would this be fine to extract or should i try and get it more fine ive seen a lot of people say powder will give better yields but would this be good enough will it not work or will it just result it lower yields

Those are pretty big shreds. How are you attempting to shred it? I have an old blender that is reserved for bark. The finer the bark pieces, the easier it is for the alkaloids to move from the cells to the aqueous or organic layers.

Ideally, you'd want to grind it as fine as possible given your tools. Don't use a "good" blender or coffee grinder; your partner (significant other, if applicable) will not be pleased if you break it or dull the blade. The finer the bark, the more surface area exposure. More surface area exposure means more chance of alkaloids becoming attainable.

You could use it as-is, but it would need to be brewed, like a tea, for a while first. And then strain, brew again, and repeat a few more times. Collect all the different brews, combine them, reduce the volume down to a manageable quantity, and then proceed with extracting.

thanks for the response i did go out and buy a new blender strictly for this i am going all out very new to this but dedicated i have went out and got the bark myself. Are you familiar with extractions i have tried a couple and failed. first attempts i feel like the quality of the bark wasn't very good i didn't get anything though. made me think i identified the tree wrong but after hours of comparing trees and looking at known trees in hawaii i cant find anything else that looks like it. (acacia confusa) i ended up using this as is as a kinda test i scaled everything down for 10 g of acacia confusa root bark its in the freezer now i figured if i get any crystals id know if i finally got the right tree/quality. the forum for the tek i was usuing for the first few attempts are completely dead otherwise id ask them. sorry for the paragraph but i am lost

ACRB TEK 100g "PICS" (Newbie Friendly) written by Earth walker

I just realized i remember seeing you on this tek guide did you successfully do this. this is the exact tek i tried and failed at and i followed them exactly and read every page of it multiple times in your opinion would this be because of bark

* only quoted you because i dont know if you get notified for a reply or if you would if soe quotes you or if you get notified at all*

Harvesting your own bark to extract is alot of hard work imo. I never had to buy bark since it grows everywhere, though sometimes I envy those that do. Just getting the bark clean and small enough to blend is rough. I have done many extractions and I've never really gotten it shredded much smaller than you did without drying which is harder on the blender and honestly a waste of time. Don't boil either. Just throw it in a jar and do an ATB like MAX ION with longer soaks and a backsalt.

Mele Kalkimaka a Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Ah, yeah - harvesting your own can be a good deal of labor. I had a ~4 year old tree that had grown to +6 meters tall, and I lost it in an unpredictable, unexpected cold spell. It had gone through freezing temperatures in the past, but usually only a few hours. This freeze lasted 3 days. I lost my larger acacia, and I thought I had lost my smaller one, as well. However, the smaller one, in a 200 liter pot, made a recovery.

So, i decided that i would strip the bark and harvest the tree. Hours later, I had 2 x 5 gallon buckets full of material. Yeah, it's a total pain to do, but I think it will be interesting to see how it yields. (I haven't done an extraction on it, it's just waiting for the right time.)

And yes, it can be difficult to get the large chunks into fine shreds when you're limited to kitchen equipment. If that's as fine as it can get, then just test it.

I've tried brewing chunks vs. extracting chunks, and I, personally, found that brewing the larger pieces first, prior to extraction, produced higher yields per pull, and a general greater total quantity of alkaloids. The brewing process that I used was the 3 x 30 minute simmers. I tried not to let the water ever reach a rolling boil, and I would often utilize an acid to insure that the DMT was in the salt form. It's a lot more stable to heat when it is in the salt form, and soluble in water. So there is a better chance of removing the highest content of alkaloids based on the surface area of the bark.

There are many ways to do it.
Experiment after you have an idea of the basic concepts, and see what works best for the bark material that you are collecting. It may be worth getting a crude extraction of the bark analyzed (via benzyme) to see which alkaloids are present in your trees.

Good luck!
ACY

I once found an uprooted tree after a hurricane and it took me more than a week and 2 different blenders to grind it all my hands were sore, but the yeild was huge! I feel like everyone who does extractions should grow and harvest their own to get a better feel of how much work actually goes into making it happen.

Of course preparing the starting material is a work that is often undermentionned, but it's a true work !
Harvest, size, thanks it, dry, grind ... then extract.