/sigh

If vendors are selling fibrous material removed during the powdering process as shredded bark, this is not cool.
That extra 30% yield from the powdered bark is a loss of 30% dead weight which they may be selling on as shredded bark.

This might account for low yields with shredded bark.

Whole bark pieces powdered by the customer should yield the same as shredded bark pieces powdered by the customer.

Also the fact that the vendors are selling sifted root bark powder might have given people false data regarding DMT yields, further adding to the disappointment when a customer uses this illegitimate "shredded bark" retentate.

C.r.e.a.m

I guess what they do is pulverise their bark kind of like a blender does (but a more hardcore one) which leaves these stringy fibres that they then sift and get rid of, leaving only the inner powder. The shredded stuff they sell doesn't go through this process, so the plant material stays pretty much as it would be in whole pieces, just put through a less hardcore process to not pulverise it but slightly shred it instead.

The q21 tek says to add vinegar and water into the bark directly. What I'm speculating to do is to boil the bark(grinded) in vinegar and water for about 3hrs and then add the lime. It would be basically the same thing but with more heat.

I also like that the tek doesn't use lye as a base, but still yields well.

I've yielded nicely with the q21's tek, but this time, as I said, with shredded bark that I grinded myself I yielded 0.5%, don't know if its because its shredded or just poor quality. It was supposed to be high quality.

I want to work with lime because I'm familiar with the tek and it has yielded nicely with pre-powdered. I'll just probably stick with pre-powdered... I'm just wondering what one could do to maximize the yield of shredded with lime base, I mean if it's not low quality bark all together...

That doesn't sound like a bad idea. Just boil a few times with water and vinegar until it gets down the right consistency. No need to save anything, just keep it all together and then add the lime when it looks like it would when not boiling.

Do you mean boil it for example 1hr then add to the bark/water/vinegar mix another batch of water/vinegar, then boil 1hr more?
I was thinking about boiling for 3 hours straight, with about 3liters of water for 70g of bark. How much vinegar would be recommended?

Yeah, i guess that would be pretty much the same thing. I say do a 3 hour boil with 3 liters of water with about 600ml of vinegar. Keep the lid on the whole time and when you get to the three hour mark, take the lid off to allow it to reduce more (if it hasn't done so already). I can imagine this would probably increase your yield.

Great will try. I'll report back if it increases the yield!

Please do... good luck!

... just wanting to jump in here and add my 2c... (a little off topic from the OP, soz). Id like to second a recommendation for boiling (or soaking) bark material in acidic solution and then hitting it with a hand blender... It definitely works well. SWIM has been working with acacia bark which can be very hard and difficult to grind even with a high powered grinder or blender... however boiling or soaking for an extended period definitely helps alot with the hand blend.

... nice yields kermit, good work

OK, boiled the 75g MHRB with 2500ml water and 500ml vinegar for about 2 and a half hours and the yield didn't increase. Therefore I feel like it's either that the maya ethnobotanicals mexican high quality bark is very low yielding or the lime base isn't strong enough for shredded and grinded bark!
Pre-powdered gives very proper yield!
Therefore, has anyone got decent yield using q21q21's tek with shredded/self grinded bark?

I thought i'd post my most recent results from another A/B with shredded bark (150g). I got a higher yield than last time (1.8g) and cleaner spice!

I'm a happy camper

Do you guys blend the shredded bark before extracting? How fine was it broken down? How many acid boils and for long did you do, kermit?

i just broke it down by hand and then with a scissor to 1-3cm long pieces so it wouldnt get stuck in the blender blades.

Just chucked it in the blender for about 20 seconds, but did it 20 grams at a time to not brake the machine. I took notes on the extraction:

First Boil: 1,300ml of water and 300ml of vinegar. Boiling time was 1hr 30mins. I put the 700ml of tea into a big collection jug i have.
Second boil: Another 1,300ml of water and 300ml of vinegar. Boiled for 1hr 35mins and was once again left with 700ml of tea.
Third boil: Same amounts as above and boiled for another 1hr 35mins. This time was left with 510ml.
Fourth boil: 700ml of water and 150ml of vinegar. Boiled for an hour and was left with 550ml so in total had 2,460ml in my jug, which i put in the fridge to settle overnight.

Reduced it to 600ml the next day and added 60g of lye to 300ml of water. Let it cooled down before adding it to my tea. Then did two pulls with 70ml of ronsonol and pooled them together. Then a final pull with 50ml, which i froze separately. The last one hardly produced anything really, so all the goods came out in the first two.

Sorry if that was a bit long. I had it all written down anyways, so thought i might as well type it all out.

Edit: forgot to mention i used a HDPE2 milk jug, which makes getting every last bit of solvent out a piece of cake. You just have to slightly squeeze all the naphtha to the top and into the handle piece.... a bit of eye dropper action and you're set. I don't think i'll ever use a jar again.

I hand-cut my bark down into small pieces using secateurs and then powder using a coffee grinder. My yields from my last batch of shredded have been 1–1.5% based on 3 separate extractions of the same bark. The last (and lowest) yield of 1% was from a vinegar/NaOH A/B using limonene rather than my usual naphtha. Based on previous extracts of the same bark I will try a few more pulls to see if there is anything left in the basic MHRB juice.

I’m not sure about this 30% extra yield advertised by Adenium based on these experiences. Maybe my experience is a fluke or is down to which part of the bag the bark was in (the bag came with some powder at the bottom), or my method and measuring has screwed up somewhere else. Unfortunately after the current extraction is done I don’t think I will be extracting for a while so I will be unable to do more rigid and logical testing until then.

It would be nice to see a separate extract of the fibrous part of the bark to confirm how much, if anything, is in there.

I know what you mean, d*l*b. I am getting pretty similar yields to when i used powdered. However, i never did an A/B on powdered so i can't make an accurate comparison. Doing a separate extraction on the fibrous material is a good idea. I may have to experiment on my next batch of bark.

Just to update on my most recent yield... 2.5g from 200 grams of shredded bark and i have two more pulls to go. Yiiiipeeeeeeee!