term "ecodelic" coined by Richard Doyle.). Once I harvest and start drinking, I will report on how I trip balls, I promise! And let's see how the grass turns out with all this natural farming style supportive care, minus the overcrowdedness.

There is a biological dimension to this work which is more fundamental than the chemical processing dimension. İt requires intimacy with nature.

Is there a mobile application one could use reliably to identify phalaris grasses with a camera and a phone? Anyone tried?

I haven't used it for Phalaris but have for other species and it has been pretty good:

https://identify.plantnet.org/

Let me know if you try, curious how well it works for this

Got some new interesting info!

Since I noticed the aphid infestation in my phalaris aquatica I've been researching for ways to control it and today I came upon this research paper on the subject that was an eye opener! I will attach the paper below.

Apparently aphid infestation significantly increases tryptamine concentration in aquatica laves!

What's more interesting is that silicon supplementation in the form of potassium, calcium or magnesium silicate significantly alters aquatica's alkaloid profile.


Quote " To examine the effects of Si addition on plant defence we
measured concentrations of three indole alkaloids in the
leaves of P. aquatica with known efects on insects; gramine,
tryptamine and 5-methoxytryptamine (5-m-tryptamine).
Aphid infestation reduced gramine concentrations by
80% and 55% on average for Si− and Si+ plants, respectively (Table 2; Fig. 4a). In contrast, there was a significantly interaction effect of Si addition and aphid infestation
on tryptamine concentration, such that aphid infestation
increased tryptamine levels by 91%, however, this was in
Si− plants only. Si treatment modified this
effect resulting in 64% lower tryptamine levels in Si+ com￾pared to Si− plants in response to aphid infestation (Table 2:
Fig. 4b). Si addition significantly increased 5-m-tryptamine
by over 800% in control plants and by 142% in aphid infested
plants.

And me was thinking aphids are unwelcomed pest

So basically aphid infestation increases tryptamine concentration by up to 91% and reduces gramine concentration by 80%!! What more can we wish for

Furthermore Silicon fertilization without aphid infestation increases 5-methoxy-tryptamine by up to 800% just wow

In my previous post I mentioned aphids not bothered by aquaticas alkaloids while other insects have an aversion from the grass especially regrowth leaves.

Apparently this research paper have come to the same conclusion that aphids are not affected by tryptamines in aquatica although the parasitoids insect of aphids are significantly affected by the increase in tryptamines concentration when tryptamines.

I'm already searching for a supplier of silicon fertilizer.
Even if I couldn't get my hands in the silicon fertilizer. Aphid infestation in itself lowers gramine by up to 80% and increases tryptamine concentration by 91%.

Now wish I didn't kill so many of those aphids. These buggers were trying to hide from me inside the grass sheath. Whenever I disturb the blades they migrate to the base of the leaf and hide inside the sheath so there's more of them still. I'm never bothering them again the grass seems to be regrowing just fine all looking healthy and vibrant as can be seen in the pictures. That's only 6 days of regrowth at 20° maax at day and 15° to 8° at night.

While other plants are yellowing from the high nitrogen fertilizer the grass is growing like crazy! I even noticed some honeydew clear sticky droplets on the blades from the aphids. Some still these tiny sticky droplets attached to their buts ants go crazy when I disturb their sweet trophies. I can live with some blades wilting and dying off from these sugary fat buggers.

Let's see what this coming extraction will yeild after this aphid infestation 😉 one more week to harvest the regrowth and I will be performing an extraction that will be Friday night.

Viva horsetail compost tea which has good amounts of silica ;⁠-⁠) been using it.

And viva warm weather triggering higher tryptamines, through insects and other means :⁠-⁠)

Silica may extend green phase of the grass too, enabling additional harvests.

At this point I'm pretty certain my brachystachys plants are stunted in their growth this time. İt's quite ironic to be getting about the same biomass from perhaps over 100x the total amount of seed İ had last time. There are also early signs of flowering, but these flowerheads are tiny compared to how I've seen them before.

=> The overstress caused from crowded sowing causes stunted growth and early, extremely diminished flowerheads and thus very little seed return.

Phalaris needs to be sown with ample spaces between individual plants. very important lesson that all phalaris cultivators have to pay attention to!

Early harvesting also stunts growth.

The grass needs to develop to mature size before harvesting.

İt's a work of diligence and patience.

Compare this with that: https://www.dmt-nexus.me...p;m=1104484#post1104484 (the flowerhead on the right is from the same strain of brachystachys, in fact the grass below in this post was grown from seeds from that flowerhead)

May that put an end to the "brachystachys does not return enough seeds" misconception. The primary reason for that anomaly is clear: Overcrowded sowing. Other possible reasons include being in a small pot (transferring to the ground is best) or inadequate water, nutrition, or sun. With proper cultivation, from one cycle one gets who knows perhaps 1000x the amount of seed that they had begun with.

I actually have an idea for a project. I am thinking of trying to plant my remaining brachystachys seeds in two big pots, one filled with soil from the mountains at the bottom of ancient, undisturbed pine tree forest (should be acidic but rich in nutrition and bacteria), the other from a sealevel forest of an endangered tree species, which is alluvial soil. Alluvial soil is said to be the most fertile of soils, and it is high in clay...

And then I will be able to compare all of them, including my field planted brachys. Soil nutrition, condition, and structure is an important variable... And of course this time I will plant very sparsely in the pots.

..i appreciate your patience and diligence dithyramb, and thank you, Sidisheikh.mehriz and the others here, for your important work with Phalaris species...future consciousness-exploring ancestors will be indebted..i will keep reading..be well

Thank you nen888. This forum with your and others' work from the past has been the fertile soil for me to grow this research.

I am updating my latest project. İt will be three pots. One, pine forest soil, two alluvial soil, and three, the same soil from the field that I planted this fall. I added the third one to have a more clear comparison with the other two soils, and also to see how planting sparsely will change the growth rate in the same soil.

And of course there will also have to be a comparison between the potency and effect quality of all three.

Alright, gray alluvial paste-like soil and red pine forest mountain soil rich in humus is ready and seeds are sown sparsely. They have at most three months to mature and flower. Let's see how it goes.

I recently discovered oat straw tea and have been drinking wild oat grasses for b vitamins and other benefits. Given that brachystachys is noted for it's healthy and good feel post drinking, I wonder if it might also contain some b vitamins and/or other overlapping medicinals with Avena sp.