Thank you much for your reply. As a new member I am not allowed to PM. I also am new(ish) to DMT and I do want to extract using the food safe methods. The bark I got was mostly from well-dead trees. I did pull leaf tips (maybe a kg+) but have read elsewhere that someone (Fable) believed that crystals could not be obtained from the phyllodes- only 'jungle honey' could- what does that mean? Does that mean what residue I would be left with could not be vaped? I have a friend from Mora and he said the Acuminata are everywhere...he might be able to help with some fresh bark...

Where SWIM lives, a 7 hour drive is considered de rigueur if going "to town". But yes it would be a disappointment to travel all that way and mis-identify.

Believe me, there really are gazillions of these trees. And they are prolific breeders.

SWIM uses very sharp, large size, limb secateurs. On the trunk use the blades on the bark to cut around the trunk about a centimetre deep. Then hold the blades open with point down and use them to flip out the bark at the cut line as one might use a paint stripper going down a wall. It sounds violent but it isn't. The bark should lift off fairly easily, revealing a yellow/light green inner core. Then just pull downwards and it will come off in long strips. If you pull carefully it will strip all the way to the earth. SWIM has used this method and the trees are still alive, so don't be too worried. One medium sized tree will easily yield 1.5kgs of bark matter, which you should cut into small pieces, and powder BEFORE it dries or it will be too hard to work with (SWIM has taken a few days to cut strips into smaller pieces and process, so one needn't do it all in one day). It will remain moist for up to a week.

If you still feel in any way that this is not a good method, and causes harm to the tree, many animals ring-bark trees. Sheep, goats, elephant, horses, even lions. In Africa acacias are ring-barked to make rope and kiondo. Humans harvest wood for construction all over the world on a scale it would be very hard to comprehend. I wouldn't be that concerned about this.

SWIM uses bark from trunks by preference, as it's easier to get big yields, long strips, and it is closer to the ground. Of course, if you are driving a number of hours you'll want to harvest as much as you can, so the big lower branches also yield bark in the same stripping method.

Lamby

Mid-summer conditions should yield higher alkaloid content as the plant is being stressed by dryer conditions. This goes for many different plants, eg phalaris or Mescaline containing cacti.

SWIM hasn't used phyllodes, as the Jams are so abundant. Having seen hundreds knocked over annually, SWIM doesn't mind using the bark of living trees. In fact, having tried to extract from fallen trees and bark and subsequently having no success, SWIM has no interest in attempting to use dead material again. Besides which dead and dried material is extremely hard to chop up...which might be the reason you are keen to use leaf material. Spice should be in the phyllodes, but you'd need a LOT to pull as much as you can from bark.

If the fallen branches have still got some moisture under the bark, that should be okay.

Also consider using a siphon, as turkey basters take a very long time and can drip and run and blend your separated liquids.

Please update!

RAL

dead material will likely be drastically reduced in yield depending on how long its been there.. thats great that you got some out of it anyways.. i haven't tried Q21's tek but find standard a/b works well in my experience. do you know if the tree you used was broad or narrow leaf acuminata?

also whether or not acuminata is abundant or not it seems pointless to me harvesting in a way that will harm the tree when you can still get plenty of dmt from phyllodes.. it is still a living organism and respect should be shown. phyllodes contain a healthy 1% dmt which is a very good yield (more than the trunk bark of other trees like obtusifolia for example). I think harvesting trunk bark is generally pretty lazy behaviour considering you have such a consistent and high yielding phyllode species at your fingertips ...and the fact that its widespread isn't really an excuse to do needless harm..

there's been a number of reports of people getting it from phyllodes -i know a member here grows his own and harvests the phyllodes yielding white crystals ..as far as obtaining crystals vs goo it depends on the method of extraction/chemicals used.. and regarding the harm harvesting trunk bark causes it depends on how you do it.. you certainly don't want to be ringbarking trees, but taking any amount of the trunk will do the tree a lot more harm than simply pruning a few branches (where you get branch bark+phyllodes).. and yes, I definitely agree that the DMT experience has something to do with nature , in that one aspect of these chemical's presence in nature is likely for communication with other lifeforms..and I think nature helps provide it in a way that least harms nature if that makes sense... i find it hard to believe trees would provide these chemicals for ingestion in a way that would ultimately cause harm to them, and in that sense using phyllodes seems more coherent with the plants yearn to communicate with animals

i'd suggest going over to the acacia extraction workspace for other extraction tips.. theres a link in my signature.

generally a typical a/b of boiling plant material in acidic solution, basifying and pulling with non polar solvent will work fine. crystals are not essential they are just more convenient for scraping up and storing.. i rarely attempt to crystalise extracts now and usually leave them as a wax/goo

there's been a number of reports of people getting it from phyllodes -i know a member here grows his own and harvests the phyllodes yielding white crystals ..as far as obtaining crystals vs goo it depends on the method of extraction/chemicals used.. and regarding the harm harvesting trunk bark causes it depends on how you do it.. you certainly don't want to be ringbarking trees, but taking any amount of the trunk will do the tree a lot more harm than simply pruning a few branches (where you get branch bark+phyllodes).. and yes, I definitely agree that the DMT experience has something to do with nature , in that one aspect of these chemical's presence in nature is likely for communication with other lifeforms..and I think nature helps provide it in a way that least harms nature if that makes sense... i find it hard to believe trees would provide these chemicals for ingestion in a way that would ultimately cause harm to them, and in that sense using phyllodes seems more coherent with the plants yearn to communicate with animals

i'd suggest going over to the acacia extraction workspace for other extraction tips.. theres a link in my signature.

generally a typical a/b of boiling plant material in acidic solution, basifying and pulling with non polar solvent will work fine. crystals are not essential they are just more convenient for scraping up and storing.. i rarely attempt to crystalise extracts now and usually leave them as a wax/goo

The crystals that I ended up with from old bark extract (my first ever attempt at extraction...dry-powdery-beige)don't melt into the scourer at all and while the smoke/ vapour is mildly psychoactive likely not ... but another alkaloid. Maybe because of the age of the bark all the DMT got washed out.

What youve got there is probably decomposed plant matter with your dmt. Rain will leach alkaloids and rot. Acuminata is reported as having mainly only dmt so crystals should be attainable from live or not long fell phyllodes and branches. Probably not with limonene its not selective enough.
You cant freeze precip or evap limonene. Its only good for back-salting but you need a decent ammount as you will lose some during the conversion.
You could try amor fatis crystalisation method its probably the closest you will get to clean solid crystals using only foodsafe stuff, you could take it one step further and powder the chunks then water crystalize to clean them up. There is no danger in losing product at that point as you can always pull again with a solvent. You will just need to research correct volumes to use depending on yield, its recommended to use a test tube.
Once youve used phyllodes you wont go back! So much more pleasant and natural to work with. Its all about good patient preparation to maximise yield.
Cut up phyllodes and shaved stem/twig bark and thoroughly dry in the sun or the oven on low, grind up and soak in water and vinegar overnight. pH5.
Place in ziplock bag and put in freezer overnight. Take out and pulverise the iced phyllodes. Thaw gradually at room temp.
Immerse just and boil in vinegar water and a few shots of vodka for an hour, pH5. Strain and reduce to a goo...The manual freebasing method is on the nexus wiki.
It would be interesting to see someone with enough patience get crystals the food safe way but if not there is always the limonene honey. Let us know how you get on

That's interesting. It looks okay from your picture...but people have given some great feedback about why old material doesn't yield, and that has been SWIM's experience too. Did you try again with fresher material? Are you still holding strong to your natural ext tek?

Lamby

What youve got there is probably decomposed plant matter with your dmt. Rain will leach alkaloids and rot. Acuminata is reported as having mainly only dmt so crystals should be attainable from live or not long fell phyllodes and branches. Probably not with limonene its not selective enough.
You cant freeze precip or evap limonene. Its only good for back-salting but you need a decent ammount as you will lose some during the conversion.
You could try amor fatis crystalisation method its probably the closest you will get to clean solid crystals using only foodsafe stuff, you could take it one step further and powder the chunks then water crystalize to clean them up. There is no danger in losing product at that point as you can always pull again with a solvent. You will just need to research correct volumes to use depending on yield, its recommended to use a test tube.
Once youve used phyllodes you wont go back! So much more pleasant and natural to work with. Its all about good patient preparation to maximise yield.
Cut up phyllodes and shaved stem/twig bark and thoroughly dry in the sun or the oven on low, grind up and soak in water and vinegar overnight. pH5.
Place in ziplock bag and put in freezer overnight. Take out and pulverise the iced phyllodes. Thaw gradually at room temp.
Immerse just and boil in vinegar water and a few shots of vodka for an hour, pH5. Strain and reduce to a goo...The manual freebasing method is on the nexus wiki.
It would be interesting to see someone with enough patience get crystals the food safe way but if not there is always the limonene honey. Let us know how you get on

Thats been salted out of limonene?
Looks ok but not in smokable form. If its goey you can do amor fatis process now to freebase. Youre nearly done!